10/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Cameron needs a new big message

By Tim Montgomerie
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With the exception of "the grand bargain" and the idea of a Bruges-sized EU speech today's 'Rebooting series' has been focused on the mechanics of governing, especially personnel matters. Let me end, however, by returning to the big picture from which every thing else flows.

The biggest barrier between the Conservative Party and floating voters is the sense - polled by Lord Ashcroft - that we are a party for the haves rather than the have nots. George W Bush and Cameron both understood this and both crafted more compassionate brands of conservatism. Polling suggests Cameron is failing to change perceptions of the party. That's a shame because (for reasons I summarised this morning) he has delivered real and significant pro-poor changes. We are still, however, seen as too close to the wealthy and big business. This is partly because the sum of Cameron's efforts is smaller than the parts. They don't add up to anything resonant. Cameron's way of communicating a kinder, gentler Conservative Party - the Big Society - is very poorly understood. In fact it is electorally impotent.

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9/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Repairing relations with hostile centre right newspapers

By Tim Montgomerie
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The daily newslinks are the bread and potatoes of ConHome. Every morning that I'm on duty I start looking at the papers from about 5.30am. One of the big things that has been noticeable in recent weeks is a further deterioration in how the Big Four centre right newspapers* are covering the Coalition...

• The Sun is unhappy with the Coalition on defence - especially the military covenant and Afghanistan, crime, immigration petrol tax, trade unions and Europe. Last week it mocked Cameron up as Neville Chamberlain. Ouch. It is one of the more interesting changes on Fleet Street that The Sun isn't showing the same loyalty to Cameron that it showed to Thatcher and Blair when it had endorsed them. Perhaps that's a function of the Coalition. Perhaps it's a reflection of Murdoch's unhappiness with Cameron. Whatever the truth, the newspages of Britain's best-selling daily are as likely to be critical of the government as positive.
• The Telegraph is unhappy on defence, Europe, regulation of the City, the 50p tax, HS2 and planning reform. It now posseses a formidable line of political columnists across its daily and Sunday titles. Boris Johnson on Monday, Mary Riddell on Tuesday, Benedict Brogan on Wednesday, Peter Oborne on Thursday, Fraser Nelson on Friday, Charles Moore on Saturday and Janet Daley and Matthew d'Ancona on Saturday. Amazingly only one - d'Ancona - could be said to be reliably pro-Cameron. Telegraph blogs are not as critical as they once were but still, on balance, negative.
• The Mail's complaints against the Coalition include Europe (inevitably) but also crime, overseas aid, the family and, interestingly of late, climate change and green taxes. Last week it joined with The Sun to push MigrationWatch's ePetition calling for stricter immigration controls. RightMinds, the new comment section of the paper, has recruited voices who are definitely to the right of Cameron. The Mail's new Saturday political columnist is Simon Heffer. Enough said.
• The Express is seemingly unhappy about everything the Coalition is doing but especially human rights laws and Europe. Its lead political columnist, Patrick O'Flynn, is - shall we say - adversarial in his view of the Coalition.

In a list of the Coalition's vulnerabilities this hostility must be in the top three.

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8/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Embracing internet-based politics

By Tim Montgomerie
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The Conservative Party should be relaunched as the Conservative Alliance. Conservative HQ should see itself more like the Republican National Committee in the US, as the central facilitator of other groups rather than the thing itself. The Conservative Alliance would include networks of small business groups, campaigning local websites, and higher investment in relationship groups like Conservative Friends of International Development, and the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Peer-to-peer

Inside CCHQ there should be a Department for External Relations that would manage the Tory Party’s most important relations with third party groups. The, say, 1,000 most important faith leaders, charity groups, thought leaders, business tycoons and commentators would be gold ticketed by this Department and fully involved in the development and transmission of policy. Baroness Berridge wrote about this obsession of mine yesterday.

Within these reforms party members would be given a higher status in the party/ Alliance with significant rewards and benefits. This would include a less corporate party conference and less interference in constituency selection meetings.

I intend to develop this idea on MajorityConservatism.com in coming days.

