The parliamentary Conservative Party departed Westminster for the summer
recess this week in a fit of the jitters. These jitters are entirely
self-induced.
For there can be no Conservative crisis unless the party talks itself into
one. The political argument has not changed: Tory opportunities remain for
the seizing. The party’s estimate of Gordon Brown’s weaknesses remains
accurate. The potential strength of a steadily emerging Tory platform and
the underlying appeal of David Cameron’s pitch to a 21st-century British
public is still there: a bonus that none but he could have brought. Unless
Mr Brown calls a general election very soon, I still believe Labour should
lose next time.
For the Tories now to run gibbering for cover after striking one false note in
a speech about grammar schools, not doing as well in a by-election as they
had hoped, being caught by the weather after their leader had arranged a
trip to Rwanda and experiencing in the polls the flipside of a new Prime
Minister’s predictable honeymoon would look unforgivably weak. Even Mr
Cameron’s fiercest rightwing critics will, if they are honest, have to admit
that Mr Brown would relish the chance to describe the Tories as having lost
their nerve and lurched back to their old prejudices.
So the case for a closing of ranks this summer and during the conference
season is urgent and strong. Let me say what I think is behind the minor but
dangerous panic attack. Two men and a particular type of right-wing media
commentary are involved. Neither man is David Cameron, whose judgment has
misfired less often than that of his predecessors, and whose steadiness
under fire has been extraordinary. No, the causes of instability lie outside
him.
One of the men is Gordon Brown, the other David Davis. Mr Brown is having an
easy early run and his supporters think – I believe wrongly – that it can
continue. Mr Davis has behaved impeccably. The Davis problem arises simply
from his being there, and being impressive.
Time and the tide of events will solve the Brown problem. Today much of the
media is feeding from his hand, helping to produce an impression of dynamism
and decisiveness. The impression is false. Mr Brown is turning out to be, as
I suspected, a better spinner than Tony Blair.
This administration’s response to the recent flooding has been absolutely
routine and nothing to do with the Prime Minister. In Iraq we are in the
same hole we always were, and still digging. One interview, half-disowned,
from a semi-house-trained junior Foreign Office Minister in the House of
Lords about a rebalancing of relations with Washington does not amount to a
rebalancing. In Afghanistan our Armed Forces are getting deeper into
difficulty. Mr Brown is fiddling around a bit with the structure of the
health service and the status of city academies. He has talked big on some
rather small changes of a constitutional nature. And he has signalled
government intervention in the housing market on a scale, and with results,
that he cannot possibly deliver.
And that’s it. One cannot reasonably expect more within the first month of a
new premiership. If you believe Mr Brown has a range of big ideas for
government in his locker – ideas for substantially improving public services
without increasing taxes – then you are entitled to hope that these will
mark him out as a winner when we see them. But we have not seen them yet. So
far George Osborne’s analysis, as Shadow Chancellor, of the micromanaging
and macroconfusing nature of Brownite thinking, holds good. As the dawn mist
clinging to a new premiership burns off, these defects should be exposed.
The Davis problem can be solved only by Mr Davis himself. This summer he needs
to go one step beyond loyalty (already displayed) and convince his potential
supporters that the future of the Conservative Party, its Centre-Right as
well as its Centre-Left, and perhaps the future of Mr Davis himself, lies in
the success of Mr Cameron’s political project. To every mutterer, a
knockdown answer should be available: “Apart from David Cameron, no
imaginable leader is available.” Only Mr Davis can really convince his
admirers that this is true.
And the right-wing commentary? Rather like that harbinger cat recently
discovered in an American nursing home for the elderly (the creature’s habit
being to curl up on the beds of those residents who are not far from their
final hour) a group of rightwingers, reactionaries and xenophobes styling
themselves as Tory columnists has been acting as a false friend to the
party, drawn towards everything that is morbid within its body politic,
sucking it towards its grave. Who knows (and I doubt) whether the voters
take much notice, but the parliamentary Conservative Party does.
Whether the cat is simply drawn towards death or helps to induce death is
unclear, but what is not in doubt is that the cat is associated with death.
Residents desirous of a continuing lease of life are advised to hear the
purr as a death-rattle and kick the creature from their blankets. Likewise
with these commentators. Curled up on the end of the party’s bed, purring
their reactionary opinions and their evident distaste for Mr Cameron’s
leadership, they spell trouble. Locked in each others’ arms, a reactionary
Conservative Party and a Fleet Street philosophy whose unspoken refrain is
that the best years of all our lives lie behind us and that 21st-century
Britain is a most undesirable place, could, if they were allowed to, take
each other tangoing together into the eternal political night. These writers
are not in any useful sense on the Conservative Party’s side.
