There’s a lot of chatter about autumn elections, Brown’s big tent, defecting Tories and a supposed ‘split’ between the modernisers and the uber-modernisers. For political obsessives, it’s great fun – lots to talk about, lots of arguments to be had, lots of interpretations on very few facts.
Gordon Brown will presumably be watching all this closely this weekend and into next week, ruminating on whether he has the guts to call an election or whether he’s so convinced of his brilliant ‘plans’ for government that he’ll leave it till 2009 and then call one (and obviously cruise to victory because everyone will have loved the two years he’s been PM and will be just desperate for another five).
Received opinion seems to be that it all rides on David’s speech on Wednesday (2pm for anyone not in Blackpool who wants to watch on BBC Parliament). So what should he say?
He needs to stick to his modernising guns. The country (but – maybe – not the party) has heard the change message. It’s time to start demonstrating what that means.
Firstly, it means being confident in what he believes. As I’ve said before, the reason we led the polls for so long was that we talked about the things that matter to people in a way that made sense. Part of that was having the confidence to talk about those things – like the NHS, like education, like dropping your children off at school and getting to work on time, like the kind of world you want to live in and to leave to your children – and knowing that our modern, liberal Conservative values are what is needed.
Secondly, it means not being taken in by Brown yanking our chain – imagine if you were Gordon Brown, sitting in the Number 10 control room this weekend. ‘All this election speculation, all these defection rumours, all this muttering about internal splits, my lovely big tent – BRILLIANT! Let’s not bother doing any actual governing. Let’s just keep the election speculation going on and on and on and watch the Tories implode because they can’t have a mature debate and agree their policies from the menu presented by the policy groups. Oh and – let’s do it now. Then in February. Then this time next year. And the spring after that…’ We need to stop being thrown around by Brown and stand firm on the ground we believe in. That means the NHS, education, dropping your children off at school… well, you get the picture.
Thirdly, it means having the confidence to talk about everything that affects us in Britain. The NHS, education, crime, the environment, immigration, taxes – the lot. But also having the confidence to know that we understand what is facing Britain now and in the future, that we can present a balanced, sensible view, and that we can be heard and trusted to do the right thing for the country.
Finally – and this is, I think, in many ways the hardest part – it’s time for David Cameron the Prime Minister to show through. That doesn’t mean pompous pontificating, and it certainly doesn’t mean stifling his natural behaviour – I don’t care if he wears a tie or not. But it does mean underlining his understanding of our country, that his judgement is right, and that he is the right person for the British people to put their trust in as Prime Minister.
Related posts:
I’m sure it’s deeply bad form to be the first to comment on your own post, but I’ve just heard that the front page of the Telegraph tomorrow carries the banner headline “Cameron orders return to core Tory values”.
I hope this is over-enthusiastic spinning from someone and not a retreat.