Jun 01 2007
We need an anti spin moment, not a Clause IV moment
The Conservative party faces a different problem in 2007-2010 in attracting all the votes it needs to win, to the problem facing the Labour party in the mid 1990s.??Labour had to live down its unpopular policies - nationalisation, high taxation, too much wasteful public spending and nuclear disarmament. The so-called "Clauee IV" monet was one of several as Labour went about ditching its old baggage and came up with Tory lite - adopting Conservative spending plans, accepting the importance of keeping income tax rates down, denying it would renationalise and living with nuclear weapons.
The Conservatives have no such toxic policy baggage. Their traditional policies of lower taxes, more freedom??and allowing people to make their own way in the world wherever possible are and have always been popular. The Conservative brand was damaged by over enthusiasm for Europe, when a Conservative PM accepted Labour and Lib Dem advice and wrongly linked our currency to the DM, doing considerable damage to the economy. It was further damaged by Labour’s infamous sleaze campaign, the biggest boomerang ever launched by a UK political party in the light of subsequent events.
The Conservatives now have to persuade a large number of poeple who have moved to abstention that it is worthwhile voting again. To do so the party has to show not that it has ditched its past popular policies, but that it can move on from the age of spin. People are fed up with all three main political parties, because they fear more??of the same - the Blair era lies, treating problems as media problems not as real problems, failing to fix things despite promising to do so, Ministers saying "Do as I say, not as I do"
Instead of staging a Clause IV moment, the party needs to show by its words and deeds that it is going to offer something more honest and reliable than the soundbites of New Labour. Voting down the Freedom of Information Bill in the Lords would be a good start. Following that up by refusing large donations from single sources would be another.?? Ending briefings about "positioning" and stopping spinning sensible speeches too far would be a third.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
I can see where you’re coming from on this, and one of the reasons I like reading this blog is that it doesn’t talk down to me. In fact there are sometimes economic things I don’t really understand and have to look up, which is refreshing from a politican. However the way the world is these days I can accept the need for politicans to maintain good media relations as a reality. Media censorship is a dangerous route to go down unless there is an actual concern for national security and I believe there is a little-known mechanism for this. On the other side of the coin is the equally appalling situation of the media developing an overbearing relationship based on the pricipals of bribery and blackmail with politicans and exterting too much influence for their own ends. This is why more MP’s should have weblogs.
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