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Monday, October 05, 2009

James Forsyth is the new Political Editor of The Spectator

Forsyth_jamesFraser Nelson became Editor of The Spectator just a month ago and has today appointed James Forsyth to fill his old shoes of Political Editor. I look forward to raising a glass of champagne wine to James at tonight's Spectator Party Conference party.

Coffee House is the best blog in British politics and James, more than anyone else, is responsible for its huge success.

It's a great appointment by Fraser.  James and I run a Hawks' Supper together and he is a great believer in the possibility of a Conservative realignment if David Cameron successfully combines fiscal, Eurosceptic and compassionate conservatism.  I look forward to this hawk using one of the highest perches in political journalism to survey today's exciting landscape.

James's appointment is also a vindication for ConHome readers who voted him their 'One to Watch' last March.  The next one to watch is Pete Hoskin, also of The Spectator family.  I don't know what Matt d'Ancona put in the water but a great crop of talent emerged under his editorship.

Many congratulations James.

Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 16:22 | | Comments (5)

Before David Cameron only one in five voters deserting Labour switched to the Conservatives - it's now nearly all of them

CLARK GREG NEW Analysing opinion polls Greg Clark MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, notes that our party's ability to convert unhappy Labour voters into Tory voters has been transformed since David Cameron became Tory leader. Greg Clark delivered this message to a Manchester fringe event sponsored by The Times and the Populus opinon pollster:

"In 1997, Labour won the general election with 43.2 per cent of the UK vote.  Four years later, they won again, but this time with 40.7 per cent of the vote – a drop of two-and-a-half percentage points. In 2005, they won for a third time, but with just 35.3 per cent of the vote – a further drop of nearly five-and-a-half percentage points. That makes a total fall in electoral support of just under eight percentage points. Nevertheless, New Labour was returned to power, not just once, but twice. The reason for that was because the main opposition party, that is the Conservative Party, failed to gain the support that the Government was losing. In 2001, we gained just one percentage point and in 2005 just over half a percentage point. Thus overall, and adjusting for turnout, we gained just one vote for every five lost by Labour. Since 2005, however, the polls indicate that the ratio of Conservative gain to Labour loss is at least one for one, if not better.”

Why the change?

Greg Clark mentions three factors: David Cameron himself, Iain Duncan Smith’s social justice agenda and the breadth of the Tory message.

On David Cameron Greg Clark says: “Lest I be accused of sucking up to the boss, I won’t labour the point. I don’t have to anyway – the polling data speaks for itself.”

On Iain Duncan Smith's one nation agenda: “It was Iain who reconnected the Party to its One Nation roots – a tradition he continues to nourish through the work of his Centre for Social Justice.  It was this agenda that enabled David Cameron to make the third vital connection, from the Conservative Party to the heartfelt concerns of the British people.”

Continue reading "Before David Cameron only one in five voters deserting Labour switched to the Conservatives - it's now nearly all of them" »

Posted at 14:32 in Compassionate conservatism, Opinion polls | | Comments (32)

Boris tells George Osborne: If I can find savings in London, you can find savings in Whitehall

DSC05256 After entering the conference hall to the theme tune to EastEnders (having appeared on the show last week), London Mayor Boris Johnson gave a typically confident speech to the conference in which he said that if he was able to find savings in London after eight years of the Livingstone regime, then David Cameron and George Osborne (whom he named specifically) could do the same with the country:

"If we can cut cost in City Hall, George then you can cut cost in Whitehall as you promise to do."

He added, referring to the recent story about how a pair of female police officers discovered they were not allowed to babysit for each other "unless they both secured OFSTED credentials in baby-sitting":

"Get rid of the nonsense, but don't chop the investments essential to the UK economy; Cut the baby-sitting monitors, but don't cut Crossrail; Cut the baby-sitting monitor human resources department, but don't cut the tube upgrades; Cut the baby-sitting monitor equal opportunities action day but don't cut the great projects and investments that will deliver jobs and growth now and make London more attractive for generations to come."