This really isn’t a Left-Right thing. For what it’s worth, I am a Eurosceptic
and I think Mr Cameron is too. I am bored with Team Cameron’s stunts and I
hope that soon he will be too. I am certain the party should be talking more
about taxation and the size of the State. And I agree with those who say
that greenness and coolness and inclusivity are all very well, but where are
the messages that will chime with the Middle England that I think I
recognise in the Midlands? These are arguments we need to push forward
within the Conservative Party. They can be won.
But none of this will be achieved without power, and the first leader in a
decade to bring the party a sniff of that power, to make winning believable,
has been Mr Cameron. For 50 or 60 ageing Tory politicians with safe seats
beneath their bottoms and familiar bees beneath their bonnets, to sabotage a
rescue that has only just begun would be an act of such idiocy as to amount
almost to a release. We could then leave the Conservative Party to its fate.
For any true Conservative to raise his hand against the leadership now would
amount to complicity in the attempted suicide of the entire party.
The government has presided over 10 years of growth and the entire country is quite clearly more prosperous. The Tories are still seen as nasty, led by a walking talking PR gimmick. Labour has now been refreshed and look more focussed. Why would anyone want the Nasty Party back?
Simon, London,
Ref. Environment Agency "Fat Cats" Bonuses.
These "people" have already been paid an over - inflated salary to carry out their DUTIES. They have absolutely no right to expect to receive a bonus because they did their job. On the contrary, if they hadn't done their job, they should quite rightly have expected to be sacked.
If you employ a plumber to fix a leaking pipe, do you then expect to pay him a bonus because he has done what you employed him to do?
As at least some of these people clearly failed to do their jobs competently, they should be heading off to the employment exchange rather than topping up their bank accounts.
Peter Boyce-Tomkins, Swanage, Dorset
I'd just like to say the apparantly un-sayable; Modern Britain is a great, vibrant, economically and culturally rich place to live. While no government will always do everything right, Labour have been extremely competant for the majority of people. That's why they're still relatively popular. I know people like to harp on about the bad things or the stuff they don't like but they can do so from the luxurious comfort of a stable economy that is taken for granted now. It is not inevitably this good, it has taken a competant government to make it so. Underneath the shallow griping, a lot of people know that and will stick with Labour because of it.
John Nicholson, Edinburgh,
Cameron misread the situation by thinking that Brown would be different to Blair. He therefore started pretending that a terrible new regime would be established once TB turned into GB. But all along it was clear that the differences between these two fellow architects of New Labour were personal, the petty hatreds and rivalries that engulf politicians.
Matthew Parris is quite right that in time Brown will show that he doesn't differ at all from Blair on policy, unless changing the penalties for dope smokers or the opportunities for gamblers counts as serious 'policy'. But Cameron has encouraged the view that Brown will return the party to Old Labour values and traditions. He has therefore seen no need to challenge New Labour or show where he differs from it.
The Tories need to attack the whole Blair/Brown New Labour project. Their mistake was to try to play off Brownism against Blairism. These two never had different policies - they just hated each other - unedifying but true.
Mark Corner, Brussels, Belgium
The problem with having hardly any policies is that Tories start having bright ideas that they push in their local papers.
In Birmingham the leading Conservatives reckon that the rivers should be dredged to alleviate flooding. They're ignoring the fact that if the Severn had been dredged deeper from Worcester to Gloucester poor old Glos would have had more water chucked at it and the electrical substation would have been inundated - bye bye power to 500,000 homes.
Cameron needs to keep a tighter rein and come up with some sensible policies to stop the natives thinking up stuff for themselves.
Robert, Birmingham, UK
The "rightwingers, reactionaries and xenophobes" can like the harbinger cat feel the death of "David Cameron's Conservatives".
I thought you were a Conservative? Weren't you a candidate at some time?
Paul, London,
Mr Parris,
You write so well and succinctly and I therefore am scared when you seemingly are about to attack my sort who are letting the party down.
Then, to my surprise you list all the points which make me so angry with Mr Cameron. His inability to come up with any hard policies,;his ambivalence on Europe; his inability to attack the government on really important issues (Tax, waste, centralization, nanny); his predilection for every country except the UK and his budding electorate (yes, they are really hot on Rwanda in Worcester and Sheffield!) and his ceaseless inane stunts.
