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Tories Out Of Ideas
A new poll for the Guardian shows that the government has narrowed the lead of the opposition Conservative party.
Two weeks ago David Cameron's Conservatives were on 42 percent, with Labour trailing on just 29 percent, their lowest rating for years. Since then - and despite internal rows and the plummeting popularity of PM Gordon Brown - Labour has managed to scrape back five points, and the Tories have lost three.
The poll suggests that were an election to be held tomorrow, neither party would be able to form a clear majority in Parliament.
To be frank, this is appalling news for the Conservatives. Eleven years of Labour rule, economic storm clouds on the horizon, an unpopular and incompetent Prime Minister who should really be shouldering the blame for many of the problems facing the economy (after all, he made sure to take credit when things appeared to be going well). The Tories are on their fourth leader since John Major resigned - and they still haven't secured an unassailable lead over the government.
Do they want to win the next election? Are they hoping for the fudging consensus-seeking of a hung parliament? Or waiting patiently for "their turn" in power, once the political class is secure in the knowledge that a switch to the Conservatives will represent nothing more than the same routine, but with slightly different faces?
Even the rumoured defections the Conservative leadership had been hoping for failed to emerge. Dissident Labour MP Kate Hoey appears to be backing Conservative Boris Johnson over Ken Livingstone for London Mayor, but she cried off an appearance on a platform with him yesterday. And the Conservatives' hoped for big scalp, junior education minister Andrew Adonis, who Cameron has been buttering up for the past fortnight, politely declined his overtures.
Back in October last year, when the Tories were floundering "on the brink of collapse" ten points behind Labour, EURSOC suggested a "Bonfire of Blairism" - twenty policy changes, which, if the Conservatives were serious about regaining power, they could introduce. In the spirit of friendly encouragement, we publish them again here.
Here's hoping someone in Central Office is paying attention.
- Health and Safety: scrap the whole thing.
- The diversity racket: scrap it.
- Unlimited immigration: Call a complete halt until control is established over those who are already here.
- Human rights: Either scrap the European convention, or properly implement it regarding state abuse of normal citizens, not just transvestites, terrorists, convicts and Satanists, as favoured by New-Lab and their allies.
- Restore Parliament's sovereignty: Parliament is where the buck stops and where democracy starts. All European law should be subjected to parliamentary scrutiny and ratification.
- Sort out the imbalance between English and Scottish votes.
- Build more prisons
- Restore mandatory sentences
- Put more police on the street
- Restore right to sanctity of home and privacy
- Kick out extremists and close down extremist mosques, just like the French do. Despite what is argued in the media, there are specific derogation clauses in the human rights act which should allow us to do just this. New-Lab tries to pretend they don’t apply.
- Restore discipline in schools
- Reduce government funding for ‘fake jobs’
- Reduce taxes where possible
- Bring back foxhunting.
- Allow smoking in dedicated establishments
- No more entering someone’s home without a court warrant (there are currently 266 reasons for which authorities can come barging into your home).
- Close useless Quangos, starting with the most frivolous .
- Scrap the identity card scheme.
- Scrap the DNA database scheme, which is not compatible with a free society.
- Force the BBC to stick to their mandate and to stop running their own political agenda.
- Re-establish independence of the civil service, police, and judiciary.
- Start an inquiry into the £18billion overspend on the NHS database that should only cost £18million.
- Get rid of targets and quotas in education and the health service.
- Pull out of Iraq on the basis that it was started by deceit and the war does not serve Britain's interests.
- Put back together the army regiments that were disbanded by Blair and open a wide-ranging enquiry into funding of the armed forces.
- Properly equip the military, including the Navy, building our own ships where necessary.
- Restore and clarify the historic relationship between state, monarch, and the Church of England: New Labour has been enthusiastic about the social model of our Northern European neighbours but refuses to acknowledge that these cultures were largely formed on a close relationship between church, monarchy and state.
- Massively reduce CCTV spying on citizens.
