Conservative MPs crowded into the Betty Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House yesterday for the first (possibly second?) of their new open fora on the future of the Party.
Steve Hilton of Michael Howard's inner team - one of the architects of the General Election campaign - told MPs about the perception challenges that still stand between Conservatives and Downing Street. His remarks came on the day when Francis Maude told the FT that the Conservatives were only a tenth of the way back to power.
One of Mr Hilton's conclusion was that the Tories were still seen (particularly by target voters) as selfish and ruthless but, said the marketing guru, we must no longer allow people to say that we're nasty. The difference between being selfish and ruthless on the one hand, and nasty on the other, wasn't explained.
14th May coda: see Steve Hilton (II).
Maybe Mister Maude was inspired by your "ten more heaves" post!
Posted by: James Hellyer | 18 May 2005 at 10:39
Really, the choice of next conservative leader is plainly obvious.
It has to be Boris Johnson.
http://www.boris-johnson.com
Posted by: Brian Turner | 18 May 2005 at 20:42
Francis Maude is perfectly right when he says that the party still as a mountain to climb to get back to power. Anyone who thinks power is just around the corner when the party still as less MP`s than Michael Foot had after the 1983 is frankly a fool.
The party will only be able to get to the summit of this mountain if it puts the public services before tax cuts and starts talking with enougth compassion and care to convince people that it as changed and really does care more about those in need than giving those who have tax cuts.
Posted by: Jack Stone | 19 May 2005 at 12:04
"The party will only be able to get to the summit of this mountain if it puts the public services before tax cuts"
Puts public service REFORM before tax cuts, maybe. Simply pouring money into the current structures does not improve services as experience under ZaNu Labour shows
"and starts talking with enougth compassion and care to convince people that it as changed and really does care more about those in need than giving those who have tax cuts."
What about tax cuts for the least well off?
Posted by: James Hellyer | 19 May 2005 at 13:02
Who is saying tories are nasty? The guardian? greenpeace? heres the news; no matter what the tory party does or says, some people will always hate it, and there's no point trying to reach out to them. Theres a few swing voters that decide elections, and thats it. And theyre not the ones calling the tory party 'nasty'. Personally i cringe when tories speak about public services. It's not what tories are there for. I mean, last election - Matrons in hospitals - what was all that about? Parties that win elections present a vision of a better future, and the best the tories could come up with was Matrons in Hospitals? Hardly election winning stuff.
Posted by: | 15 September 2005 at 20:18