Boris has confirmed that he will be freezing the GLA precept on Londoners' council tax bills - ie a real terms cut - for the second year running and says that he will now save an extra £5 billion over nine years at Transport for London, and Paul Waugh highlights some of the savings Boris is trumpeting there on his blog:

*Cutting 1,000 admin jobs have gone at London Underground following the integration with Metronet, saving £570 million
* Cutting "several hundred" more posts elsewhere across TfL
* Saving £220 million from consultants bills
* £400 million from switching to more efficient computer systems
* £130 million from moving staff out of central London to cheaper premises in Southwark and North Greenwich.
* £185 million from re-negotiating the Oyster ticketing contract alone. A further £240 million from changes to contracts linked to the c-charge and low emission zone
* £200 million cut in marketing and press budget, redirected to fund extra police on Tubes and buses.
* Pay for senior staff has been frozen and bonuses cut, and the pay settlement for most staff will "reflect the economic realities being faced by millions of Londoners".

He also used the speech to insist that he would oppose high taxation as it would make the City of London less competitive:

"I will oppose high marginal rates of taxation because they failed in the miserable 1970s, because they yield tiny sums of revenue and because they only serve to drive away talent."

Jonathan Isaby

Posted at 12:20 in Boris Johnson (Mayor) | | Comments (25)

Dan Hannan, Guido Fawkes and Peter Mandelson shoot up the league table of Britain's most influential right-wingers

Top25 Iain Dale's annual exercise for The Daily Telegraph of rating Britain's top right-wingers is published today.

Two of the biggest risers are internet phenomena: Dan Hannan and Guido Fawkes.

Since The Telegraph last published its list - compiled by a panel of experts chaired by Iain - Dan made that famous anti-Brown speech in the European Parliament that has now been watched by millions of people all around the world.  In Hannan, says today's Telegraph, "the Right of the Conservative Party found a voice."  Given Dan's libertarian philosophy it could be added that the libertarian Right has found a great champion.  Dan rises 76 places and into the top ten at number ten.  Guido rises fifty places because of his central role in the McBride emails scandal.

A new entry at number 18 is Lord Mandelson. He gets in the right wing list because of his "pro-business" policies and his alleged role in pulling Labour back to the fiscal centre.  Also from the Government (but only at number 80) is Transport Secretary Lord Adonis.  Adonis' central role in Labour's academy programme has inspired much of Michael Gove's own radicalism. Talk of Mandelson joining a Conservative government is, I hope, extremely unlikely but a job for Andrew Adonis is very possible. 

I thoroughly agree with the big rise for Philip Hammond, the very powerful Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury. I'm very surprised not to see Chris Grayling in the top 25. I would have put Oliver Letwin ahead of Eric Pickles.

The list remains flawed in one key respect; it does not include journalists.  I've never quite understood this but it has been said that The Telegraph does not want to publish a list where its own journalists are ranked against each other.  That decision means, of course, that big hitters of the Right like Fraser Nelson, Daniel Finkelstein and Peter Oborne do not appear.

The highest ranked woman in the top 25 is Samantha Cameron.  Margaret Thatcher is at 13, Theresa May at 24. I would have also included Kate Fall, Cameron's Deputy Chief of Staff.  With Chief of Staff Ed Llewellyn she acts as principal gatekeeper to David Cameron and is the most important woman who attends the Conservative Party's top meetings.

I'm up one place on the list to number 20.  I regard that as a tribute to everyone who makes this website a success - particularly, of course, to my co-editor in it all; Jonathan Isaby.

Tim Montgomerie

PS I cannot link to The Telegraph's list because, although in the printed newspaper, it is still not online. For a newspaper that prides itself on its digital vision this is not unusual. Throughout the expenses crisis we were having to link to Daily Mail accounts of Telegraph scoops because the newspaper was slow to put them on to its website.

Posted at 08:02 | | Comments (31)

Eric Pickles warns the party against triumphalism

Eric Pickles Speaking exclusively to ConservativeHome at the beginning of the party conference, party chairman Eric Pickles has urged activists not be complacent or triumphalist, despite the party's good standings in the polls. He said that given the less than successful Lib Dem and Labour conferences there could be a temptation to "sit back and relax and assume everything is going to work out OK" - but that this was not on.

"I shall be speaking to conference as a whole about triumphalism. On an obvious level, we need 117 seats to get a majority and that requires a swing greater than Margaret Thatcher achieved. I think Lord Kinnock was right last week when he said the deal wasn't done between us and the electors."