At the moment Brown seems to have a presence which makes him look like a schoolboy after butterflies.
minnie Ovens, LA, USA
Slight problem with this belief that to win a party must "take the centre ground". In fact, it must move the centre ground closer towards itself. This is what Blair actually did. He found an attractive, cuddly way of spouting socialist cliches about community and found a new way of selling the old idea that high government spending will make everyone behave nicely toward each other, nonsense that had been discarded a decade before. The Tories need to tell the truth: that social problems, corruption, incompetence and abuse of power have multiplied in line with the expansion of government, and the individual links that hold real communities together have been chipped away as the state has encroached on every aspect of our lives. Unless the Tories can move the centre ground toward individual freedom and responsibility, there's going to be very little point in swapping one centerist governing party for another, as they will both be identical. Where's the party that has read Arthur Seldon?
Godfrey Wind, Bath, UK
Another fool on the New Labour pill - stop taking 'em, Matthew.
Trevor Martindale, Romford, Essex / Pretty Poor
If there is one man who is splitting the Conservative Party at this moment it is Dave Cameron.
His apparent determination to avoid some of the questions which torment most people in Britain, such as immigration, is unforgivable.
Further what does he mean by 'keeping to the middle ground of politics?' Is it 'right wing' to seek out people smugglers and drug pushers and wanting to put more police on the street?
Is it 'right wing' to have zero tolerance of violence on our streets and to want to make our cities safe?
I think not.
Bruno, Bradford,
Such a glowing comment from M A Patel of Dewsbury on the state of the Conservative Party, perhaps a caveat of "ardent backer and promoter of NuLabour and Dewsbury MP Shahid Malik" at the end would have been a nice addition to give readers the opportunity to read it with the obvious bias.
Alan Girvan, Dewsbury, England
The right-wing commentators are standing for their principles, Mr. Parris. Not everyone want to sell out just to be in power. I know that the "centre ground" (read "leftie") people don't understand this and that is of course up to them.
I think you will find that it will help Cameron if Davis goes one step further. It will certainly damage Davis' chances for becoming leader later when the party give up being "Heir to Blair".
Peter, London,
Round (month) 1 - of the 'clunking fist' and at least 7 to 9 points ahead, over the 40% mark twice... including DT-YouGov (9 points).
Do you 'really' think he (CMD/SC) will get past the conference season & the so called 'policy reviews - grammar school et al) with the ‘son of a manse’ producing matching policies to fit the ‘daily mail’ i.e. socially conservative, without the Labour lead extending to a comfortable 43% plus average i.e. at the end of Round 2 or are these just ‘kind words’.
Blair was 'right' to let him (CMD/SC) define himself (give him enough rope...) when brown wanted to attack as soon (CMD/SC) was appointed as Tory leader, a masterstroke.
How can we take someone seriously on Law and Order, when he goes through a 'RED' Traffic light, I can see the glee at the gifts for those producing the Labour ‘election’ posters’ already.
As they’ve splattered on the front page of the New-Statesman.
Game-Over, Dave!
M A Patel, Dewsbury, England
I do wish people would stop banging on about Gordon Brown's honeymoon going on 'longer than expected'. Since he moved house, the UK has been constantly under siege; firstly from the terrorists, and then from nature. In both cases, the emergency services have been pretty exemplary. These peculiar circumstances mean that it would be pretty difficult for Gordon to have cocked anything up so far. People rally round their leader when threatened. Let's wait for normality and the end of the silly season, please.
James, Monteria, Colombia
David Cameron lacks the prerequisite of being a Leader.
On the Europe issue it was left to William Hague to highlight it in the papers.
On the latest floods with over 300 Thousand without running water,he was in Africa ,while it was left to the news to highlight this and the fact that the lot of the browsers were empty.
There are numerous issues that he could raise with the newspaper ect.
There were a quite a few people who did not like Margaret Thatcher ,but they respected her as a Prime Minister.
David Cameron is the opposite ,they may like him ,but don't respect him as a leader.
Brown has not become popular ,the fact is the opposition is so inept in highlighting his many short comings.
Alan Walton, Leicester, England
David Davis displays loyalty, but apparently that is not enough. Meanwhile Kenneth Clarke stands up and openly stabs his leader in the back during Prime Minister's Questions, but that attracts little comment and no criticism. Now Clarke's words are being quoted back to Cameron, again and again. The reality is that unless Cameron finds the courage to confront and crush the eurofanatic rump within his party, and very soon, then he, the Conservative party, and therefore ultimately the country, will all be finished.
