Peter Oborne asks the big question...

That is essentially the question posed by Peter Oborne during a lecture he gave to the Centre for Policy Studies last night (PDF here).

Drawing "lessons we can learn from the heroic example of Sir Keith Joseph" the Daily Mail journalists concludes with these words:

"I want to bring my speech to an end by quoting Margaret Thatcher on the occasion of the first Sir Keith Joseph Memorial Lecture. This is one of  the things she said:

“In politics, integrity really lies in the conviction that it’s only on the basis of truth that power should be won – or indeed can be worth winning.”

I think what Margaret Thatcher was saying here is that it does not pay to secure power through clever positioning or strategic alliances. That was the tragedy of New Labour – it was not honest about what it would do in office, which is why it failed as a government. David Cameron, I would guess, must be very straightforward with the British people. And that means putting out a much bleaker and tougher message of what he will do in power than he has tried to do so far."

My instinct is the more truth the better.  I've commissioned an opinion poll that attempts to get to the truth of this.  Not easy as you can't simply ask voters if they want the truth.  Results should be out very soon.

Tim Montgomerie

12.21pm: Just noticed that Jill Kirby has posted on this too.

Comments

[support the strivers]

Totally agree.

Candour connects.

This is why our little local difficulties with the likes of Mrs Spelman are SO incredibly damaging. All the work DC has been doing to earn the right to be heard is jeopardised when we come across as just as corrupt (sorry inadvertent use of a term) as the other bunch.

[John Broughton]

I'm sure that David Cameron will "level with us." However, only when we are rid of Brown and his incompetent government will we know the truth and, inevitably, it will be worse than anticipated.

[YourNameHere]

The "leveling" will be done at the start, then lots of spin etc will be used once they're in government. Politicians are politcians. They lie. All of them.

[griswold]

The voting public will accept the truth when it is two inches from their nose. For this reason they accepted as truth what Mrs T said.

The voting public will accept the truth from Mr Cameron because the disaster that is upon us is becoming more evident by the day.

However the early warning prophet is generally mocked by commentators and public alike.

That is the way it is. Logic is seconadary to emotion in politics. Hence the success of Clinton and Blair the two Great Seducers of our times.

[Jack stone]

I am afraid if you say to the British people that we will cut spending and put up taxes both of which probably needs to be done you will lose.
People need to be inspired to think things will get better not worse. You need to have a message that is responsible and doesn`t make promises you can`t keep but you will not win elections by asking the electorate to play the part of turkeys voting for christmas!!

[David Sergeant]

It is no good "leveling" with the electorate if other parties not only don't but use your honesty to attack you. NewLabour is built on dishonesty, the only thing it was good at was spin. You have got to remember anything said by a politician is seen by the public through the filter of the media.

E.g.,with the best will in the world (and we know BBC news would not have the best will in the world) the BBC confronted with Cameron saying we can't afford the present public service costs, they will approach Labour and repeat Labour's quote, say, "typical Tory smear at public services to provide any old excuse to cut them." Labour's version will be acompanied by statistics of the number of nurses to be cut etc. which the BBC will gleefully repeat.

William Hague once repeated Powell's observation that it is no good complaining about the media, it is just like the weather, you just put up with it. Oh so wrong, NewLabour was built on the manipulation of a willing media, until that is addressed talking about levelling and the truth is starry eyed burbling which, if anything, rebounds on the Tories in its implication that Cameron is not telling the truth.

[Malcolm Dunn]

I would agree with Oborne's sentiments. Politicians shouldn't lie, period.
But it is naive to believe that spin could end. It existed long before New Labour, even Mrs Thatcher adopted 'pragmatic' positions at times and her ministers could be 'economic' with the truth.
But as a general rule honesty is ALWAYS the best policy.

[Richard Calhoun]

Reading the comments so far it does appear to be giving little credit to the electorate.
People are not stupid, they are aware of the huge waste being carried out in the name of public spending.

The Tories have to spell out the waste in detail, and say what needs to go. Most people are taxpayers and they don't like waste, particularly of their money.

There are many things that the public would go with, and a good start would be to end the license fee and at the same time put up the BBC for sale. There are many ways to cut public expenditure without directly affecting the man in the street.
Would he mind if public expenditure to the arts etc was stopped -- NO

[Sally Roberts]

"Politicians are politcians. They lie. All of them."

A very broad-brush statement! In point of fact practically EVERY human being lies sometimes unless they wish to alienate and upset every other human being around them.

If your wife says to you "Does my bum look big in this?", do you always give her a truthful answer? You Foolish Man, if you do.....

[Tony Makara]

The very fact that we can even think our senior politicians won't tell the public the whole truth, should be grave cause for concern.

Do David Cameron and George Osborne even know the full extent of the problem? Let alone the policies needed to rebuild the economy? After all both men were all too eager to buy into the government's forecasts for growth.

I speak of rebuilding because that is what will be required now. There can be no Gordon Brown style quick-fix scenario of simply creating artificial liquidity and returning to the debt-lead growth that has created the problem in the first place.

We have to let the old bad-debt economy die and start anew, building a new economy that is balanced and produces the wages and working hours that allow us to dispense with overdrafts, tax-credits, and rebates.

