One year of David Cameron

We are fast approaching the first anniversary of David Cameron's leadership.  ConservativeHome will publish a 'state of the grassroots opinion survey' to coincide with that anniversary.  The poll will go into the field over the next few days.  What questions should be asked?

Related links: Hague and Osborne bounce back in latest ConservativeHome survey and David Cameron writes for ConservativeHome on his 100th day as Tory leader.

Comments

[JA]

Is the Cameroonian revolution more a matter of political strategy than a serious values reconfiguration, in your opinion?

Do you trust him?

Has he annoyed you?

Do you regret him?

Doesn't he make you feel a little sick?

[JA]

How many times has he disappointed you?

Do you think he has the capacity to disappoint you in the future, or has he pretty much finished the job off as it is? How many times have you attempted suicide?

Are you just disenchanted with him, or has the rot set into the rest of the party too? Do you have cramp from holding your nose each time you boot up ConHome?

Is he sufficiently weak and silent on terror and national security, or would you like him to be just a little more pathetic at the serious business of politics?

Given the realignment in people's political concerns since 1997 - since 9/11 and 7/7 especially, too - isn't being the heir to Blair rather like having the Emperor's new clothes for hand-me-downs? Why is he competing for irrelevance? What, do you think, is it about the vapid, contemptible political PC orthodoxy of the age that Cameron likes so much? And shouldn't we, perhaps, alert his family and friends, who would no doubt like to stage an Intervention to save him from such a squalid life?

[Cllr Green (rep-Kent]

We get it JA...you don't like him. But howsabout (thats a bit of slang from my neck of the woods) you ask a serious question.....okay bud?

[TomTom]

Do you think Britain will be a country true to its heritage under Conservatives or simply continue to drift and unravel into a very dissatisfied and balkanised offshore island ?

[Old Hack]

If David Davis were leader today, do you think we would be better off, worse off or about the same in opinion poll standings?

[Margaret Wilson]

Questions need to be asked about the influence of Homosexuality in the Party.This subject worries me greatly and I do know that there are so many of them wielding a stick in the Party and following behind Mr Cameron that I think they are going to take power.

[michael]

We need to know the truth of Daves past relating to Drugs and Prostitution.Somebody does know something about him, and George, but are probably waiting for the bigger news Scoop.

[James Maskell]

Do you feel the Party is better, worse, or about the same since David Camerons election?

[Tory Loyalist]

One question I would be asking is why he has chosen to celebrate his anniversary by snubbing the CBI, pulling out of their conference at the last possible moment.

Personally I don't much like the "corporate state" style CBI or its thuggish-looking and thoroughly Politically Correct boss "Sir" Digby Jones, but if you want to get a reputation for tatally flaky unreliability tghis is the way to do it.

Curious how every one of Cameron's would-be "Clause 4 moments" rapidly morphs into a "Baseball Cap Moment"

[Jim Smith]

S1: Do you believe we can win the next GE?

S2: When speaking to Liberal or Labour supporters they give the impression that they are more likely to vote for us becuase of DC.

S3: In the past 12 months our party has been better led than Labour and LD.

S4: The shadow cabinet Ministers have buried personal ambition for the common cause.

[More to The Point]

What wouldn't Cameron say or do?

[Jorgen]

Do you like the tendency of replacing Conservative voters temporarily with former NuLab voters?

I'm for James Maskell's question too.

[malcolm]

Which policies from the Hague/IDS/Howard era will be kept?

[Richard Weatherill]

What has been the numerical change in membership of your local Association over the past 12 months?

How many times have you heard a disgruntled member say something along the lines of: "I'd join UKIP if they weren't such a bunch of nutters, but there's nowhere else to go."

[Tory Loyalist]

Which of our election-winning Labour-busting Thatcher-era policies will be kept?

[James Maskell]

It needs an apostrophe though..."David Cameron's election". Relative poverty of apostrophes...

What balance of presentation and policy do you think would be best for the Conservatives?(with a range from "mostly presentation", "equal amounts" to "mostly policy") By all means suggest improvements. Its a difficult one to phrase.