But there was another reason not be triumphalist too:

"We have such a daunting task ahead in terms of dealing with the deficit, unemployment and so on, there's nothing triumphalist about that. Actually, it's a humbling task if we are given the trust to do that, and people will expect us to go about it in a moderate and reasonable way."

These comments echoed an address Mr Pickles gave to CCHQ employees and MPs' staff last week, in which he also urged them to be aware that political opponents could be looking for opportunities to embarrass the party. He noted that recording equipment could be extremely well hidden these days:

"We live in a world where the slightest malfraction can appear on YouTube and anybody can overnight become 'a top Tory' by saying something daft...  You don't want to be the one who makes a mistake, in a moment of having fun with your chums... people may be goading you to say something stupid."

He also emphasised that with a series of policy announcements coming out over the week, people will have "a very clear idea by the end of the week" of how the party wants to change the country, especially in terms of reversing decline in the poorest communities:

Continue reading "Eric Pickles warns the party against triumphalism" »

Posted at 07:50 in Big Beasts, Conservative strategy, Party conferences | | Comments (49)

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Cameron faces tough questioning from Andrew Marr on Lisbon, that Bullingdon photograph and his personal wealth

Picture 23Highlights from Andrew Marr's interview with David Cameron, not verbatim:

  • Lisbon: David Cameron says he won't shift his policy on Lisbon because he does not want to prejudice the debates taking place in other nations. He says that he has been told for eighteen months that Lisbon was about to be ratified. It is still not ratified. If it still hasn't been ratified and the Conservatives come to power there will be a referendum. Andrew Marr repeatedly said he could not understand why a pledge to hold a referendum regardless of ratification would prejudice debates in other countries. David Cameron did not shift from his position.
  • Wider European issues: There is no falling out with Angela Merkel. The new Tory group of MEPs will have friendly relations with the EPP. He says that he does not want to leave the EU but wants to repatriate powers on social policy and opposes the centralisation inherent in the Lisbon Treaty.
  • Jobs, skills, education: The centrepiece of the Manchester Party Conference will be getting Britain working again.  The Conservative leader promises a "big, bold and radical" scheme to get Britain back to work. There will be payment-by-results for voluntary and other agencies that get the long-term out-of-work into work, including an assessment of all people on incapacity benefit.  He also promises 10,000 more university places, 100,000 more FE college places and more apprentices. The up front cost will be £600m but much of the programme will be paid for by ending Labour's failed into-work schemes.  We must stop short-term employment becoming long-term unemployment, Mr Cameron said.
  • Deficit reduction: Gordon Brown said almost nothing at his Party Conference about the biggest problem in Britain; our budget deficit. Ignoring the deficit is the height of irresponsibility. Conservatives will start immediately with spending restraint whereas Labour is continuing the growth in spending. On Tuesday George Osborne will set out how the Tories will "specifically" get to grips with the budget deficit.
  • Inheritance tax pledge remains in force: Only millionaires will pay inheritance under Tory plans, Cameron reasserts, and that will be paid for by a tax on very rich people (non-doms). 
  • The 50p tax rate: Mr Cameron says it probably will raise some money in the short-term and he cannot promise to repeal it.
  • General tax burden: Britain is already over-taxed, Cameron says, and spending must take the "brunt" of deficit reduction. 
  • Picture 26 The Bullingdon photograph: The BBC kindly posted the photograph in the background of the interview (see screen capture on right). The Tory leader conceded he was "very embarrassed" by it.
  • Personal wealth: Under sustained questioning Mr Cameron declined to say how much he was worth but says the £30 million figure used in the press is "ridiculous". He says he and Samantha are both high earners and have heavily-mortgaged properties.
Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 10:00 in Cameron 'The Man', Europe, Tax and spending | | Comments (165)

The Murdochs are "furious" at Labour's attacks on The Sun

Last week Labour figures lined up to rubbish The Sun after it endorsed the Conservatives.  Notably Harriet Harman and Tony Woodley:

A very good source within News International has told ConservativeHome that the Murdochs are "furious" at the "juvenile" reaction. The Sun was always going to be favourable to the Tories over the seven or so months until the General Election now that it had chosen to back David Cameron (Friday's coverage being a taste of what to expect).  The Labour reaction, however, means that Britain's biggest selling newspaper is now much less likely to give Labour good coverage.  The reaction proved The Sun's point, my source said; Labour has lost its maturity and seriousness.

