Eric Pickles gears up to lovebomb the Liberal Democrats (again and again and again)

Eric Pickles will be getting his night's rest on a Sleeper train to Cornwall.  After an evening speaking engagement he's heading towards the South West for a tour of Conservative-Liberal marginals.  His day begins at 7.30am tomorrow with a breakfast engagement in Truro and it's a full day of meetings thereafter.  An aide to the new Party Chairman tells me that this visit communicates two of the big themes that Eric Pickles wants to characterise his tenure at CCHQ: graft (he promises to match the sacrifice of volunteers) and a focus on the LibDems.  With opinion polls pointing towards a perhaps decisive increase in the Tory lead some party strategists are recommending a significant shift of battleground resources into unseating Liberal Democrat MPs.  Eric Pickles is a big advocate of the lovebombing* tactic.   

Tim Montgomerie

* After years of unsuccessfully trying to scare people from voting LibDem (because, for example, of their strong pro-Europeanism, their social permissiveness or 'soft' approach to crime), the Tories decided that it was better to flatter them and appear to agree with them on key issues. The love-bombing strategy was partly a result of fears that negative campaigning against the LibDems risked reinforcing voters' perceptions of the Conservatives as mean-spirited rather than affecting voters' perceptions of the 'nice' LibDems.

Comments

[rugfish]

Love bombs?
Flattery?
"Appearing to agree"?

ERIC PICKLES?

lolololololololololololol

I can see it now.

"Look, we're alright really mate, we've got so much in common dontcha know", Hey up, fancy a pint"? - "Oh, you're a sherry drinker"? "Yes, I like sherry too, my mam always used to make us drink sherry at Christmas, love it I do", "What"?, "You're an atheist you say"? - "Yes well, I could be an atheist too if I didn't believe in Jesus and didn't think you were a twonk"?, "Anyway, we're all individuals really aren't we and that's just how it should be isn't it"...."Oops, mind that dog shit there mate, you nearly stepped in that", "Shit for luck eh, so they say".....Vote Tory, we're the party to put it all right, vote Tory, vote Tory !!!

Here love are you voting Tory this year ?

[Andrew S]

A fine idea and good luck to him!

[Mark Fulford]

Whose daft definition of love-bombing is that?

Love-bombing is simply about 1) showing people you care about them and 2) focusing on things that bring you together rather than things that drive you apart.

Tim, are you really saying that the Tories have made a cynical decision to disguise(lie about) Tory beliefs?

[snegchui]

Well they are more Cleggite down there, aren't they? More susceptible to sliding to the Tory rather than to supporting Gordon.
Good luck to him and I hope he makes the best of the duality of the LibDems to work in Tory favour.

[StevenAdams]

Erm, Mark Fulford, I think you've got the wrong love bombing...

[Bernard from Horsham]

Any more news on this poll "rumour"???

[james]

What poll rumour?

[Hawkeye]

James said: "What poll rumour?"

There is, supposedly, a poll on the way that shows a 16 point lead for the tories.

[Graeme Archer]

I still disagree with Tim's definition of love-bombing. I don't believe it is about cosying up to more than the obvious handful of lib dem mps. It's about love-bombing their voters, most of whom are the decent Tory class that at some point in the 90s we decided it would be better to scare off. You (imho) consistently under-estimate the impact that image has on many voters. That they then indulge in post hoc rationalisation to convince themselves they were never Tories in the first place is empirically demonstrated by all those depressing opinion polls we used to see that showed massive majorities agreeing with Tory policy until they were revealed to be just that- Tory. One of the major achievements of David Cameron has been to reverse that. This is love-bombing. Mr Pickles will be brilliant at it.

[Mark Fulford]

StevenAdams, please enlighten me then.

[Cleethorpes Rock]

It's not just in Libido Dem marginals that this could be useful.

In our constituency, the Liberals polled 6,437 votes. We need to overturn a Labour majority of 2,642. Even siphoning off a few Liberals can help us erode that majority before we start adding on ex-Labour voters.

It's not about us faking Liberal policies, but rather stressing that on issues such as Civil liberties, MPs' expenses, localised government and internationalist outlook, there will be many moderate "Orange Book" liberal voters who are closer to us than Labour.

