Alistair Thompson: It's the economy, not Compassionate Conservativism, that counts in these austere times

Alistair Thompson was the Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the last general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

The political weather that David Cameron enjoyed when he was first elected in 2005 has changed beyond all recognition. Then he was the golden boy of politics, hugging hoodies and riding with huskies.

He cast his leadership as different, fresh. A blaze of positive publicity and a slick rebranding operation saw poll ratings climb and opened up a commanding lead over the Labour Party. Despite a few setbacks along the way, and set against the worst recession since the 1930s, Mr Cameron was only able to govern by forming a coalition in 2010's general election.

And throughout this time, one key plank of Mr Cameron's strategy with the electorate was to detoxify the Conservative brand - in a bid to expunge memories of that awful Theresa May description of the Party as the Nasty Party.

Social Action suddenly and rightly became an important part of the new Tory lexicon. Candidates talked about the work they were doing, mentoring, setting up job clubs, or just good old fashioned fund raising for community projects. Even more imaginative schemes were developed too. Andrea Leadsom's Oxpip and Charlie Elphicke's Pepod both attracted national media attention.

Alistair Thompson: How a pantomime horse, Peter Tatchell and the Christian Institute changed the law on insults

Alistair Thompson was the Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the last general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Yes, this sounds like the start of a bad joke, but for regular Westminster Watchers, familiar with the Reform Section 5 Campaign, this unlikely alliance has just secured a major victory for free speech.

Yesterday, after months of campaigning, the Government finally accepted a House of Lords amendment that got rid of the word “insulting” from Section 5 of the 1986 Public Order Act.

This latest in a long list of Government u-turns was by no means certain and had it not been for the eclectic group of supporters, this pernicious law would still be on the statute books.

As the professional media back-up to the campaign, there were three factors that made the difference between success and failure.

Alistair Thompson: Cameron is no Obama

Alistair Thompson was the Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the last general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

It was inevitable that following the re-election of Barak Obama — met with gleeful whoops of delight from Team Cameron — that No.10 insiders would draw comparisons between their man and US President.

But a couple of days ago Mr Cameron’s right-hand man, George Osborne, extrapolated from these comparisons to declare that the Conservatives can win the next election with a mixture of economic toughness and social liberalism.

It is easy to see why Mr Osborne might think this. Messers Cameron and Obama both want to lead from the centre. They both inherited an economy in serious trouble with a debt mountain, and are desperately trying to turn it around. Both lack a strong sense of ideology. In Mr Obama's case this is partly due to his academic background and approach to politics, and in Mr Cameron's case the naked, pragmatic pursuit of power. Both have so far failed to deliver sustained growth. And, finally, both face opponents who have failed to connect with the ordinary voters.

Alistair Thompson: Get the reshuffle right, and Cameron may still win in 2015. Get it wrong and Miliband will win.

Alistair Thompson was the Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the last general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

While the focus of an entire nation remains firmly fixed on the London Olympics, deep within the bowels of Downing Street, the Prime Minister is planning a reshuffle.

The importance of the reshuffle, expected to be announced in the first week of September, and the subsequent relaunch of the Coalition cannot be underestimated, because Mr Cameron is in trouble.

With the polls heading south, the Coalition looking increasingly unstable, the economy on the critical list, and the emergence of a serious rival in the form of Boris Johnson, Mr Cameron has just 30 days to save his Government and legacy. Soundings are already being taken from his closest advisers, party grandees and from those whose success is hitched to Mr Cameron's.

The obvious choice for a potential new Chairman of the Party* is the current Deputy Chairman Michael Fallon, who has acquitted himself superbly over recent months, frequently appearing on television to defend the indefensible. His combative and sure-footed performances display all the qualities you need in a party chairman, and he has the added bonus of being in the Commons.

Alistair Thompson: Cameron and Osborne should ditch the trendy nonsense and concentrate on being Conservatives

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

In 2007, David Cameron famously remarked that he was the heir to Blair.

This claim infuriated many within the Labour Party and meant that Gordon Brown had far less room wriggle room in distancing himself from the Blair years for fear of appearing to surrender the middle ground.

And perhaps there was some good evidence to support this claim. Certainly Mr Cameron has taken on his own party on a range of issues, not least his strategy of increasing the number of women MPs, supporting unproven green policies and increasing international aid.