Maybe Im wrong here but I think the questions are to be asked of us at a later date, not of Cameron...

[bee]

rofl.

I love Maragaret Wilson!

The Tories are going to be taken over by a homosexual coup!

We are completely buggered.

[arthur]

Yes according to Margaret, if there's a big swing to the Tories, there won't be a seat safe in the country. 'Big sticks, following on behind' didn't used to write Carry On scripts did she?

[Og]

1. Would you be happy if the Conservative Party gained power by espousing socialist policies?

2. Would you be happy if, once in power, the Conservatives pursued those same socialist policies?

3. Do you think that the Conservatives can justifiably be called a party of the "centre-right", or are they now a left-leaning centre party?

[Mark Fulford]

A women-only question:

Under David Cameron has the Conservative Party become

A. More appealing
B. Same old
C. Less appealing

[Cllr Bruce Mackie]

I really am most concerned at the direction in which this Party is taking. We are now being perceived as being further to the left of Labour.We are of course receiving heaps of praise from the Guardian which is not surprising.All the (former) Tory papers are being less than supportive and that must tell us something.Anyone in this Party who disagrees with Mr Cameron and his acolytes is dismissed. I could go on and deal with that if anyone should care to ask.
I come from a family with a strong Tory background and have been a Cllr for 41 years and a Leader of a Conservative Group for 20 years following on from my late brother who had been a Group Leader for 15 years prior to that.My youngest son has twice stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Party so I do speak with some real concern for the future of this Party. I can say that for the first time in my political life,I am feeling that the Party has now abandoned all it's principles and what it stood for.I can assure you that I am not alone in thinking this way.I wonder if anyone in that place called CCHQ can give the members an idea of how many have left the Party recently or who have failed to renew their membership. The constituencies are now being led by the nose by CCHQ with veiled threats of losing their support unless they choose the candidates that CCHQ want. When I was a constiuency Chairman,I would not have worried at any such threat as it is impossible for CCHQ to fight an election without the wholehearted support of those on the ground.I have the feeling that it is manned by people who do not live in the real world. We have ceased to address the issues which people feel strongly about and now it is people like John Reid who are raising the stakes.If we do not tackle these sort of issues head on then we will not be taken seriously.

[alex]

Do you believe that David Cameron is correct to bring centre-right thinking to subjects such as:

(a) the environment
(b) work/life balance - "family life"
(c) poverty reduction

Would we be better off letting our oponents dominate these issues giving the impression we don't care about them?

[sjm]

Goodness, Ms Wilson, and there's quite a few Christian Evangelicals, and Jews, and heterosexuals, and - whisper it quietly - people with different colour skins influencing/infiltrating the Party. How terrifying, that we're actually representative of the mix of people in this country.

[Tory Loyalist]

How terrifying, that we're actually representative of the mix of people in this country.
______________________________________________________

How many dinner-ladies, charladies, roadsweepers and so forth hold leading roles in the party?

They don't, and won't, so stop talking such nonsense. The higher ranks of the Party remain, as always, the preserve of the prosperous middle classes.

For as long as I can remember homosexuals have been very well represented in the party and politics generally - probably because they have no family commitments to hold them back.

What I do want to see is a much bigger active Christian representation taking this party in a direction which will truly benefit our people and our country.

[David Cooper]

One reason for seeking power under the Conservative banner is simply to be a more competent manager of the current system, and not to take any material steps towards reducing the tax burden or reversing the steady erosion of personal freedom and the growth of government at all levels that the last nine years have seen. This might be labelled “accepting the Blairite settlement.”

An alternative is to pursue root and branch reform of the current system – many years ago this might have been described as “reversing the ratchet effect of socialism” but might now just as accurately be described as “dismantling the Blairite settlement.”

Leaving aside detailed timescales, where precisely do we stand between the two under our current leadership, and where in principle should we be aiming to stand?

[JA]

Who said I don't like him?