The sensible reaction would have been one of disappointment and a promise to give Sun readers many reasons to vote Labour and to seek opportunities within the pages of The Sun to outline those reasons.  The hysterical Labour high ups have thrown a lot those opportunities away.

Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 08:44 in Fleet Street, Videos | | Comments (35)

Saturday, October 03, 2009

David Cameron signals intent to tackle the "jobs crisis" by "Getting Britain Working"

Scroll down for Sunday afternoon update!

David Cameron has written for both the Sunday Telegraph and News of the World tomorrow about how he would deal with unemployment.

The Tory leader's article is not yet on the Telegraph website, but elsewhere the paper reports:

"In a key sign that the Tories are ready to campaign on jobs and unemployment – seen as traditional Labour territory – the Tory leader says he will scrap the government's flagship New Deal, a costly programme dependent on state intervention which aims to bring down youth unemployment.

"Instead the Conservatives will this week unveil a new plan, called "Get Britain Working" – which will see sweeping changes to policy across whole swathes of Whitehall in an attempt to "unleash investment and entrepreneurial activity that helps create more jobs".

"Mr Cameron's article puts wholesale reform of Britain's welfare system at heart of his drive for jobs – masterminded by Lord (David) Freud, the welfare expert who "defected" from advising the government to become a Tory shadow minister earlier this year."

Meanwhile, writing in the News of the World, Mr Cameron writes about his desire to tackle what he calls "Labour’s jobs crisis":

"This year, unemployment rose at the fastest rate on record. One in five young people are out of work. And even before the recession almost five million people were claiming out-of-work benefits. It is vital that we get to grips with this problem. It’s not just that it comes with a price-tag of tens of billions a year.It’s that mass unemployment can lead to massive social problems — like family breakdown and crime — and that affects us all. A crisis of this scale, that runs so deep, cannot be solved with one policy or programme alone. It means ripping up the old way of doing things and bringing radical change across the whole of our economy."

Sunday 2pm update:

The party has now release details of what is calling The Work Programme, which is encapsulated as follows:

  • Simplifying Labour’s numerous and piecemeal programmes into one single back-to-work programme for everyone on out of work benefits;
  • Including support back into work for the 2.6 million people claiming Incapacity Benefits currently excluded by Labour;
  • Abolishing the Treasury’s rule that prevents the Government paying work providers using the benefits saved once someone has a job, which will allow support to be offered tothe 2.6 million people on Incapacity Benefit;
  • Offering greater support to the young unemployed by referring them on to the Work Programme after 6 months of unemployment compared to a year under the Flexible New Deal;
  • Paying providers by results with a focus on truly sustainable outcomes and bigger rewards for getting the hardest to help into a job.

Continue reading "David Cameron signals intent to tackle the "jobs crisis" by "Getting Britain Working"" »

Posted at 21:43 in Unemployment, Welfare reform | | Comments (36)

Com Res and YouGov both put Tory lead at 12%

In the first of what I gather will be at least two polls out this evening for the Sunday papers, a YouGov poll for The People - posted by political editor Nigel Nelson on his Twitter feed - puts the parties on the following figures:

Conservatives - 40% (+1)
Labour - 28% (+2)
Lib Dems - 18% (-2)

Comparisons are with last Saturday's YouGov poll (rather than the daily tracker) and suggest that the benefit achieved through coverage for the Lib Dems during their conference week has been reversed and that the saturation coverage of Labour's conference this week gave them, on balance, a small bounce.

UK Polling Report's Swing Calculator computes these numbers into a Conservative Commons majority of 42.

7.30pm Update:

A ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday gives the same headline figures for the Conservatives and Labour:

Conservatives - 40% (+2)
Labour - 28% (+5)
Lib Dems - 19% (-4)

Comparisons are with the ComRes poll for the Independent on 28th September and UK Polling Report computes those figures into a Commons majority of 36.

Jonathan Isaby

Posted at 18:00 in Opinion polls | | Comments (45)

Cameron makes it clear that there will be no shift of European policy in Manchester

Ireland will say 'yes' to Lisbon today - and at 3pm the BBC reported the Irish Prime Minister as confirming this.