I also think we need to consider "tactical unwind" In some seats this may well favour Labour as Iraq becomes less of an issue, but in others there may be a "get Brown out" premium that we need to tap into. Eric Pickles knows how to do that.

[jamie]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN.

[Steve Foley]

I do not support parties who are all things to all men and I am disappointed and surprised that Eric Pickles should be party to this. If the Lib-Dems are wrong in Reading then they are equally wrong in Redruth.

The Conservative Party should be declaring the same polices for all of the country. I can accept that there are local and regional issues which may need to be emphasised, Fishing Quotas are likely to have more relevance in Grimsby than in Golder's Green but the core Tenets and Principles should not be sold into relativism, that is the practice of Labour and the Lib-Dems to face both ways.

[South West London Activist]

It is imperative we win back our former seats lost to the Yellow Peril, but can someone explain why the Yellow Peril’s consistent negative campaigning often results in them “winning here” – whereas if Conservatives try and give the Yellow Peril a taste of their proverbial medicine, it backfires?

[john kramer]

Eric is not up to speed with the tactics to deal with the liberals. perhaps because he has just been appointed. He needs to understand how the target seats team at CCHQ masterminded the tactics against the liberals in Henley and obtained a swing towards the Tories in the process. Eric was nowhere in sight!!!!

[Michael]

If today's result in Bexley isn't enough of a wake up call to the Conservative Party that it is losing the support of average white Britain's I don't know what is. Keep going along with socialist Labour Party policies and see how you do this June.

[Fredrik Ingemarsson]

Go get them, Mr Pickles !!!!

[Sally Roberts]

"It's about love-bombing their voters, most of whom are the decent Tory class that at some point in the 90s we decided it would be better to scare off."

Absolutely right, Graeme, and this is why I too think Eric will be brilliant at it.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I guess we'll see what Eric Pickles means with his lovebombing in the next day or two. I certainly hope it doesn't mean compromising any of our core beliefs but if it simply means highlighting those areas where we agree with (decentralisation, commitment to civil liberties etc) then fine.
We have not been successful in the South West for some years and we have to understand why.

[Steve Foley]

From 1969 till 1994 I was an active Tory supporter, twice a Local Councillor. Now I know I am old fashioned but in those days the Conservative Party, be it at Local Council or Westminster level, set out its stall on certain key principles although of course some Candidates would have differing opinions for example Teddy Taylor on the Right and David Knox on the Left. Nevertheless there was a set of policies and these were put to the Electorate. On that basis Heath won in 1970, Thatcher in 1979, 1983 and 1987, and Major in 1992.

Now it seems that the Conservatives are something different in each area, and that win at all costs is the principle. The Lid-Dems clothing will be borrowed in the West Country, NIMBYS backed in the south-west London seats and we even hear on this website of "Red Toryism" no doubt to appeal to the Guardian and Independent reading intelligentsia in the gentrified areas of some of our cities.

This is a recipe for chaos and I can see it snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Tim Montgomerie]

Graeme Archer: "I still disagree with Tim's definition of love-bombing. I don't believe it is about cosying up to more than the obvious handful of lib dem mps."

I didn't say it was.

Graeme: "It's about love-bombing their voters."

Agreed.

[David Sergeant]

Personally I would have thought Pickles would have more affect in northern Labour marginals.

[WHS]

That's a poor and cynical definition of lovebombing indeed.

People vote Lib Dem because, rightly or wrongly, they feel Lib Dems (activists, councillors, MPs - they know the frontbench will never be the Government) care about the little but important issues and will try to help. Usually that is because Lib activists do do this sort of thing - the Euro position and all the rest of it is secondary.

We can only lovebomb Lib voters - not by pretending we care too - but by actually being community campaigners ourselves and sorting out people's issues. Isn't that what we go in for in politics.

If we don't actually care about helping others - are obsessed instead with Euro-issues and the rest of it - then no amount of lipstick and sparkle will hide it or bring in Lib voters.

[Shaun Bennett]

Fine, as long as this strategy is not designed to get Lib Dem support for a minority or coalition government after the election.

I could never support a party that pledged to give the Lib Dems what they want on electoral reform, and I hope that Cameron will completely rule out ANY negotiation on that subject for either westmineter or local government.

Indeed, the Tories should be pleging to introduce FPTP in place of all the electoral systems that have been introduced since 1997.