But unlike Mr Blair, the Prime Minister has failed to realise when to stop poking his party in the eye, even when it is perfectly in tune with middle England. And this unhealthy obsession with constantly picking fights on issues that the vast majority of the public do not believe are a priority is taking its toll on the party machine.

Issues like House of Lords Reform and gay marriage are deeply unpopular with the majority of Conservative voters and party members.

Alistair Thompson: David Cameron is right to resist an expensive judicial inquiry into banking

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Reading the papers over the last few days I thought the clamour for yet another expensive show trial - I mean inquiry - would force the PM into announcing yet another costly judge-led probe.
 
I was horrified by this prospect and am delighted that Mr Cameron has rejected these calls, opting for sensible option of a short sharp Parliamentary investigation.
 
This is a victory for common sense, since it halts the prospect of some new body, or group being set at vast amounts of taxpayer’s money to take evidence for a long period before reaching the conclusion that some bankers broke the law and others acted against the interests of their customers.
 

Alistair Thompson: Cowardly Clegg - and his attempt to distract attention from his own links to the Murdochs

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Today sees Nick Clegg step up his attacks on his Coalition partners, the Conservative Party.

The Deputy Prime Minister, who this week alone has dismissed calls for a free vote on gay marriage, at least for his own party and ruled out emergency border controls when the Euro collapses, will go on the offensive over the links between the ‘other’ two parties and the Murdoch media empire.

In a speech to a group of political reformers, Mr Clegg will seek to curry favour by saying the links between senior politicians and News International is an example of the country’s ‘broken establishment’ and  that he is convinced that this played a part in the financial crisis.
 
The speech would be acceptable, even understandable, were it not so ludicrously hypocritical of Mr Clegg to attack both Labour and the Conservatives for a disease that affects virtually the whole political establishment, regardless of party, class, beliefs or any other variant you care to mention.

Alistair Thompson: Sunday Trading reforms will only benefit the big supermarkets and further disadvantage small businesses

Alistair Thompson was the Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Last weekend, Chancellor George Osborne announced his intention to bring in emergency legislation to relax the restrictions on Sunday trading. The move, Mr Osborne stressed, was only a temporary measure for the eight weeks of the Olympics and Paralympics, but there are those who rightly fear that this is only the first step to full deregulation - an assault on the special nature of Sunday and further evidence of an attack on the Judeo-Christian heritage of our country.

There are those who back such a change, including the so called "Giddy Group" (backers of George Osborne). They view plans to deregulate the Sunday trading hours as a "good idea". Their argument is that it might boost the economy in the short term. It might, but only because we shoppers will reach for our flexible friends, piling the pounds on our credit cards, racking up more debt that will have to be paid back over time. And what will we be buying? Cheap imported goods, or impulse purchases - items that we really don’t need, or groceries that we could have bought at almost any other time of the week? 

But those backing the change also argue that this is not the only "benefit". A change in opening hours might allow a better match between the shops and restaurants, creating the shopping experience that seems to be the goal of most retailers. But again, this might happen in purpose-built destination shopping centres, like Gunwharf Quays, or Bicester Village, but is unlikely to happen on the gastronomic deserts to be found on most high streets. So the idea of shopping without limits, any time and anywhere, in retail outlets all over the country is false. And worse than this, any benefit will accrue to the big stores while the small retailer continues to be squeezed.

Alastair Thompson: Cameron, not Salmond, is winning the battle for Scotland's future

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

It has been the issue that has dominated the political news since last weekend, after David Cameron rattled the cage of SNP Leader Alex Salmond, by challenging him to hold an early Scottish Referendum. To many commentators, pressing the chirpy SNP Leader to put his money where his mouth is is a high risk strategy, with even some in his own Party saying that this could drive disgruntled Scots to Mr Salmond’s arms, boosting the chance of losing the referendum.

But those who think that Mr Cameron has not done the complicated political maths on this are simply wrong. If we have learnt anything about David Cameron, in recent months it is that he is a masterful tactician, able to run rings round his two main Westminster opponents, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband. Indeed, I would go even further, saying that rattling the cage of the SNP is Cameron’s master stroke, because he simply can’t lose, whichever way the Scots vote.

Win, and he cements his position as the man with the electoral midas touch - a visionary leader able to win against the odds, and proving that the stunning victory against the Yes to AV campaign was not a fluke. Then, and with some justification, he will also be able to claim that he alone is the hero of the Union. A man who took on the might of the SNP and put them back in their place. Lose, and he can still claim to have stood up for the historic Union, fighting for our country, but was simply unable to turn the tide of nationalistic fervour.

