For once, I think that Gordon Brown has been given a remarkably easy ride by the press after what was a far from brilliant speech on Tuesday. Perhaps I was watching it through excessively blue tinted glasses or perhaps, as Guidosuggested yesterday, the media are looking for a changed political narrative over the next political year. Having said that, I’m still pretty certain that the Labour leader we will be taking on at the next election will not be Gordon Brown. As the bounce produced by Sarah Palin (who I think is absurdly unsuited for high office and is being brilliantly lampooned by Jon Stewart on a near daily basis), showed bounces disappear as quickly as they appear. The political reality remains the same. And that reality is that Gordon Brown is doing a pitiful job as Prime Minister and we remain in the ascendancy. The fact that Labour are celebrating being 10 points behind after a week of blanket coverage pretty much says it all.
The focus shifts to Birmingham from this weekend and I cannot recall looking forward to a conference with such optimism or with the Party at such a high. This time last year, when the Spectator challenged David Cameron to “get out of this one Dave” seems like a political lifetime ago. Since then, Gordon Brown has shown himself to be a woeful PM and we have gone from strength to strength.
Two pieces of political news over the past few weeks have shown quite how far we have progressed. Firstly, the favourable editorial in the Guardian, which had Con Home readers choking on their cornflakes. This doesn’t, of course, mean that the Guardian will be endorsing us at the next election and that swathes of middle class Islington lefties will be flocking to the Tory banner. What it does mean is that those who believe in progressive ends are taking us seriously again. For the first time in years we are seen as being serious about achieving social justice and tackling poverty. It symbolises an increasing disenchantment with New Labour’s lack of progress in achieving social justice through higher state spending and an understanding that social mobility and relative poverty has got worse rather than better in the past 11 years. The life chances of a child born in an inner city council estate are worse now than they were in 1997. The Guardian editorial is part of an acceptance that we are now serious about achieving progressive goals of social mobility and social justice by using conservative rather than failed statist means.
Secondly, a Populus poll in the Times showed how far we have moved in recent years. It is one of those fascinating polls that asked voters to rate themselves and the political parties on a left to right scale. Tony Blair had the uncanny knack of being placed almost exactly where the national median was on the scale, whereas since 1997, we have always been positioned way to the right of the average member of the public. It was heartening to see that this poll showed how much things have changed since the demise of Blair. Gordon Brown and the Labour Party are now viewed as way to the left of the British average. David Cameron is rated much closer to the centre than his predecessors and much closer to where the British people put themselves on the scale than Gordon Brown is viewed. This only underlines my belief that Gordon Brown has destroyed the New Labour coalition – making our task considerably easier.
There is still work to be done though. The same poll showed that Conservative Party is seen as to the right of David Cameron and well to the right of where the British people place themselves. We need to continue to prove that we are at the centre of British politics (where elections are ALWAYS won) and that we share the fundamental concerns of the British people. To borrow a phrase from the Obama campaign, we have to show that we are on the side of ‘Main Street’ and ordinary hard working people. That means a continued attempt to persuade people that we can be trusted with the economy and to help safeguard their jobs and their livelihoods. With the economic tsunami of the past few weeks, we have to work to puncture the lie of Gordon Brown that he is best placed to handle the economic crisis that he played such a part in creating. We need to continue our work to convince people that we are on their side in times of economic insecurity and uncertainty and that we are a strong Government in waiting. We have made so much progress in the past year but we need to keep up the hard work so that we can seal the deal in 2010.
Related posts:
Hear hear. This is not the time for sitting back and waiting for it to happen for us. WE have to make it happen!