[Tristan Downing]

If only we could have a peace treaty with the Lib Dems whereby we didn't excessively attack each other until election time. We could both disagree with each other openly but make no negative attacks for politic's sake. Both parties could focus on destroying Labour. The Tories would have a massive win at the next election, and maybe the Lib Dems could make it to second place. After that, we could go back to attakcs as usual. Regardless of the clear policy differences, both parties would be better off after the destruction of Labour. I know it's a mad idea and would never happen. Its a shame.

[A bloke in Wakefield]

Eric promised me that he would come out canvassing with me at some point.

Now he is Chairman I am going to hold him to it.

Brilliant appointment. Just what we needed.

[South West London Activist]

Tristan Downing – the problem is I think it most unlikely that the Yellow Peril want to destroy the Comrades. The YPs often act as Comrade ‘lite’, and don’t forget they propped up the Comrades in the Mickey MacMouse Parliament before the SNP victory.

As for the YPs not making any negative attacks – I cannot see that happening – ever.

And “WHS” has obviously fallen for YP lies – they only care about themselves – and getting elected.

[Mark Fulford]

If only we could have a peace treaty with the Lib Dems whereby we didn't excessively attack each other until election time.

From the Lib Dem point of view, this would be the wrong tactic. It is beyond doubt that Labour will haemorrhage votes in the next election. The real fight, therefore, is between Conservatives and Lib Dems about where the old Labour votes go.

[Tristan Downing]

The LibDems should realise that without seeking to destroy Labour, their chances of moving to second place is pretty low. LibDems have to fight the Tories for Labour's lost voters, but the more both the Tories and LibDems attack Labour, the more voters there will be to soak up. I hope Labours core commies will decide to stay at home on election day. It is mad that the LibDems would rather talk up Labour policies than try to advance their own party. Have you ever seen a more limp wristed lot?

[m wood]

The really important point we need to 'put across' is that the ONLY way to get rid of this failed government is to vote Conservative. This is an increasingly unpopular government but the danger is that the disenchanted will say "I'm not sure I trust the Tories so I'll vote LibDem". We need to convince them that they will be stuck with this Government unless the vote Conservative.

[Alex Swanson]

"decent Tory class that at some point in the 90s we decided it would be better to scare off."

I am getting so tired of having to point out the wrongness of this sort of comment.

Nobody, ever, tried to "scare off" any voters. What happened was that the leadership - and I'm talking about the Parliamentary Party in general here, especially senior MPs - decided that they really didn't want to be tied down to anything resembling principle. So they stopped believing in anything (except that they were all Jolly Good Chaps who really ought to be in power, doncherknow) and hence stopped providing the electorate with any explanation of what the Tory Party stood for. So Labour and its friends in the media did so instead. It was all lies, but it was, and still is, completely unopposed.

And just for completeness:
(1) As has been pointed out above, it is simply not true that Tory policies were unpopular. It was the people at the top of the party who were unpopular. This bears constant repetition, because it is a core part of the Cameron strategic approach that exactly the opposite is claimed to be the case.
(2) As I have also pointed out many many times, the recovery in Conservative fortune over the last couple of years is demonstrably nothing whatever to do with Cameron. He just happened to be the leader holding the parcel when Labour's music stopped.

[Mark Fulford]

The LibDems should realise that without seeking to destroy Labour, their chances of moving to second place is pretty low.

But a landslide Conservative win does not help the Lib Dems. They would remain at the margins. If they've got any sense, and I suspect they have, Lib Dems are playing for a hung Parliament, where they're suddenly disproportionately powerful. They want the Labour vote to hold up just enough.

[Patch]

The thought of being love bombed by Eric Pickles is just too horrific to contemplate. I now have an image in my mind of this "Tory heavyweight" throwing himself at poor unsuspecting Liberal Democrats. Yeugh!!

[Paul]

My god, its staggering how many LimpDims comment on this site.
Foley for god sake exactly what you expouse is what the god damm Liberals doo, all over the country, pander to all and have no idea what they want and when the do get IT (power - god help us)they ALL do the startled Bunny syndrome 'oh what do we do now'.
The god damm Liberals hate us doing what they continue to do all time, if you dont like having it done back to you dont do it in the first place!

[Steve Foley]

I have been accused of being many things in my time but a LIBERAL?????????