Denis Cooper, Maidenhead, England
As a former Conservative voter I am sure I would disagree with Mr Parris if only he had been a lot clearer about the 'reactionary' views he finds so offensive. Is he referring to the policies that won an (admittedly narrow) majority of votes in England at the last general election? Crazy notions that immigration should be controlled, and that any country should have the right and the obligation to deport undesirable aliens, especially those who yearn to blast and burn us? Those ideas are not, as Mr Parris spins, about nostalgia for a lost golden age, they are precisely about concern for the present and the future. Of course, David Davis is clearly in tune with public concerns on such matters, and I suppose that is why Mr Parris and his ilk find him so alarming.
Peter Haydon, Keith, Scotland
well said, as always very sensible,my vote is with Dave the Brave.
vivian, alicante, spain
"I still believe Labour should lose next time" ... Evidently not a strong enough belief for Parris to say "will" lose next time. This preposterous prediction will stand alongside Michael Heseltine's statement on Today, shortly before the 1997 General Election, that "the Tories will win with a 60-seat majority." Talk about cloud cuckoo land!
K Philips, London, UK
Political partiess used to comprise people with a common agenda who chose as leader the person best able to represent that agenda to the electorate.
Unfortunately, after repeated failures to persuade the electorate to back their programme, the Conservatives, decided to turn this relationship between agenda and electoral persuasion on its head.
The result is that the leader now decides the agenda and declares this to the group - but of course the group may well be lukewarm or even hostile to ideas that they have not chosen but which have been chosen for them.
The Conservatives made a pact with the Devil and are now paying the price.
What is worse, the leader they have chose is a Tony Blair manqué just when the bottom has fallen out of the market for such items.
In the case of both major parties, policy is now handed down in presidential style, and as a result, I suspect that many voters will simply stay at home come the next General Election and say a plague on both your houses.
Bill Rispin, Hessle, East Yorkshire
It's interesting to see that the person bemoaning our lack of freedom from Europe lives in America. Actually we belong in Europe; it is a free trade area and the blueprint for the superstate which was the Constitution was rightly thrown out two years ago by more pro-European nations than ourselves.
Tony Makara has it right in a sense that the party needs someone who can channel a third way between the old guard and the Cameroons, neither of which have proved they really are listening to the people (hence the Old Right harp on about Europe etc and the Cameroons about global trade and development). Cameron however is lost without his good poll ratings and is treading water while Brown prepares the sensible, pragmatic manifesto I believe the Tories had in 2005 and which I campaigned for vigorously under about the only member of the parliamentary party who has held high government office. I think he should be let back into to the get the rest of the 12% swing he needed in 2005.
Louise, Reading, UK
Go all round the houses and come back again. All Cameron need do, possibly through David Davies, is signal a focussed,intelligent, truthfully, no holds barred,attack on the EU.
After that,I am willing to bet,all other problems will disappear like mist on a summers morning.
If he does not do that, eventually the Tory party will disappear in a similar fashion to that same summers day mist.
Peter Bolt, Redditch, UK
Matthew this analysis is spot-on and I hope the Conservative Party takes it to heart.
NBeale, London, England
Actually what Conservatives need is to focus on motivating Abstainers to vote for them rather than LibDems. They need a programme that makes politics look serious and with purpose rather than a branch of entertainment.
TomTom, Leeds, England
"But none of this will be achieved without power..." I'm sorry Mathew but the British people are not going to elect a party on the condition that once in power they will tell us what they believe.
Labour (like it or not) have policies and have done since 1996, the Tory party have published 1 substantial policy document and far from challenging Labour's hold over the "progressive" Centre harks back to the 1950s and their own (outdated, irrelevent and insulting) views on marriage, parenthood and the role of the state.
The Tories have to stop searchng for a cheap Clause Four moment and set out an alternative agenda for government. Only then will they have power again.
dan, norwich,
Tell this to Simon Heffer and his vitriolic friends.There is a cancer in the Party,Cameron needs to root it out and destroy it.
Michael Rigby, Blackburn, England
Is not the real issue whether the Conservative party has lost the taste for power which spurred it on in the last quarter of the last century. Since 1997 they have never given the impression that they seek power but have expended their energies in internal strife.
'New' Labour since 1997 has had a clear run with a split and largely ineffectual opposition. The result has been disastrous but what is there to suggest that Conservative movers and shakers have understood the degree to which they have abdicated the desire for power?
