Cameroon commentators start attacking the Tory "Right". Are they speaking for Numbers 10 a Comments

Beverly

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:01:36 +0000

After thirteen years of labour mis-rule, and the Brown behaviours, we still could not win the election. The realities of that message are still ignored. If it continues labour will win the next election, not on its policies, but by default.

Chris

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:57:08 +0000

I have to question whether Cameron actually wants to win the next election. I think he is perfectly well aware that the Conservatives won't win. However, the beliefs of his followers are less clear - I think there are many Conservative MPs who still believe that the Conservatives will win the next election and who are utterly convinced that the party has to be detoxified and marginal voters pursued ad infinitum. Cameron will move onto other things, but his MPs are in for a very rude awakening. It upsets me greatly, and angers me, and I challenge those MPs with true Conservative priniciples to get up and do something about it, and quickly, otherwise the Party will be facing oblivion.

christina speight

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:54:54 +0000

Tim - As so often you deal with the froth on the surface and ignore the fundamentals. While not claiming any sort of punditry I have consistently defended Osborne - to much derision - while excoriating Cameron - the latter for character failings - deviousness, deceit, rudeness and bullying, breaking his promises and swanning off on his own on undebated, unproven and madly divisive ideas cooked up in some suspicious milieu. Osborne - on the other hand - has made silly mistakes but only on the periphery of his steely adherence to his strategy. I realise that with the LibDems querying every comma he writes and the motive behind any sneezes he may make, a Chancellors lot is not a happy one. The public - and you too, it seems, Tim - are totally unaware of the tightrope we as a country walk - and with ConHome pursuing trivia no wonder! The whole of Europe is in turmoil and a great chunk of our economy is linked to it [don't let us quibble about the percentage). Some eurozone leaders are planning a new EU Treaty which would effectively create a federal Europe which we would not create and when created not influence . (The sillier UKIP members - not all - will empty-headedly welcome that] Cameron gave away our bargaining power last December when he allowed eurozone members to have a separate treaty AND USE EU INSTITUTIONS. . Osborne's prime job is to keep the ship afloat until the dust has settled. He's doing that with almost incredible success so far. This has given time for our exporters to re-orientate our trade away from the EU and non-EU exports are booming. Personally I am astonished each day that we seem in a reasonably healthy state. Long may it last - but don't bank on it. Meanwhile can ConHome please stop trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds attacking the government one day (eg Tim Yeo) and playing the party line the next. And please stop producing 'come-on' threads - usually on Homosexual marriage! - about once a week which keeps the blog-traffic up but distracts and is utterly destructive.

George Lees

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:51:05 +0000

if only the Cameroons spent all this effort trying to reduce the deficit/debt and attacking Labour - but then again Cameroosborne is a CCHQ insider to his heart.

Somerset

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:50:16 +0000

I could not believe it when Cameron/Osborne failed to defeat the most unpopular PM in recent history (or at least come a lot closer to doing so). Nothing they have done since makes me think that this deadly duo are going to do any better in 2015.

Andrew P

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:48:31 +0000

We can only hope that our Leaders rallying speech to lobbyts and Party members will help the membership to go forth from Bimingham and multiply.

Peter Buss

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:45:29 +0000

Tim - you can protest all you like but our backbenchers are lily livered in the extreme. So much of your ideas on growth are non starters as we are3 in a Coalition and in the case of the EU simply downright illegal.As for recent comments re David Cameron including "man or a mouse" "Cleggs chambermaid" I am astonished that you have not launched a full frontal assault on that type of comment rather than the half hearted comment in youir piece above.What is the point of these MP's making crriticisms if they drown it out with abuse of our PM. And BTW can we please give the GE 2010 election results a break.Its about time the Party got over it and stopped yearning for something that did not happen and perhaps reflect if more of the \party had followed DC's approach to a modern conservative Party instead of kicking, screamiong and grumbling at every aspect of modernistaion then we might just have persuaded a few more people that we were on their side.Sorry to sound off but ConHome really does need to start also representing the views of so many of us who are Cam supportersrather than being the constnat mouthpiece of the dissident few.

Kevin algar

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:45:13 +0000

Our right wing nutters are deluded. After years of BBC brain washing, there is no longer enough right wing votes in the country to get a majority from.

John Lilburne

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:42:30 +0000

Tim, I'm surprised you didn't challenge Janan's assertion that the 'cuts' are a possible reason for our return to recession. Osborne has only enacted 12% of the cuts, that would not be the reason we are in a double dip. In fact, in the quarterly GDP figures, government spending seems the one positive driver of output.

