Year2(3): Neutralise Brown

Recommendation 3: According to yesterday's Times 66% of voters do not believe that David Cameron has put a stop to “the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster: the name-calling, backbiting, point-scoring and finger-pointing”.  Part of the reason for this might be the fact that both David Cameron and George Osborne have been guilty of some pretty obvious 'Punchy and Judy' politics (see here and here).  The Tory leadership need to be above personal attack and handwriting analysis.  More attention needs to be focused on the Chancellor's dismal record (economic competitiveness, the tax burden, social justice and waste).  Going forward Gordon Brown is likely to emphasise security, The Union, housing and skills.  Two of David Cameron's most capable frontbenchers hold the housing and skills portfolios - Michael Gove and John Hayes.  Strong policies in both of those areas  will be vital to neutralising Brown's likely appeal.

Comments

[Serf]

Gordon needs to be neutralised as priority #1. But with angel faced George as Shadow Chancellor, thats a little difficult.

[George Hinton]

To neutralise Brown, one only needs to keep reminding people of the Pensions grab and how the collataral has been the loss for many, of final salry pension schemes and a pensions crisis in this country, once admired for having an envaible pensions policy and record.
Then slip in the background of stealth taxes, mention the nuclear timebomb of PFI and then the scandal of the Smith Institute, its funding, its use of No:11 as a meeting place for fund raisers and its policy for hire or rent attitude.
Gordo is just as corrupt and mendacious as Toni, but as he normally blathers on about economics and sends everyone to sleep, he's not seen in the same light as B-Liar.
The alternative would be to fly to Moscow and have a little heart to heart with Putin and get him to send some friends over, to help out of course, perhaps they could get jobs with Rentokil as cover...oops.

[Og]

... and also remind them that the big gloomy one was The Man Who Sold the Gold at the low point of the cycle, George.

[malcolm]

And also mention that Brown is a deeply dishonest man. Peter Obornes book the The Rise Of Political Lying provides several reference plus the small print of virtually every budget he has delivered.

[David Cooper]

How about a PPB based upon Jeff Randall's superb recent portrayal of Brown as The Clunking Fist? Sweet revenge for Dave the Chameleon!

[HF]

Michael Gove was brilliant in the GLA debate.

Maybe he needs to cut down on his other work and focus on politics?

The danger is that he may advocate a massive house building exercise on the green belt.

That would be another Toynbee moment and finish off our chances in Lib Dem southern marginals.

[matt wright]

Agreed, we need to get even more focused on this. We need discipline, all PR and comment should include references to 2 or 3 failures by Gordo eg pensions,

Matt

[David Sergeant]

One of the problems with Nulab, Blair and Brown, is that they are so dishonest, so corrupt, so incompetent and so anti-democratic that simply stating the truth requires words which seem extreme and, therefore, come out as Punch and Judy politics. It is also worth pointing out that they, and the Lib/Dems, are so inculcated in this type of politics that they try to smear the Conservatives with the same attributes. E.g. the chameleon campaign, it didn’t work, but nevertheless “chameleonism” was the fundamental basis of Blairism. We have to be careful with this winging about Punch and Judy otherwise we will be permanently hamstrung. To use a wartime analogy, it is as if we decided to not bomb German cities even though they were bombing ours.

[David Sergeant]

And while I think on, Brown's tax budget is really Punch and Judy. As Labour MPs think, Brown has "shot the Tories foxes". Brown wasn't trying to run a country's budget he was (probably desparately) trying to score political points with Labour back benchers. To call it a "con" is missing the target; it is a cheap trick from a desparate and corrupt politician using the power of the state. Trouble is that does sound a bit Punch and Judy.