Looking in from the outside the picture is simply depressing.
John Barnes, Xaghra, Malta
Your prediction that "Time and the tide of events will solve the Brown problem" was a delight to read.
Gordon Brown is not good it seems to me at making the really big decisions. That's why so much is made of his giving the Bank of England its independence. His modus operandi is to make lots of small decisions. Stealth taxes were his forte.
As PM two issues are pressing: an answer to the West Lothian question and a referendum on the European Constitution. Both involve big decisions which I think Gordon Brown is incapable of taking.
Measured against their ability to tackle big problems head on I reckon David Cameron comes out way ahead of Gordon Brown. With Gordon Brown, I think the fear of failure outweighs the prospect of success.
Anthony, London,
The crux of the Eurosceptic case is not as misunderstood by your corrspondent and many others. The crux is two different ways of looking at the world. One ( European) is dirigiste and protectionist . The other is for free and liberal markets which is why the London Finance industry is so strong and vibrant. Even Gordon Brown understands this. You choose which you want - but the European model leads inevitably to isolation, lower living standards and a life dependent on the State which even Sarkozy says is a problem which he was elected to solve - without much action so far It is very important to understand the difference and not to retreat to mush like " we are all the same really. European nations all working together in harmony " All this means nothing - the hard intellectual choice is to choose carefully under which political conditions we want to live.
david kay, hemingford, uk
Matthew Parris should become a politician. He uses the language of politics, insult, smear and abuse to describe all those with different opinions to his own.
Reactionary? Careful with what works and thrifty with resources. Xenophobic? Concerned about the citizens of the country you were born in and happen to live in.
There is no difference between any European politicians -cash in their pockets is what drives them. The same is true for media luvvies. The idea that there is some "correct" way forward for states and governments is just nonsense. Parris and those with his values will not even be a footnote in history. But the interests of the people, good or bad, should be the interests of the state they live in and pay allegiance to. Otherwise you owe your nation nothing -not even legal obedience.
Emil P C, Cambs, UK
Bad workmen blame their tools! Parris, inter alia, blames party workers. Cameron did not need even to mention grammar schools now, be in Rwanda when his people were under water or so expose himself in a "doubtful" by election by putting his name on the ticket. It's ""Judgement" Dear Boy" to paraphrase MacMillan. Mr C had better get his act together very soon or will become just another UCT (upper class twit) swept away, as recent predecessors have been, by a savvy, properly focussed, modern Labour Party who will continue to spin, lie, make huge mistakes - but also continue to win all the battles and most of the issues in an electorate unrecognisable from that which tossed the last Tory government out ! For the record, I am 70, more than half-witted, have no party allegiance, have voted in Elections for over 50 years for the party I deemed, at the time, to be in my best and then the country's best interests. In spite of the past 10 years I am not inclined yet to vote for the Tories.
Terry Carlton, Chichester, UK
More sour grapes all the way from Paris. Cameron has been found out as all talk and no substance. Does anyone else remember the Matthew Paris prediction of a win for John Major in 1997
Dave, Basildon, England
Cameron faces an impossible talk trying to manage a moving train half of whose coaches want to go in the opposite direction or stay where they are. Only evolution will solve this as some of the sadder, older Tories fall off the perch. Brown is more than equal to the job with perhaps the minus of being too clever-a trait deeply unliked by voters. My take is that the Tories will not win the next election. After it's over half will shift their tents to UKIP, some will form a new right wing party and the rest join up with a rebranded Lib Dem Party
Ray Cobbett, Emsworth, England
The fundamental crux of every Eurosceptic arguement is misanthropic arrogant presumption of superiority, founded in a biological desire to have a different identity. There is no reason to be Eurosceptic, any more than China sceptic. The fact remains that Britain is founded on European culture, languages, architecture, art, religion and philosophy (including the fact that 70% of Americans are descended from Europeans), and some people are in an absolute state of denial about these links and common heritage. This is partly because of a media that manipulates and panders to political whims of certain owners, and an intrinsic mental block akin to that suffered by pupils who cannot do maths. We need to break out of this cycle of self-delusion or you will repeat history over and over again. The Queen, the Cumberland Sausage, the British Breakfast and even the English language, all originated from continental European sources.
