Comments

The UK like the USA I guess has a small number of voters who decide the results.

To win the Conservatives need a leader who will appeal to this group. There was a comment in The Times I think which said that the Conservatives had to "open up" to people who didn't think WWII was yesterday and that marriage was the only way for couples to live together.

When you think that way it's hard to agree but if Labour is an example the Conservatives will have to bend more in the wind.

Anything to stop us being taxed to death by Labour. Success & security is guaranteed if you are in or supply to the public sector. If you don't ......... tough!

Interesting that there are no comments. I can understand the States staying out of it but I would have thought there would have been some reaction from the UK.

Posted by Stuart Jones at October 13, 2005 11:52 AM

Hi Stuart - the Conservatives will never come back into power until they realise they have to change fundamentally. Not just say they are going to change it and then repeat the same mistakes with a different leader. The average age of Conservative party members is about 65! A weak opposition is no opposition in my view and the reason Tony Blair was elected - I am a great fan of Blair by the way - is that he is a modern leader in modern times using modern techniques. I still believe he will be remembered as a great leader - although I know I am in a huge minority. It would be good to see a close election next time but I fear the Conservatives will once more make the wrong selection and then wonder why they lost. Image is really important - I wouldn't say image is everything but it goes a long way - ask an image failure like Ian Duncan-Smith

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 13, 2005 12:04 PM

To me, Blair represents what's wrong with politics. Thatcher's Tory party revolutionised the UK and Labour's initial reaction was to retrench into socialist or left-wing ideology. But reformers like Smith, Kinnock and later Blair knew they would have to appear (emphasise "appear") to move to the centre ground and appeal to "middle England" to win back power - and they did.

What we have now is that nice Mr. Blair - smart suits, nice smile, hand wringing, "Trust me, I'm a reasonable guy" - fronting socialist policies. We have the most centralist, high-taxing, state spending, i/d card insisting, micro-legislating, privacy-curtailing government imaginable.

Result: the Bank of England is now predicting a rocky decade ahead; the OECD points out that nearly 60% of our GDP comes from state spending; and the government is redefining terms to justify it's economic record. (Always a giveaway sign, that one!)

Why do we put up with it? Because the Tories might have won with the ex-McKinsey Hague (brilliant debater, reasonable with the electorate but saddled with an utterly cretinous and divisive "Save the Pound" election campaign); followed by Duncan-Smith, of whom the less said the better; followed by Howard whose got a tremendous record but everyone knew was only a stop-gap so no-one supported!

My hope is that Cameron can engage on friendly and intellectual terms with the electorate and turn Britain away from it's current predicament.

(Sorry Trevor... I know that blast will wind you up!)

Posted by Mark JF at October 13, 2005 12:46 PM

Not at all Mark - brilliant to have healthy debate. :-)

My views about Tony Blair have been posted on TP so many times even I get fed up hearing myself. In summary I think he was the right man for the circumstances of the time - as indeed was Mrs Thatcher. Her problem was staying around to long and that could sadly be true of our Tony I concede :-)

Posted by Trevor Gay at October 13, 2005 1:55 PM

Trevor, Mark: You always talk about Thatcher then Blair, but never mention John Major in between. Why is that? John was the first PM I ever saw on "Question Time" (runs on C-Span in the US) and I always thought he was so smooth and unflappable. Some of the questions thrown at him by the opposition members were little more than veiled insults, but John always fielded them with aplomb and dignity. Whatever his other leadership qualities--I admired him for that.

Posted by Mike at October 14, 2005 6:32 AM

Mike - I agree. I think Mr. Major was a very good PM and it's not often remembered that Mr. Blair's approach was to keep 2 years worth of Tory budgets largely in place. Mr. Blair's much-vaunted economic stability is clearly based on the sound economy he inherited from Mr. Major.

The biggest mistake the Tories made was accepting his resignation for losing the election. If they'd had their wits about them, they'd have persuaded him to stay on as Leader and to groom William Hague to take over at a more opportune moment. Taking over with the prospect of 5 years in opposition did Mr. Hague no favours, either.

Posted by Mark JF at October 14, 2005 10:09 AM

Two points:

1. This is becoming very "new Labourish". WHAT? Conservatives and Socialists agreeing. That is scary.

2. Who was John Major? I don't share your views. I think he is a weak person and a poor leader. The only thing which makes me think he has a personality is that he had an affair with Edwina Currie.

Posted by Stuart Jones at October 14, 2005 11:29 AM

Bear in mind Mr. Major faced 3 leadership dilemmas.

1. With so many of Mrs. Thatcher's ministers retiring worn out from frontline politics to the back benches, he had a smaller and less capable talent pool to pick his team from.

2. With Mrs. T back seat driving and a small number of uncontrollable MP's constantly in-fighting, he had to fight from being under-mined regularly.

3. The inane indiscretions of some of his colleagues (Hamilton, Mellor et al) brought shame and ridicule on the party. free viagra sample pack

He's not going to go down in the Great PM's of the 20th Century listing but if you judge him by the condition he left the country in when he left office, he was very capable.

Posted by Mark JF at October 14, 2005 12:04 PM

David Cameron has got himself skewered this week on the question of whether he's ever taken illegal drugs.

His response - 'I don't have to tell you what I did before I entered public life' - on the surface was smooth and effective, but actually it tells us that he's not any different from the evasive, paranoid politicos who currently govern over here.

Mo Mowlem - the late great former Northern Ireland Secretary who was too popular for Blair - admitted she had dabbled with illegal substances as a student, and people accepted that as part of her being a 'real' person - and that was why she was so popular.

Mr Cameron may make it to the leader's seat but if he wants to make it to Number 10 he needs to adopt the candour & transparency of a true leader (ask Jack Welch) - and fast!

Posted by Stephen Spencer at October 15, 2005 4:00 PM

best quality viagra online recent poll showed that the only conservative with anything like 'broad popular appeal to the general public' is ken clarke... the other 3 contenders, including cameron, are emmmm 'unlikely' to win a general election for conservatives... so, what did the conseratives do last night, they eliminated clarke as one of the four leadership contenders... that's now four times in a row the conseratives have 'shot themselves in the foot', handing labour party an almost certain victory at next general election... oh well, so much for leadership succession planning ;-)

Posted by onehandclapping at October 19, 2005 9:35 AM