I don't think it's as simple as liking him or not liking him - I think part of his strategy is to deliberately repel a lot of people, but not permanently.

[JA]

A 'serious' question:

Was Cameron right to legitimise and emphasise climate change and the environment as a political issue?

[Jon Gale]

Nice to see the 76% who are satisfied with DC so well represented as usual :)

My suggested questions:

Do you agree with DC's "social responsibility" theme?.

Do you agree with DC raising environmental issues?
Would you like to see more technology-based solutions talked about?

Do you think that keeping people's mortgage rates low is of greater importance and effect than lowering taxes? (Bearing in mind that public borrowing increases interest rates)?

Do you agree with "sharing the proceeds of growth between public spending and reducing taxes"?

Do you like the sound of "We are developing a tax policy that puts stability first, simplifies taxes and reduces them when we can"?

[Mark Fulford]

I can say that for the first time in my political life,I am feeling that the Party has now abandoned all it's principles and what it stood for.

Under David Cameron the party has added some principles to its portfolio: work-life balance, the environment, representative Parliament and poverty. I can’t see anything it has abandoned that I would call “Tory”.

[TomTom]

ofl.

I love Maragaret Wilson!

The Tories are going to be taken over by a homosexual coup!

We are completely buggered.

Posted by: bee | November 27, 2006 at 10:28

Yes according to Margaret, if there's a big swing to the Tories, there won't be a seat safe in the country. 'Big sticks, following on behind' didn't used to write Carry On scripts did she?

Posted by: arthur | November 27, 2006 at 11:07

Childish comments and quite offensive really...........

[JA]

Also, was Cameron right to reverse (or at least significantly alter) his positions on marriage and the family, by explicitly declaring all relationship and familial configurations equally valid

[JA]

There are a lot of gays in the party; and not all of them are normal like IDale. Alan Duncan is a creep, for instance.

[Tory Loyalist]

I can’t see anything it has abandoned that I would call “Tory”.
____________________________________________________

Then your definition of "Tory" must be peculiarly idiosyncratic.

Down the centuries Tories have fought to preserves those national liberties and traditions which have developed “organically” in the body politic.

Embracing fashionable anti-freedom concepts such as Political Correctness and seeking to reposition the party to the left of the Socialists hardly counts as Toryism.

Who’s your ideal of a classical Tory Mr Fulford?

[bee]

Sorry TomTom, what's offensive, the mocking of Maragaret's bigoted, ridiculous views that homosexuals will all act as one and form some kind of secret homosexualist cult, as if they were spies from Russia, or the views themselves?

There is a lot of ridiculousness here,

"There are a lot of gays in the party; and not all of them are normal like IDale. Alan Duncan is a creep, for instance."

So? Alan Duncan is a creep because he's gay? Or is he a creep because he's a creep?There are plenty of creepy non-normal heterosexual MPs, what's the point of this statement?

[Cllr Bruce Mackie]

Mark,I think that you should have read the whole of my post. These matters which you say have been changed under David Cameron are worthy of attention and some are the type of issue that we would doing in any even.But apart from the environmental issues,are not those which are of the greatest of concern to the membership of this Party or for that matter,the Electorate at large. I have a real feeling that this Party has been taken over by an unrepresenative group of people who are more concerned with pleasing the minorities and abandoning the majority of members of the Party. If we don't win the next election and it's a big if,then there will be precious little left of the Party to build on.Before it is too late,we have got to turn our focus on to the real agenda and forget all this nonsense we seem to be obsessed with. I want to see a Tory Government elected but not one which really isn't Tory.We would be just as well with those who are in, making a mess of things.
All true Tory principles were those carried out during The Thatcher Gov when she did more for the 'poor' than any other PM.

[JA]

Alan Duncan is a creepy kind of homosexual. If he was heterosexual, he would no doubt be a creepy heterosexual. If he was a woman, a creepy one. A pensioner, a creepy one.

But the fact is he is a homosexual, and a creep; and since we were talking about gays in the party, this prominent gay, and his creepiness, seems to be relevant.