Jon Kingsbury, Southampton, UK
The simple fact that David Cameron's Conservative candidate lost so badly in the Ealing by-elelction - at this stage in a tnird term parliament - makes it impossible for Tories to win against Brown. Rigntly so. Simply presenting yourself as the heir to Blair is the most devastatingly naive and stupid thing to do as the disgraced and despised Blair disappears into well earned obscurity. Voters know instinctively that Cameron is merely a Trojan horse for the nasty party - now they're turning the horse out before he and his party can do any damage.
John, Maidstone, UK
Press talking up David Cameron too much? Craig, I don't think so. Matthew has never hesitated to critcise the Tories in the past so he is no syncophant. Nothing but good common sense. I agree about the right wing columnists who then draw out responses harking about a return to old Tory right wing policies which haven't had general appeal for the last ten years. A death wish if I ever saw one.
Matthew - why don't you run for Mayor of London? I can't think of a better candidate ....
TJP, Yerevan, Armenia
David Davis impressive? In what way(s)? He is not a good public speaker, he lacks clarity of expression and charisma. He is a mumbler. Has he had any headline-grabbing ideas? Is he a backroom thinker?
Cameron has been preparing to play a charismatic Blair figure to a dour Brown enigmatic uncommunicative Brown. Meanwhile the public tired of Blair's empty show and likes what it has seen of Brown's measured and solid performance.
Time for a big re-think for Dave. If David Davis is that good let him add value to the ticket and become Dave's deputy and, like Brown when he was effectively the same, boost the party's appeal. If he does prove a vote magnet then he can later replace Cameron.
Bob T., London, UK
Long before Labour became new and Thatcherism became a dirty word, the Conservative party have suffered from periodic bouts of panic attacks, a lack of self belief that creeps up on them like a liberal democrat candidate in the home counties, hard to remove once its got in. At last the Tories have in them a leader who can return them to power, not an establishment figure, indeed someone who's had to buy all his own furniture. But its the establishment within the party, so consumed with protecting their safe seats in the shires that they run scared and retreat to the sanctuary of the party right and spout the dogma that has'nt and never will appeal to the electorate and win elections. Brown will stumble and fall, all the Tories have to do is stay on message, stick to the agenda and tow the party line.
Rob Hicks, Johannesburg, South Africa
You said it Mr Parris - David Davis has behaved impeccably; stuck to his guns on Home office affairs and shown gravitas. This is something which Cameron seems to lack. His speeches sound good (spin?) but there's no substance in them. Too late to change now - but the country has moved on from the Blair regime - with its love of shallow celebrity. Cameron, as you say, must change his tactics and stop aping Blair. Incidentally, Brown and Hilary Benn have hit the right note in their reaction to the recent flooding. Cameron should learn from that.
Ian Burgess, Bristol,
Perhaps Brown actually may do the unexpected as the Tories did in the coalition "government of all the talents", and devalue and spend without tax increases!
As financiers awash with money have been allowed, even encouraged, to print money for their own benefit, perhaps Brown might print money to spend or cut taxes on the needy and public services.
M G Moore, Stockport, England
Agreed, so long as when it comes to the crunch he doesn't flinch from tackling the election-unfriendly but central and seminal issue of our age: the ratchet of European integration, which is such a grave and immediate threat to the survival of a free and independent Britain.
Nicholas Keen, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Maybe the malcontents live in the Real World, at the end of the day Cameron can have all the support he wants in the Westminster World but this cuts no ice come polling day, much more of the same and its a possibility that the Lib Dems will be the main party of opposition after the next election (to New Labour of course). Just watch those poll ratings continue to drop, are you up for a suicide mission?.
Simon, Leeds, U.K.
You are delusional but what a bonus for the Labour Part y and Brown. Please keep talking up Cameron and underestimating Brown. I just hope that you will admit that you were so wrong in time. I doubt that you have the courage to do so.
Craig, Glenrothes, UK
Why should people who have voted Tory for decades vote for Cameron? He, and the likes of Matthew Paris, despise them.
They are lambasted as right-wing and xenophobic( what was Mrs Thatcher?) but are they the people planting bombs, do they believe in forced marriage or the massive expansion of the Welfare State?
Richard, London, England
Maybe I shouldn't comment here because in fact I've never used my vote. However, I'm going to anyway! I've never really understood the floating voter. They vote for one crowd, realise that they are are as useless as the ones they voted for last time so then proceed to vote for the ones they thought were useless an election or two ago. Maybe they are just gullible and fall every time for the usual list of empty promises.
However, I will be voting next time. I'll be voting BNP. They are the only party to be making any sense at the moment unless of course they are all empty promises.