> The ninth part of this series will appear at 6.30pm: Media strategy.

7/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Whipping and rations

By Tim Montgomerie
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This is the most rebellious parliament on record for such a young government. This is far from being all the fault of Team Cameron. Last week I described the rise of the "supercharged backbencher" and listed the many factors that explained why we are seeing a much more independent parliamentary party. This is what I wrote for The Guardian:

"Many Tory MPs feel at least as loyal to their party's manifesto as to the coalition agreement and they are forming groups to advance their concerns on crime, tax, Lords reform and other issues that motivate the Conservative base. Given the phalanx of Liberal Democrat ministers, Cameron has fewer frontbench positions with which to reward MPs. Tory MPs have noticed and concluded that they might as well focus on the concerns of their marginal constituencies. This is especially true for those facing difficult boundary reselections."

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6/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: A regular gathering of the big beasts

By Tim Montgomerie
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Would it be sensible if once a month or once a quarter the bigger beasts in the Conservative Party met together to discuss the progress of the Coalition, new policy ideas and entertained interesting and innovative guest speakers?

Membership could include the Prime Minister, Chancellor, Party Chairman, Chairman and representatives of the 1922, someone from the Association of Conservative Peers, the Chairman of the National Conservative Convention, the Tory leader of the LGA, Martin Callanan MEP, Andrew R T Davies, Ruth Davidson and a few big beasts like Michael Howard, David Davis and John Redwood.

> In the seventh part of the series at 3.30pm: More carrots, less sticks

5/10 Rebooting Project Cameronism: A new Tory Chairman who can fight for the PM in the media and coordinate election campaigning

By Tim Montgomerie
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Traditionally the Chairman has been one of the most important jobs in the Conservative Party. The Chairman connects the party in the country to the parliamentary party and leadership. The Chairman informs the leader of the party's mood. The Chairman appears on the likes of the Today programme and Newsnight to defend the Prime Minister and government policy. The greatest Chairmen in recent times have been Cecil Parkinson, Norman Tebbit and Chris Patten.

The current Tory Chairmen are Lord (Andrew) Feldman and Baroness (Sayeeda) Warsi. Lord Feldman is a long-term friend of the Prime Minister and is the party's effective CEO. Warsi has scored notable achievements since being enobled - especially when she confronted the BNP's Nick Griffin on BBC1's Question Time. Overall, however, she doesn't do what a Party Chairman should be doing. She has little connection with the parliamentary party and enjoys little support from the Tory grassroots. 36% of all Tory members are satisfied with her performance but 52% are not. That makes her the second most under-performing Tory member of the current Cabinet.

Cameron needs a big hitter as Party Chairman. That person should have the confidence of the grassroots and parliamentary party and can be the voice of the Conservative Party (ie not necessarily the Coalition) in the media. They probably shouldn’t even be in Cabinet so they can carve out a position separate from the alliance with the Liberal Democrats. The Chairman's focus should be Conservative morale, campaigning and preparations for a Tory majority at the next election. Any ideas who that person should be?

> In the sixth part of this series at 2.30pm: A new political committee that assembles the party's big beasts

4/10: Rebooting Project Cameron: An outward-looking 10 Downing Street

By Tim Montgomerie
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In the previous blogpost I looked at the need for a more balanced Tory frontbench. The Prime Minister also needs a more balanced team at Number 10 Downing Street.

Within his inner circle we have Ed Llewellyn, a chief of staff who is very committed to the European project. There's pollster Andrew Cooper, an uber-moderniser with a confrontational history towards the grassroots. Steve Hilton has Thatcherite instincts but has few connections with the parliamentary party or Conservative movement. The new speechwriter Julian Glover is gifted but he comes from The Guardian. He's a Liberal Conservative. Then there's Craig Oliver, the BBC man who replaced Andy Coulson. Craig has no history of any connections to the Conservative Party. Each of these individuals have real gifts but taken together they explain why Cameron has become detached from the rest of the Conservative Party. When the team is next refreshed he should be looking to bring in people with excellent connections across the party and with high level experience of running teams. Five names that would be on my list would be Charles Moore, Jonathan Hill, Sir Stephen Sherbourne, Charles Lewington and George Bridges.