Cameron,-Osborne-and-Hague David Cameron has made it clear in an email to supporters that there will be no shift in Conservative policy:

"I want to make one thing clear: there will be no change in our policy on Europe and no new announcements at the Conference. There will be no change in Conservative policy as long as the Lisbon Treaty is still not in force. The Treaty has still not been ratified by the Czechs and the Poles. The Czech Prime Minister has said that the constitutional challenge before the Czech Constitutional Court could take 3-6 months to resolve. I have said repeatedly that I want us to have a referendum. If the Treaty is not ratified in all Member States and not in force when the election is held, and if we are elected, then we will hold a referendum on it, we will name the date of the referendum in the election campaign, we will lead the campaign for a ‘No’ vote. If the Treaty is ratified and in force in all Member States, we have repeatedly said we would not let matters rest there. But we have one policy at a time, and we will set out how we would proceed in those circumstances if, and only if, they happen."

The immediate message is clear: David Cameron does not want the Manchester Party Conference overshadowed by the issue of Europe.

But there is also a wider message: David Cameron does not want his leadership overshadowed by the issue of Europe.

ConservativeHome's new poll of grassroots Tories shows that only 16% say ratification of Lisbon should be accepted.

Tim Montgomerie

8.15pm update: Ian Taylor, the Chairman of the Conservative Group for Europe, has issued the following statement:

"With the Irish deciding "yes" the Lisbon Treaty is nearly in place. On behalf of the Conservative Europe Group, I welcome this outcome.

Continue reading "Cameron makes it clear that there will be no shift of European policy in Manchester" »

Posted at 14:31 in Europe | | Comments (200)

Rolling record of Tory policy announcements at the Manchester Conservative Party Conference

Monday 5th October:

Sunday 4th October: Details of the Work Programme are unveiled.  Hundreds of thousands of people on incapacity benefit will have their benefits cut by a third if they fail tough medical tests.  David Willetts has unveiled an "emergency plan" that will pay for 10,000 more students to go to university next year.  The plan will be funded by a New Zealand-inspired scheme for early repayment of student loans.  The Guardian has more.

Sunday 4th October: Grace and Favour residence to be opened to the public (Telegraph)

Sunday 4th October: Plans to close up to 200 failing schools (The Sunday Times).

Picture 25 12-56-02Saturday 3rd October: Pensioners will keep their home and get free residential care if they pay £8,000 insurance fee under Tory plans

> Last year's policy announcements at the Birmingham Party Conference

Posted at 12:45 in Party conferences | | Comments (29)

Lisbon is David Cameron's number one headache

In today's FT there are reports of business leaders wanting the Conservatives to accept Lisbon if, as is expected, it is ratified by Ireland and then by the Czech Republic (despite Vaclav Klaus). In the latest ConservativeHome poll of Tory members, however, there is no desire for matters to rest with ratification:

55%say29%say More details of the poll are on these pages, all dedicated to our biggest ever poll of the Conservative grassroots.

But if the grassroots want the next Conservative government to be hawkish on Europe, the Tory leadership fear an exhausting quagmire that will dominate the early years of the first Conservative government of the 21st century.  Team Cameron want to spend the next few years as social and economic reformers.

One Tory MEP who is relatively enthusiastic about European integration told ConservativeHome that leaving the EPP had exhausted the Tory leadership's appetite for Euroscepticism.  The latest (strongly disputed) story about Angela Merkel's anger with the Conservatives being the latest example of this phenomenon.  Exiting the EPP had produced so much bad publicity that the Conservative leadership may find a way of avoiding more of the same.  Our MEP source said:

"The Eurosceptics won exit from the EPP and in achieving that have used up nearly all their capital with the leadership. Having witnessed the opposition to the simple step of forming a new group of MEPs they are not ready to embark on the fifty times bigger task of renegotiating Britain's whole relationship with the EU."

David Cameron and William Hague want to avoid a direct confrontation with the party's Eurosceptic members and MPs and it is therefore unlikely that there will be any big shift in the party's position over coming days - whatever Ireland has decided.  An evolution of position is more likely.  They want the party to be focused on beating Labour and then beating the budget deficit.  They want to avoid the party beating itself up over the issue that caused such electorally deadly division in the 1990s.

Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 08:47 in ConservativeHome Members' Panel, Europe | | Comments (124)

Pensioners will keep their home and get free residential care if they pay £8,000 insurance fee under Tory plans

Tory plans to enable pensioners to avoid selling their home and still pay for long-term residential care are leading BBC bulletins today.