Jason Foskin, Blackburn, Lancs
David Cameron is trying to manufacture a consensus where there isn't one. Some people think there is a serious problem of family breakdown in this country. Others think that it can be ignored, and will be washed away by rising affluence.
If the second group are right then the Tory columnists are indeed the harbringer cat. Like Labour and the unilateralists in the 1980s, the Tories will be associated with a vociferous minority that is eventually proved wrong. However if the first group are right then the issue will not go away, it will secalate and escalate until someone somewhere acknowledges that something needs to be done.
Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK
A nice article but somewhat spoilt by a picture of D. Cameron sitting in a motorcycle side car. What was that about? I do wish he would stop this silly posturing and start ripping into Brown and his thoroughly dicredited party. At the rate the Conservative party is going, Labour , despite Mr Parris's thoughts on the matter, will win the next election and that really depresses me.
m. dearden, pulborough, w. sussex
The next few days could be crucial in all of this.
For the first time our new Leader, Gordon Brown, will be meeting the US Neo-Cons on their home ground.
Doubtless they will be telling him the global political facts of life
Particularly where 'our' Middle-east policy is concerrned.
Gordon Brown, just like Tony Blair before him, will then be able to like it or lump-it?
As always we are up to our necks in it with the Yanks whether we like it or not
Michael Blatchford, Bath , UK
It is difficult to see how the Conservative Party's fortune will improve whilst the British economy remains bouyant. Recruiting Digby Jones is a symbol of Brown's economic confidence. The Conservatives are starting to appear insecure because of a dearth of policy announcements. Brown represents meritocratic success which has considerable appeal as a counterbalance to the Queen as head of state. Thatcher had this meritocratic appeal. Blair at least had a wife with meritocratic appeal.
Whe Cameron took control of the Consevative I was happy because I thought someone with libertarian ideals had taken charge. Browns weakness appears to be a tendeny towards being authoritarian yet yet clear water between the two parties in this respect seems to be lacking.
Geoff Bent, Tunbridge Wells, UK
Dr Findlater of Carnforth has it bang to rights. Thoughtful Conservative voters are not of the 'Tory Right' nor are they natural malcontents. They too want an end to Labour misgovernment but they don't want to be slagged off by their Leader nor do they admire silly, cringemaking stunts. Brown's politics, policies and pension busting actions are wholly wrong but he presents himself as a serious politician and that accounts for the swing in the polls.
Leslie Sallabank, Fareham, Hampshire
I agree with you Mathew.
Even an antique restoration expert can not describe in a better way a relic and its chances to be useful in the future.
But…
Do we really need the Conservative Party?
Blendi, London, uk
During the week Matthew wrote that there is no better time or place to be a homosexual than now in Britain. If only he could get it into his head that there is no worse time to be a Conservative. There is now no shame attached to being a homosexual, but to be a supporter of a party which still harks back to nineteenth century social control by the 'upper classes' and the rancid xenophobia of the Victorians is shameful indeed. If I were a homosexual I would 'come out'. If I were a Conservative I'd be too ashamed to tell even my closest friends.
eric campbell, harrogate, uk
Cameron requires principles, and the policies needed to implement them. From the perspective of the average voter his stunts have provided neither. Labour's mismanagement of schools, housing, private pensions, the NHS, transport, immigration, defence, and the latest attempt to impose an EU constitution ought to provide fertile ground for the Tories. Instead they have mostly failed to register any constructive opposition. They have allowed Brown to distance himself from the failures of Blair's government. To describe those who are disappointed by Cameron's failures as 'right wing' reflects a political viewpoint that is closer to pink than blue.
Tony G, Harrogate, UK
Oh dear. Once again Mr Parris is displaying a tendency to be a political virgin, not quite going all the way.
Maybe if he was to take his thread to its conclusion, then he would reach the same thought I have, which is that those of a slightly more rightward philosophy are settling into the same pit the Labour left occupied in the 1980s. Power is secondary to purity of ideals.
I am totally convinced that Cameron is being stealth briefed against by the same individuals he mentions above, and that a bloodbath will ensue. From that comes the Thatcher in man-drag, David Davis, to lead the Party. Just as the left imploded Labour, so these elements will think nothing of another decade in the wilderness to rid their beloved Party of the Cameron cancer.
Roy Ellor, Salford, UK
The public,according to the latest polls, seems to have seen through David Cameron.
