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« Elsewhere on conservativehome.com | Main | Hustings Report (1): Leicester »

Comments

Selsdon Man

What did Cameron say on the subject this morning?

Barbara Villiers

What a bunch of bunkum!

Selsdon Man

Bunch of bunkum? A load surely!

 Ted

No I think its just "bunkum" as in "what bunkum" - not a bunch of nor a load of -

Representative Felix Walker from Buncombe County, North Carolina gave a rambling speech ...refused to yield the floor, informing his colleagues that his speech was not intended for Congress, but that he must "make a speech for Buncombe." It became a widely retold joke in Washington, and the word was used to refer to any bombastic political posturing.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bunkum"

loyal_tory

Whatever. Surely the truth is that we need the Cameron-style opposition to Labour combined with Davis-style substance on policy. The question is: Will we get both?

i find it likely that Davis 'won' the leicester husting this morning.I am from this area and the 'common touch' would always appeal to the members from leicesterhire with most of the population being working class.I myself am a Cameron supporter and understand why people from leicester might have found him rather posh,and lets just say 'leicester dont do posh'as you can imagine.I look foward to seeing the details of the husting tommorow,as sadly i was unable to attend!

Cllr Iain Lindley

Whatever happened to "thou shalt not speak ill of a fellow Conservative"?

James Maskell

Thou shall not speak ill of another conservative is complete rubbish. It is no more than an aspiration. This is politics where stakes are high.

As many here already know, I dont follow that rule. I dont think I need to. Pointing out flaws in people and their associated policies is the job of us as intelligent people with a vested interest in the future of Britain.

The idea of agreeing with Blair on certain bits is deliberately to give hope to the rebels and to encourage such activity by the Government benches. Clever, but something I dont like. Did Blair as leader of opposition agree with Major over policy? No he didnt. He found the flaws and offered an optimist future, which the public were more than willing to accept.

I wasn't dreaming! I wasn't exaggerating! Michael Gove has done me the great honour of posting in full his article "I just can't hold back; I love Tony Blair!" If you go to his platform piece and scroll down, he has posted the Times article in full. I applaud Gove for his response.

But I knw I was right in remembering it as a wholesale song of love for Tony - NOT just for his foreign policy. Don't trust in my selective quotes:

"Tony Blair is proving an outstanding Prime Minister... Mr Blair's entitlement to conservative respect doesn't rest on his foreign policy alone... Looking at Mr Blair now... what's not to like?"

If you think that's unfair, go and read it for yourself.

Now I admire Michael Gove. I just think his - and Cameron's - approach is completely wrong. Dangerous. Touching - but foolish.

(And from now on I'll criticise him no more for past mistakes).

buxtehude

Sorry, that last post wasn't meant to be unsigned. Twas me.

Barbara Villiers

Yes, indeedy, DD won the battle of the hustings in Leicester today. DC was said to have waffled - see BBC News.

Also he was more than a mite petulant when interviewed on Radio 4. If DC thinks he is going to become leader he'd better have done with the hissy fits.

Give me a bit of brute honesty anyday. Do I want another sob-sister to lead this country? Do you?

buxtehude

Barbara, what are we going to do? It's going to be awful. If only DD hadn't thrown it away in that one terrible week in Blackpool. Aaarghghg. Can we survive this?

Daniel Vince-Archer

"If only DD hadn't thrown it away in that one terrible week in Blackpool."

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not Buxtehude but from a longer-term POV, I suspect David Davis lost the 2005 leadership election in 2003 if, as alleged, he orchestrated the downfall of Iain Duncan Smith. Forgive me for indulging in a game of 'What if...?' for a moment but...

What if Iain Duncan Smith had stayed as leader and fought and lost the 2005 election then resigned? Who would have been in prime position to replace him?

Ken Clarke - proven to be too old.
Michael Howard - too old.
David Cameron - would have had even less experience than he has now and no shadow cabinet springboard for leadership campaign.
William Hague - not interested in being leader again.
Liam Fox - wouldn't have gained high profile as chairman.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind - long absence from Commons, may have struggled to attract support.
Oliver Letwin - too tame, not really leadership material.

The path would seemingly have been pretty clear for David Davis - if he was involved in the downfall of Iain Duncan Smith, I wonder if he regrets that now?

buxtehude

I wasn't being sarcastic, Daniel. I think that if only he'd started as he's now doing, he would be way ahead. Instead of which he hid away with a bunch of losers like mitchell and conway. Only when it all went pear-shape did he bring on a professional and start to fight.

Daniel Vince-Archer

You make a good point Buxtehude. What initially put me off Davis a bit was his gang of loathsome minions - if he'd had the same campaign line-up back then as he does now, I'd probably have jumped on board a lot sooner.

john Skinner

Dear Bux, Daniel V-A and James H,
Face it; Cameron is in. Help him get the Tories back in, then devote your energies to influence those less-than detailed policies.

hayek's grandad

The radio four 'opinion' that DD won the first hustings was based on a quote from none other than DD himself (although the newspapers appear to disagree with him). I don't think this kind of 'I win you lose' campaigning is going to be good for the party post the election. Well done to DC for not getting involved in it.

wasp

Bux

Don't you think that DD's poor campaign is something that should be detrimental to him becoming leader.

In 2005 we made gains because of excellent on the ground campaigning, without shifting our national support, so those campaigning skills will be vital again.

Anyone that was at the conference would say that Cameron's campaign was hugely impressive not just on the floor but from the start right up to people campaigning at the train station as everyone went home.

Peter

I can't understand that people think that just being the same as Labour will win us an election. What happened in 97 only happens every roughly 30 years so if you can wait till 2027 then vote for that option, I'll won't.

Mr Eugenides

No-one is suggesting that we should be the "same as Blair"... the point is that the core vote strategy, "dog-whistle" campaigns, call it what you like, it's been shown not to work - twice now.

DD throws you guys some red meat on tax, on Europe etc. and you say, yes, this is the man, and nod approvingly. But do you really think he's going to widen the party's appeal?

I too would like to see some kind of fusion of Cameron's style and Davis' substance. Maybe in a Cameron shadow cabinet of all the talents, that's exactly what we'll get. The front bench is already looking pretty heavyweight in comparison to the Hewitts and Huttons opposite.

Peter

Eugenides we know what tax plans Cameron wants(a flat tax), tell me know wether that would attract more supporters to us instead of getting rid of IHT,CGT and SD as well as reducing the basic rate of tax?

Mr Eugenides

That's a fair point, but I'd make two observations. First, Cameron won't introduce a flat tax; he makes studiously vague references to "flatter" tax, which any Tory would probably endorse; and second, even if DD wins the next General Election at the crest of an economic boom, no Conservative Prime Minister is going to be abolishing IHT, CGT and SD any time soon, no matter what they may say and no matter how much we may want them to.

michael

Peter - you are missing the point. There is only one area in which we must be like Labour was from 95-97, their electoral appeal.

They had a professional machine, an attractive image, popular policies, a hunger for power and a charasmatic young leader who looked in tune with modern Britain.

We don't want to copy the mess they've made since and we wont because Cameron is a Conservative with Conservative values. Providing these are the foundations on which he builds his leadership and a modern Conservative Party - you have nothing to worry about.

Peter

But you would support someone who did do that?

Peter

Sorry Michael but you are missing the point, the major reason why Labour won was us not them, to copy that idea means we have to wait till they run out of ideas or the economy falls apart. Know I'll can't wait that long as this country must act (as it did in the early 90's)as a beacon to countries in Central Europe and the like with this the question is can you?

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