As the Daily Mail and most other newspapers report, the Conservatives are saying that pensioners will be able to pay an £8,000 insurance fee and in return will receive free residential care and will still be able to bequeath their home to their families.

Conservatives believe that the voluntary insurance scheme will be self-financing as only one-fifth of pensioners are likely to need the insured care and the average bill for pensioners who do go into care homes is about £50,000.

OSBORNE LOOKING UP George Osborne explained the 'Home Protection Scheme' to Mail readers:

"It's a complete injustice in our society that 45,000 elderly people every year, who have worked hard and saved hard, are forced to sell their home and there's no affordable insurance. It is grossly unfair to those who are neither the richest, who can afford that care, and the poorest who get their care paid for. So we are going to help those people who have done the right thing through their lives and enable them to keep their home and pass it on to their children. 'It shows you can use the power of the state without adding to people's taxes.'"

Pensioners without assets equal to £23,000 will continue to receive free care.

Tim Montgomerie

11am Listen to Andrew Lansley explain the policy to Radio 4 listeners.

Posted at 08:20 in Pensions and retirement | | Comments (45)

PoliticsHome survey of 33,000 voters in marginal seats points to Tory majority of 70

PoliticsHome has just published its second survey of marginal seats.  There is coverage in The Guardian.  The poll of 33,610 voters in 238 constituencies suggests a Tory majority of 70.

The poll is not as bad news for Labour or the Liberal Democrats as last year's PoliticsHome poll.  That poll had the Tories heading for a majority of 146.  It had the LibDems down to 44 seats.  This year's survey gets them to 55.  This feeds my concern about Nick Clegg having equal status in any leadership debates.

Click here to have fun seeing which seats are set to change from Labour to Conservative.  The image below is of Dover shifting from the red to the blue column; from Gwyn Prosser MP to, we must hopem, Charlie Elphicke MP.

DoverGoesBlue Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 08:02 in Opinion polls | | Comments (30)

Friday, October 02, 2009

Ready for change? Photographs from a wet Manchester

Clock ReadyForChange

Continue reading "Ready for change? Photographs from a wet Manchester" »

Posted at 18:55 in Party conferences | | Comments (29)

Are we sure about these leaders' debates if Nick Clegg is included?

Do I think David Cameron could beat Gordon Brown or Nick Clegg in head-to-head debate?  Yes.

Would I love watching debates as political theatre?  Yes.

Do I think debates as they are being proposed are a good thing?  I'm having my doubts.

Adam Boulton has just blogged this:

"BBC, ITV and Sky have today written to the leaders of the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties with a joint proposal for three live televised debates during the next General Election campaign. The individual broadcasters would be responsible for producing and broadcasting one debate each between all three party leaders. Each of the three debates would be transmitted live by the originating broadcaster in peak time and made available to all other British broadcasters subsequently. The broadcasters have formed a joint team to discuss detailed plans with the political parties. Each of the broadcasters will seek to make suitable arrangements for ensuring due impartiality across the UK."

Debates are potentially a lifeline for Brown but an unlikely one.  Debates could, however, be a godsend for Nick Clegg.  He isn't going to be Prime Minister so why would he be included in all debates?  We should really have head-to-head debates between Brown and Cameron.  That's the real choice.  Clegg probably should be in one of three debates, perhaps even two... but three?

Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 17:06 in Constitution and democracy, Liberal Democrats | | Comments (86)

Mark Francois denies that relations with Angela Merkel's CDU are strained

Mark Francois The BBC is running a story - due to be covered with an item on Radio 4's World at One - suggesting that Angela Merkel's CDU has "downgraded" relations with the Conservative Party. The report on the website states that joint policy groups have been "scrapped" and goes on to quote a CDU MP who was clearly miffed that the Tories have left the EPP in Brussels.

Mark Francois, the shadow Europe minister, tells me that the BBC report is a misrepresentation of the facts:

"The policy groups have not been scrapped; they were always planned as a finite exercise and that exercise was completed when the three groups on competitiveness, the environment and international security and terrorism produced their reports. So their work has not suddenly been discontinued - it was already complete."