Alistair Thompson: Nick Clegg has used the Euro-storm to steal democracy from the people

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

As the fallout from David Cameron’s brave decision to veto the Merkozy attempt to force the rest of Europe into some sort of Faustian pact that would lead to full fiscal union of the 17 Eurozone members within the current institutions of the EU, the DPM has used this row to bury some very bad news.

Because if you had blinked just once, you might have missed the fact that the hapless Clegg has published the long awaited "power of recall bill".

Now, you might have expected this to be something that the Coalition and indeed Mr Clegg, whose party continues to flat-line in the polls, would be crowing about - this historic change, a change that would give ordinary voters the power to hold their errant MPs to account, but no. The bill has been slipped out with no fanfare, no round of interviews, not even some self-congratulatory comment piece in one of the left-leaning papers.

So why has the publicity-obsessed Nick Clegg seemingly gone into winter hibernation? Certainly not because of the Euro fallout.

Alistair Thompson: To end the pension apartheid, the PM must not give an inch

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

On Wednesday, the unions will attempt to bring the country to its knees because of the Coalition’s plan to reform the public sector’s unsustainable pension system.

The union barons claim that the reforms will wreck the lives of their hard-working and low-earning members, but these claims do not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny - more on this later, and they have very effectively sought to link this issue with the issue of deficit reduction.

So the debate thus far has been woefully inadequate. Serious discussion about the issues have been all but ignored or kicked into the long grass.  

To his credit, Prime Minister David Cameron and his ministers have been robust in defending the reforms, saying that the changes are designed to make public sector pensions affordable for the long term and failure to reform will bankrupt the whole system, a point even many on the Labour benches recognise.

Alistair Thompson: Students should switch tactics - they would have far more power as consumers than protesters

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Today, 10,000 students are expected to take to the streets of London complaining about the hike in tuition fees to a maximum of up to £9K per year.

This demonstration is nothing more than a throwback to the 1970s, when Union activism last mattered. This will, I’m afraid, fail. Not least because there is a high probability that it will be hijacked by anti-capitalist loonies, hell-bent on vandalism and destruction.

Peaceful pictures of students walking past Downing Street and through Parliament Square makes poor TV, compared to pitched battles with police and masked yobs.

The second problem that the students face is that when they call a rally or strike, no one notices, or cares. They don’t provide any important service that the general public see has gone, like the trains, or fire brigade. And the only people they are harming are themselves, by not attending lectures and not getting the education they are paying for... oh and a few motorists who will be caught in the traffic chaos around the march.

Alistair Thompson: Early success should fool no one that rebuilding Libya will take a long time

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

With our TV screens still filled by jubilant rebels dancing in Colonel Gaddafi’s compound and elsewhere, chanting ‘freedom’ and ‘Allāhu Akbar’, it would be easy to get caught up by the euphoria of the moment.

 

The advance by the rebels in the last couple of weeks has been stunning and the leaders of most important western powers, UK, US and France, are rightly pleased at their achievements.

 

NATO forces performed brilliantly, air strikes smashed Gaddafi’s military machine and allowed the rebels to remove the dictator with minimal civilian casualties and at pace that only a few months ago was unthinkable. 

Our own PM will be happy, not least because his decision to play the key role in this operation, pushing President Obama and others to take military action has paid off. And Mr Cameron and his advisers should be proud that that their first major foreign intervention, has been a great success, proving that the UK can still play a major role on the international stage.

Alistair Thompson: The Strategic Defence and Security Review was not strategic and has not increased our security

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Today I will be attending the decommissioning ceremony of HMS Ark Royal. As this proud symbol of British Maritime power is consigned to history I worry that we might have botched the Strategic Defence and Security Review, which could have consequences long into the future.

Last year, in an attempt to clear up the mess left by the previous Government, the Coalition undertook the SDSR. The Ministry’s budget, under Labour stewardship, had been managed so disastrously that on an annual operating budget of about £13 billion, commitments on equipment and overspends totalled £36 billion, or nearly three years worth of funding. 