It was not the change of weather that made the Rwanda trip especially unwise, it was the original concept of seeking party advantage on the back of such a massacre, compounded by continuing the trip even after the floods offered a perfect excuse to avoid displaying such ill-considered opportunism.
David Cameron, post Rwanda, must surely now have equally offended not just traditional Tories but many in the moderate centre.
Whether David Davis can offer an answer to the problems posed by a split centre-right vote now indicated as likely after the Sedgefield result I cannot guess, but in spite of the risks of another leadership change he might at least regain the votes gone for good following the Rwanda trip as compounded by the conference invitation...
Martin Cole, Angouleme , France
The issue for the tories and Mr Cameron, in my humble opinion, is not about whether they lurch left or right, but what a government under Mr Cameron would be like. The real issue for how Mr Cameron can appeal to moderate voters should be to display what he believes in, what makes him tick and what it is about Britain that he wants to change.
To the dismay of some in his own party and certain aspects of the right wing press, he has shown that he does not want a Thatcherite government. Yet, he is yet to indicate, how he wants his government to conduct itself. It is all very well and good to dissapear to Rwanda and the arctic to show his support for trendy issues, which may impress the likes of Geldoff and Bono, but tells the British people nothing about how he could lead a government that would improve their lives.
This is the issue that faces Mr Cameron, which at the moment he is failing to do and untill he does, Mr Brown can dominate him.
Jon Gill, Norwich, UK
The Conservative Party needs to go to hell and back before it will be fit for government! The struggle for the hearts and minds of the Tories is only beginning and I don't think there is a willingness to change the party from a right wing reactionary party to a pragmatic party that will unite all the people of Britain.
Kevin, Belfast,
For once I disagree with you Matthew, in part anyway. Brown has done nothing new and has spun like a top it is perfectly true. But Cameron has let him get away with it.
The mendacity and cynicism of this government knows no bounds but the Tories need to say so constantly as Labour used to remind us constantly of Tory sleaze. We were promised a referendum on Europe, why aren't we getting one when Brown has promised to restore trust in politics? Tax, the NHS, crime, immigration these are all open goals. Sure they may be slightly awkward subjects for Tories to tackle but tackle them they must if they are to gain power. And they need not abandon the centre ground in doing so. Most of these issues are simple matters of principle and common sense. When Labour steals Tory policies say so loudly and forcefully. When they backtrack on a promise do the same. When they perform a U turn question their judgement and ask what they have been doing these last 10 years. Oppose Mr Cameron, stop posing
Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK
The Tories recent fall is not due to Tory reactionaries, xenephobia or the David Davis effect, but due to David Cameron himself. It coincided with the departure of Tony Blair, the idiotic attack on Grammar schools, and the belief that Brown would be a weak Prime Minister.
In the meantime, Gordon Brown adopted the statesman's mantle of Harold Macmillan and one expected him to say "you've never had it so good" and he is right. He has stolen the Emperor's clothes and is running a centrist agenda not far removed from the one Cameron hankers after. So why should the electorate change? The much maligned Blair has gone and a new clean man is there already.
One does not suggest Cameron cancels his holiday, but he could do worse than to go to France to study the Sarkosy effect. Like Sarko, he should offer an alternative, a centre right policy, not an apology for one, and not more of the same, lead by Brown's fantasy "world class state public services" , funded by ever increasing taxation.
M.Fishman, London,
All these so-called political wise men get everyone in a tangle with their left, right, centre-ground, and all the other bits of nonsense.
The trouble has been that right from the off the 'modernisers' (another meaningless expression) proclaimed the nastiness of the party, turned on a large portion of the activists, calling them fruitcakes, delusional. irrational, reactionary. What did the 'modernisers' expect? Many of those rejected by the new PR people gave their time, thought and money working to put a party in power that would be a common-sense body trying to run the country . Told to get lost, the sensible thing for them to do was to step aside but not to stop fighting for those things they believed to be right. There is no point supporting a group to get them into power to do things which they think are wrong.
Dr j Findlater, Carnforth,
David Cameron understands the necessity of staying in the centre ground. That is to reflect the views of most of the electorate. That is a winning strategy. Those on the right of the Conservative party who expect the British voters to bend their way are being naive. The reality is that most voters are eclectic. They are capable of accepting differing policies from both left and right . It is this eclectic nature that puts these voters in the centre ground. The old ideological blocks no longer apply or appeal to most voters. The electorate now are looking for a pragmatic government not one pushing doctrine. David Cameron understands this, those on the right of the Conservative party need to understand too.
Tony Makara, Manchester,