Mr Francois added that the party continued to have good relations with the CDU, with David Cameron having met with Angela Merkel on several occasions and the Tories having happily congratulated her on her recent election victory.

Jonathan Isaby

Posted at 13:03 in Europe | | Comments (50)

MyConservatives.com has gone live

Picture 17
A few minutes ago, the Conservative Party's new campaigning website, MyConservatives.com, went live.

A hugely exciting development in online electioneering and campaigning, Tim blogged about it at the beginning of the week and the Daily Telegraph carried this preview piece, noting that the party reckons that it will be "the most advanced political campaigning network anywhere in the world outside of America".

Samuel Coates, late of this parish, who is now working on new media for the party, has blogged about it all here on the Blue Blog.

We look forward to watching it develop and grow in the weeks and months to come and wish the venture every success.

Jonathan Isaby

Posted at 11:01 in Blogs, websites, e-etc, Campaign materials | | Comments (52)

Five hopes for the Tories in Manchester

As we look forward to what we hope will be our last Party Conference in opposition here is my checklist of five hopes for what will be achieved in Manchester.

Picture 19 (1) David Cameron needs a TV moment on the deficit: The next few years will require some painful budget measures. David Cameron and George Osborne do not need to spell out every measure that will be necessary but they need a mandate to take tough measures. They need to be able to say - credibly - that we warned the country that we would do these things and we are now doing them. The message should be framed as necessary to put Britain back on track; 'We are going through a tunnel but there is a great future for Britain at the end of that tunnel'. We need a clip from within David Cameron's speech that will be replayed on TV in the years to come as the truth-telling when David Cameron made it clear what was coming.

Sun Pledges (2) More concrete reasons for voting Conservative: It would be great to have another inheritance tax moment. That may be an unrealistic hope but we need some stronger policies for the doorstep.  In today's Sun - see graphic on right - David Cameron has set out ten positive changes that the Conservative Party will deliver. It's a good list but could be stronger. Pledges 3, 5, 7 and 9, in particular, need a lot more definition.

(3) An ambition for realignment: Labour may not be heading for defeat but for disaster.  Their reaction to The Sun's endorsement of the Conservatives was puerile (eg this and this). As Scott Colvin records on today's Platform there is now a nastiness to Labour. The initial years of Tory government are going to be hard work but there is a possibility for realignment of the whole of politics in the year ahead. I've addressed this before but a Conservative Party that take social justice and internet activism (which takes a leap forward today) seriously could raid deep into Labour territory. I'd like to see hints of that ambition this week. Lower taxes for the low-paid could underpin realignment.

(4) Education, education, education: Michael Gove's education policies are the most exciting ingredient of Tory policy but David Cameron has not made a big statement on education since the start of the year. In Manchester this week I'd like a sign that Gove is getting the 100% backing that his supply-side revolution needs.

(5) Patriotism manifesto: I've advocated a Shoestring manifesto of measures to ensure we deliver progress as a government without spending too much money. The Shoestring manifesto included ideas on democracy, social justice, the environment, media reform and patriotism. I'm hoping to see a particular emphasis on patriotism and a commitment to end the ignorance of British history. If you are going to Manchester don't miss Chris Grayling MP talking to ConHome at 9am on Monday on the theme of patriotic renewal. More details here.

Tim Montgomerie

Posted at 08:33 in Education, Nation and patriotism, Realignment, Tax and spending, The big picture | | Comments (69)

56% of Tory members say The Telegraph's coverage of the Conservative Party is getting worse

Telegraph-decay-options

Earlier this year I made some criticisms of The Telegraph's political coverage.

Encountering a senior Telegraph journalist earlier this week it was made very clear to me that this was an unforgivable thing to have done. It appears that newspapers are happy to attack politicians all the time but will bear a grudge if they receive any scrutiny themselves.

Was I unfair in my criticisms of The Telegraph?  In the latest survey of the ConservativeHome Members' Panel I tested my view.  "Please give your opinion on how The Daily Telegraph’s coverage of the Conservative Party has changed over the last two or so years" was the question posed in the survey.  A clear majority believe that The Telegraph's coverage of the Conservative Party is getting worse. The response was clear:

TelegraphCoverage Why has this happened?

Continue reading "56% of Tory members say The Telegraph's coverage of the Conservative Party is getting worse" »

Posted at 06:39 in Fleet Street | | Comments (122)

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