This could have possibly been justified if our armed forces were the best equipped soldiers, sailors and airmen in the world, but they are not. Vital equipment was all too often simply not available to the men on the ground. While US soldiers travelled around in heavily armoured trucks, our boys and girls had to make do with Snatch Land Rovers designed for the streets of Belfast, not IEDs in Helmand.

There has also been wide reporting of helicopter shortages, body armour and other items (that should have been in plentiful supply) forcing our troops to make do with what is available and sometimes relying on clothing sent from concerned family members. Is it any wonder that our US allies refer to the army as "the borrowers"?

Alistair Thompson: Labour’s moral recession is worse than the economic one

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Reading the papers last week, I came across an article in the Daily Mail that not only perfectly sums up the moral bankruptcy of the Blair/Brown Governments, but also the sheer ludicrousness of much of the State’s spending.

For those who missed the article, the story was about a young disabled man, whose identity was concealed, but who has received money from a Government fund to go to Amsterdam and... wait for it... visit a prostitute!

I could hardly believe my eyes as I read the story. At a time that our country is facing the worst economic climate since the 1930s the last Government set up fund, which we are told is ‘legitimately’ being used to fund sex tourism.

You don’t have to be an expert to know about the problems associated with prostitution, the involvement of organised crime, how many of the prostitutes are trafficked, the high STD infection rates and drug and alcohol addiction rates, so why is he Her Majesty’s Government contributing to this vile industry?

Where was the Gordon Brown’s famous moral compass when this madcap scheme was dreamt up? And why were no restrictions placed on how this money could be used?

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Reading the papers last week, I came across an article in the Daily Mail that not only perfectly sums up the moral bankruptcy of the Blair/Brown Governments, but also the sheer ludicrousness of much of the State’s spending.

For those who missed the article, the story was about a young disabled man, whose identity was concealed, but who has received money from a Government fund to go to Amsterdam and... wait for it... visit a prostitute!

I could hardly believe my eyes as I read the story. At a time that our country is facing the worst economic climate since the 1930s the last Government set up fund, which we are told is ‘legitimately’ being used to fund sex tourism.

You don’t have to be an expert to know about the problems associated with prostitution, the involvement of organised crime, how many of the prostitutes are trafficked, the high STD infection rates and drug and alcohol addiction rates, so why is he Her Majesty’s Government contributing to this vile industry?

Where was the Gordon Brown’s famous moral compass when this madcap scheme was dreamt up? And why were no restrictions placed on how this money could be used?

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Reading the papers last week, I came across an article in the Daily Mail that not only perfectly sums up the moral bankruptcy of the Blair/Brown Governments, but also the sheer ludicrousness of much of the State’s spending.

For those who missed the article, the story was about a young disabled man, whose identity was concealed, but who has received money from a Government fund to go to Amsterdam and... wait for it... visit a prostitute!

I could hardly believe my eyes as I read the story. At a time that our country is facing the worst economic climate since the 1930s the last Government set up fund, which we are told is ‘legitimately’ being used to fund sex tourism.

You don’t have to be an expert to know about the problems associated with prostitution, the involvement of organised crime, how many of the prostitutes are trafficked, the high STD infection rates and drug and alcohol addiction rates, so why is he Her Majesty’s Government contributing to this vile industry?

Where was the Gordon Brown’s famous moral compass when this madcap scheme was dreamt up? And why were no restrictions placed on how this money could be used?

Alistair Thompson was Conservative candidate for West Bromwich East at the general election. He also runs Media Intelligence Partners with business partner Nick Wood, the former press secretary to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith.

Reading the papers last week, I came across an article in the Daily Mail that not only perfectly sums up the moral bankruptcy of the Blair/Brown Governments, but also the sheer ludicrousness of much of the State’s spending.

For those who missed the article, the story was about a young disabled man, whose identity was concealed, but who has received money from a Government fund to go to Amsterdam and... wait for it... visit a prostitute!

I could hardly believe my eyes as I read the story. At a time that our country is facing the worst economic climate since the 1930s the last Government set up fund, which we are told is ‘legitimately’ being used to fund sex tourism.

You don’t have to be an expert to know about the problems associated with prostitution, the involvement of organised crime, how many of the prostitutes are trafficked, the high STD infection rates and drug and alcohol addiction rates, so why is he Her Majesty’s Government contributing to this vile industry?

Where was the Gordon Brown’s famous moral compass when this madcap scheme was dreamt up? And why were no restrictions placed on how this money could be used?