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3/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: A reshuffle that recognises the breadth of the Conservative family

By Tim Montgomerie
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This is what I write in this morning's Times (£):

"David Cameron has never tried party management, preferring party control. He has acted as a presidential Il Duce rather than as a prime ministerial first among equals. He has marginalised alternative voices — stuffing the front bench, his No 10 private office, the House of Lords and Tory HQ with über-loyalists."

I've described this process in more detail on a previous occasion. I continue:

"Mr Cameron calculated that he could get away with this. He thought that his alliance with the Liberal Democrats protected him from rebellious elements within his own party. He miscalculated. He underestimated the extent to which the new intake of Tory MPs is ideologically Conservative and constituency-focused rather than instinctively careerist."

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2/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Cameron needs to tell Britain where he stands on Europe

By Tim Montgomerie
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Until recently the team around the Prime Minister doubted the strength and urgency of sceptical feeling inside the Conservative Party. This wasn’t just to do with the Liberal Democrats. In opposition the Implementation Unit under Francis Maude was specifically forbidden from examining EU reform. Hague regarded Europe as an unexploded bomb that sat in the middle of the room as a leftover from previous wars. He believed it should not be touched unless it detonated. Two weeks after the biggest rebellion on Europe in parliamentary history doubts about the continuing explosiveness of Tory scepticism have been well and truly dispelled.

Cameron needs to tell the country where he stands on Europe. He needs to give a big Bruges-style speech (in fact he should go back to the place where Margaret Thatcher made her landmark address) and set out the kind of Europe he envisages. Noone knows at present where he really stands.

A speech won't be enough, of course. Sadly, his party doesn't trust his resolve on renegotiation. He can cure this with inclusiveness and a timetable. By inclusive he needs to establish a kind of internal ideas market for his backbenchers on EU reform – including the foreign affairs committee of the 1922 and the Fresh Start Group. Paul Goodman has already proposed one way of achieving this. People like Andrew Lilico (and his ideas for renegotiation) should also be included. The PM's EU agenda also needs a timetable. Vague promises of reforming jam tomorrow won't work.

The Liberal Democrats won't necessarily like this but I argued earlier that, as part of a Grand Bargain, Cameron needs to buy room for him to have freedom on Europe (and the economy). If, ultimately, any EU renegotiation is subject to a referendum, Clegg can't object too much. Can he?

> In the third part of this series at 11am: A reshuffle that brings the party together

1/10 Rebooting Project Cameron: Cameron needs to renew his Grand Bargain with Clegg

By Tim Montgomerie
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Like John Major’s government this government is doing very good things. Michael Gove’s school reforms could be as significant as Michael Howard’s prison reforms. Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms are set to be more far-reaching than Peter Lilley’s social security reforms. Eric Pickles’ localism bill will be as big as the regeneration policies of Heseltine and Curry.

But there are unflattering comparisons too.

Cameron’s government is beset by many of the same problems after 18 months that the last Conservative-led government suffered after 18 years. The scale of backbench rebellion. The violence of language between Downing Street and Eurosceptic backbenchers. The relentless hostility of the centre right press. The lack of a political narrative. The sense that, because of factors beyond its control, this is a government that is in office but not in power.

What can be done? During today I'll be suggesting ten things that might help this Government and the Conservative Party, in particular, to recover its initial momentum and sense of purpose.

1/10 A second Grand Bargain between David Cameron and Nick Clegg

At the beginning of the Coalition the critics of hung parliaments were briefly confounded. Rather than a lowest common denominator arrangement the Coalition possessed ambition. The Liberal Democrats gave the green light to deficit reduction, serious reform of the welfare state and elected police chiefs. Mr Cameron agreed, in return, to Mr Clegg’s plan to take the low-paid out of income tax and for extra money for inner-city schools. The Tories got new constituency boundaries. The Lib Dems got a vote on AV.

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