@Lord_Palmerston

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:39:33 +0000

Cameron has brought a lot of this on himself. The party leadership has neither given firm direction of our policy, or encouraged examination or attack of the policies of our opponents. "The devil makes work for idle hands" - that is a large part of the problem.

Flapper

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:39:24 +0000

Isn't ganesh gideons biographer?

Vortigen

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:33:50 +0000

A very interesting article. I have thought for a while now that at its core, the Conservatives actually have a deep dislike of anyone on the Right and now they will seek to beat them into silence. I dont think it will work, it just feeds the energy reserves of people who feel they will be proven right ( or is that Right? ) in the end. I do suspect that there may be a plan afoot to drive certain people to other parties, or if there isnt, they are doing a great job of it by accident.

MobiusBand

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:33:38 +0000

Clarification: The Tory Right means traditional, mainstream, Real Conservatives. The Cameron modernized Conservatives means Lib/Dem/Labour hybrid. Cameron and his lefty Lib/Dem coterie have always known the above but continue the pretense that they are Conservatives in a desperate attempt to cling on to power - note how, more and more, caring Nanny Cameron and his fellow nannies are taking off the velvet gloves - their policies have failed dismally; now is time for the bullying in order that real Conservatives toe-the-line and knuckle under to these Lib/Dem Lefties who have hi-jacked our Party. We shall see this intensify at the ghastly, stage-managed, Conference. Watch all the vacuous marketing razzamatazz as the moribund leader of a moribund Cameroon Party tries to appear resolute and confident and pretend that he is not just an empty Blair clone who has destroyed the Conservative party and who is destined to be humiliated at the election. If the lib/dem stalker replies to this post - she knows who she is - I shall not reply. I shall not encourage the lib/dem troll.

Engineer

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:30:11 +0000

In the old days, the 1922 Committee would "have a word with them". Where are the present checks and balances upon a maverick leadership?

@John_J_C_Moss

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:25:23 +0000

The conservative right have some genuinely good, liberal ideas which could boost growth and ought to be supported by the Orange Book wing of the Lib-Dems eg German style mini-jobs. Sadly, naked politics has intervened as they have seen the anti-tory tactical vote unwind and 6-10% of their vote decant back to Labour. They therefore see their route to keeping their seats as moving left, not delivering the things which will actually help the country. And Child Benefit ought to be included in Universal Credit and withdrawn from any household which has sufficient income to lift them out of Welfare.

guythemac

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:22:40 +0000

"Only 15% of IoD members"[...] Should say "Only 15% of IoD members who responded to a mailshot poll". Without sample size those figures are pretty meaningless and detract from an otherwise thoughtful response.

Marc Heine

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:18:09 +0000

I cannot recall a point in living memory--well, at least MY living memory--when a political leader has been so unpopular amongst so many of the rank and file of his own party, and attacks from Cameroon loyalists are not going to alter this depressing fact. This is an appalling situation and bodes ill for our chance of success at the next general election, because with a depleted and depressed rank and file, party membership fees are going to continue to decline, the hands and feet on the street, leafleting and canvassing, are going to be fewer and fewer, and whatever message we have will be more and more difficult to convey to the public. Unless Messrs Cameron, Osborne et al have a deathbed conversion--in other words, shows signs of true leadership and a serious awareness of our dire economic situation AND also start relating better to their rank and file membership--we are going to have a repeat of 1997 in 2015.

Mark Hudson

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:56:00 +0000

A very interesting article, Tim. I feel more sympathetic to Osborne than some of your critique above, but that is not really the point. Yes, the Cameroons have started an assault on the 'Tory Right'. This is simply because the entire modernisation project has been shown to be a failure of monumental proportions. Is the next General Election lost for the Conservative Party? Sadly, probably.

Dragon

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:53:25 +0000

Try as I have I do not detect the sound of "quacking in boots"! Perhaps the heavy attack dogs are being held in reserve for the mighty annual Conference.

colliemum

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 07:51:37 +0000

Anybody who writes that Osborne "is enforcing the most sustained period of austerity since the second world war ..." with a straight face cannot be taken seriously. Where's the austerity when civil servants are rewarding themselves bonuses again, which are more than a large number of people have to live on? Where's the austerity when more people are being employed, e.g. at DECC? Where's the austerity when someone as knowledgeable as John Redwood writes that the famous 'Plan A' was never heard of again as soon as Osborne entered the treasury? I agree that these attacks on the right smell of being coordinated, with the annual conference being very close. Painting 'the right' as unruly, disobedient etc etc means of course that all those ver so brilliant critics don't need to engage with the arguments brought forward by 'the right'. This is a well-known tactic which actually comes from the play-book of communist parties. We really can do without such stuff!