Against Not For
There is a bar which serves food at my University. It has always been pretty dire in my opinion, so I know that if I go in with very low hopes then I will not be disappointed and in fact might even occasionally be very surprised.
The same goes for yesterday’s by-election in Crewe and Nantwich. I did not go to bed last night with expectations of the Conservatives winning yet they have managed it with a pretty comfortable majority – for now at least.
I am really somewhat surprised by this result. Although I correctly predicted the Labour vote and most of the independent runners and riders, I was wrong in judging the strength (or rather lack) of the Liberal Democrats and the surge in the Conservative vote which increased well beyond their General Election share. Considering that in all previous by-elections the Conservative vote had fallen below General Election levels then Crewe and Nantwich was certainly somewhat of a turnaround.
Still, it is plain that this by-election was more about what Mr Brown and his Labour party had done to annoy sections of the electorate rather than what the Conservatives were proposing. Let us be quite clear, this was a vote against the Government not a vote for the Conservatives. Likewise, one by-election has not changed the British political landscape overnight. Labour still form our British administration and the unelected bureaucrats and politicians in Brussels still control our true Government and to an ever greater extent regulate our lives.
Yet, Crewe and Nantwich may foreshadow events to come. When I go out canvassing in various constituencies across the South West there is certainly a discernible mood in the air that desires a change of Government – but it is at the moment unfocused and somewhat hesitant. People dislike the Government but they do not quite yet want to vote for the Conservatives.
As I said before, the Conservatives need to come up with a number of policies that crucially differentiate them from New Labour. What’s more, whether in opposition or in Government, we need to massively roll back or leave the European Union – otherwise the next General Election will simply provide a change of faces at the top without any change of policy or direction.
Your Comments:
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- Steve Hilton Comeback
Hey Palmer!
The tories have updated their site just for you here.
Best if you just keep to this page if you want all the latest news and gossip.
Just joking, but the serious point I’m trying to make is that just as party websites change, ideas must change. Our party has changed and that’s why were set to win big at the next election.
Do you want to embrace that change or do you want our party to go back to ‘96 hung up over the EU and irrelevant to voters?
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I think you are wrong actually. The reason why the Conservatives are ahead in the polls (which is something entirely different to winning a General Election which is two years away) has less to do with the Conservative party and David Cameron and far more to do with the media’s influence over the public after Labour changed their leader from Blair to Brown.
The media have done their utmost to make Brown unpopular despite the fact that he has been politically identical to Blair - the reason being that Brown is not a smooth, slick, public relations Prime Minister in the style of either Blair or now Mr Cameron.
Ideas and policies should only be ‘changed’ if they are indeed outdated, not just for the sake of it. I’d be interested to know which policies you think that the Conservatives have pledged recently that have so changed public opinion.