Whether or not gays are more or less likely to be creeps is something I didn't mention or gesture to at all.

[JA]

Btw, Margaret was being satirical.

[Editor]

We are way off subject folks and it's not attractive.

[Mark Fulford]

Mark,I think that you should have read the whole of my post.

I did, although it read more like a CV. I've also read the whole of your reply. Nowhere in either post do you give an example of a policy that has been abandoned - it's all nebulous "real agenda" stuff.

[Simon Chapman]

1) What has been David Cameron's biggest achievement/failing in Year 1
2) What aspect of DC's leadership have you been most pleased/disappointed by?
3) Do you agree with the broad thrust of DC's direction in relation to: (1) Tax (2) the environment (3) health (4) education ....etc etc
4) What issues are most important to you when deciding how you vote?
5) What issues do you believe are most important to the electorate in deciding how to vote?
6) If you could give 1 piece of advice to DC in 8 words or less, what would it be?

[Given Up]

Anyone who thinks either Al Gore or Polly Toynbee has anything sensible to say, is not a Tory.

[TimberWolf]

1. Which Party do you think Cameron should belong to?
2. Do you think Cameron took/takes drugs?
3. Should Cameron have his passport withdrawn while he is on a glacier/in Iraq/abroad?
4. Will Cameron go down as the Conservative Leader who destroyed his Party?

[malcolm]

Top marks to Simon Chapman for one of the few sensible posts on this thread.

[RobD]

1. Would you like to see more policies now and risk them being stolen by Labour or wait until the policy groups have done their work?

2. Which shadow minister has been the star performer over the last year?

3. Would you rather belong to a centre-right party in power or a right wing party in continual opposition?

[Cllr Bruce Mackie]

Mark ,Well I am gld you read my 1st post and to say that it was like a CV. Maybe so in your view but it is a CV that you are hardly likely to better. Yes,I am proud of my family's record of service and committment to the Conservative Party which goes a bit futher back than I outlined in that post. You see,Mark,I am a working class Tory who would not feel out of place in any class of society but maybe,I would not fit in or be comfortable with the plans of this new bunch who appear to be saying that your past record dosen't matter and that we have to accept these changes or do the other thing.Well maybe a lot will if this goes on. I

[JA]

Would you rather be a centre-right-of-centre-left party with a slim lead in the polls, or a committed conservative, right wing party with a huge lead - given, in part, by the millions of voters presently neglected by your thinner than thin policy platforms, and who don't bother to vote any more?

RobD - anyone can play this game.

[Og]

Is David Cameron's left-leaning approach:

1. Courageous, because he risks his career upon so great a re-positioning of the Conservative Party;

2. Cowardly, because it is so clearly an attempt to offer Blairism without its current greatest liabilty, Blair himself; or

3. Simply opportunistic, and likely to change when focus group feedback tells him that a move to the right is advisable or necessary?

[Pickwick]

It would be interesting to have a survey to see who would become leader of the Conservative Party if the members were given another chance to vote now.

[RobD]

JA - I can see your point but the last election would indicate that sounding more right wing than we currently do will turn off more voters in the centre than it will attract stay at home Conservatives. You may disagree with the way that Cameron is leading the party but after 3 bad defeats some would say it is time to support the leadership in doing what they feel is best, especially while the polls tell us we are moving in the right direction.

[Tory Loyalist]

We had two excellent leaders in Hague and Howard and the polls were at times just as favourable as they have been for Cameron, notwithstanding that Cameron has been leading the party at a time when Labour has been rudderless and seriously embarrassed.

I view a Cameron-led party with as much detestation as I do the Labour Party under Brown or Blair, and were it not for the excellence of my local Tory MP, who is also a longstanding personal friend, I would be tempted to withhold my vote altogether.

I believe that Cameron will lose, a view shared by several of his more sober supporters here. I will then expect him to follow the honourable example of his predecessors and resign.

The guiding slogan for the post-Cameron party should be "Never again!"