An economy build on productivity not profligacy.

[onthejob]

"If your wife says to you "Does my bum look big in this?", do you always give her a truthful answer? You Foolish Man, if you do"

i usually tell mine it is the ten mars bars a day that make your bum look big! see spin
(i would nver say that to my wife)

[Richard Calhoun]

Tony Makara --We have to let the old bad-debt economy die and start anew

It won't die, unless debt is paid back it gets worse!!

[Opinicus]

We should offer hope.
Not under any circumstances a list of cuts or tax rises.

People need to be lied too. That is why politicians do it "all the time". Because politicians who don't do it are never heard from again.
Sad but true.

[Alex Swanson]

I am afraid if you say to the British people that we will cut spending and put up taxes both of which probably needs to be done you will lose.

Better to lose than to lie.

I appreciate that left-wing people (including some left-wing people in the Conservative Party) would not understand this.

[David Belchamber]

"I am afraid if you say to the British people that we will cut spending and put up taxes both of which probably needs to be done you will lose".

Is that why, Jack, Brown is going to lose, as he has announced that taxes will go up and he has already been cutting the number of hospital beds, rural post offices and reducing staff?

I was not aware that the conservatives had said they were going to cut services and put up taxes; I did get the bit about bearing down on Brown's mountain of debt and attacking his waste but David Cameron promised to ringfence certain essential services.

[Richard Calhoun]

There is no way taxes can go up, we are overtaxed already.

There is huge waste to be cut and it needs spelling out very carefully.

Any politician who tries to lie his way out of this one will come very badly unstuck

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper]

Look, the whole point is it's not a zero sum game.

Moving education, welfare and health management to administration by mutual societies and bringing in pay as you go, long term tax efficient saving to replace NI contributions will do a lot.

It would be nice to give the guns, securocrats and eurocrats a rest too. That would save a surprising amount and improve civil liberties too.

It's not all hopeless if the Tories engage brain but that means that is a depressing requirement isn't it?!

[Tony Makara]

Richard, we have to be prepared to let bad business fall. The government's attempt to buck the recession by creating artificial liquidity is going to extend the life of debt, weaken our currency and will eventually lead to inflation.

We have to make stark choices and accept that areas of our economy have been propped up with debt and now need to die off.

This will also give us an opportunity to re-balance our economy, to do so more quickly, moving away from services and towards the productive sectors like manufacturing. Sectors that are larger and can be powered by productivity, thus more able to weather shortfalls in cashflow in contrast to the smaller services industries which are too dependent on debt.

[David Belchamber]

"Do David Cameron and George Osborne even know the full extent of the problem? Let alone the policies needed to rebuild the economy?"

I am afraid both Tony and I have our hobby horses, and mine at the moment is: "before you can begin to confront a problem, you have to know exactly what the problem is including its size".

If DC and GO try to tackle an unemployment problem believing Brown's spin that it is currently running at about 1.97 million, they are in for a very nasty schock when the real figure, as Frank Field so conveniently cofirmed recently, is something like 5.3 million.

We have already had the fallout of Brown's light (and also incompetent) regulation of the banks when combined with the easy availability of credit over a period of years as a result of trying to control an artificially low rate of inflation.

Neither of these factors can really be blamed on America.

Brown got away with false figures for knife crime for quite a while but the ONS squared up to him and indicated a disturbing increase.

Yes, I do think politicians should be a lot more honest - and the conservatives could start with their own expenses (though some of them won't like that very much).

[Jack Stone]

Of course taxes will have to go up. The alternative is that the government would have to cut spending by such an amount that you would destroy public services.
The cuts that Brown is making is nothing that will I am sure be made by the Conservative Party and I am sure that when it comes to it frontline services will be cut. I`m afraid I do not believe that when it comes to it the leadership will have the courage to spare the NHS and other essential services from cuts and put up taxes. The party will not allow it.

[Alex Swanson]

The party will not allow it.

Reality wouldn't allow it, more likely.

Do you really think that the govt can just spend as much as it likes, and it can always just raise more taxes to pay for it? Do you really think the private sector is an infinite source of wealth which can just be tapped at will for as much as is ever wanted?

Think again. There are limits, and even Brown is realising that those limits have already been reached.

[Super Blue]

Draper-Stone,

That is a falsehood on your part and you know it. You know that the Conservative Party has a firm policy of not cutting services.

[Lexi]

Excuse me. If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
I am from Kuwait and learning to write in English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "Upcoming groups jerry decesarea human flea infestation because pets yeast, vitamin or garlic will prevent flea infestation."

Thanks :o. Lexi.

[Dick]

Good evening. I don't like composers who think. It gets in the way of their plagiarism.
I am from Cape and also now am reading in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "Cat flea abstract en cat flea ctenocephalides felis bouche gale."

With best wishes 8), Dick.

[Lilo]

How are you. What other dungeon is so dark as one's own heart! What jailer so inexorable as one's self!
I am from Botswana and know bad English, give true I wrote the following sentence: "New once a month flea products from your veterinarian work well enough and fast."

Thanks for the help :p, Lilo.