Dinner last night with about 17 Conservative Party parliamentary researchers, local councillors and activists. They were generally under 40 and, though, they had a variety of views, I was struck that quite of few of them showed a robustness in their free market views that has not been widespread in the Conservative Party since the days were Margaret Thatcher was leader.
One of them said that Rudi Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, wanted to introduce vouchers for schools. His advisers said that some other word should be found. I think he said 'grants' was suggested. But Giuliani said, no, our opponents will call them vouchers whatever we call them, so lets call them vouchers ourselves. The difference between this kind of approach and that of much of the leadership of the party since Margaret Thatcher, is that it reflects real belief.
Much of the leadership since her has spent its time apologising and agreeing, like Theresa May, that the Conservatives are seen as 'the nasty party'. But there is nothing 'nasty' about trying to make Britain a better place. If supporters believe that, they should stand up for those beliefs. To accept media and Labour Party attempts to smear the Conservatives is to surrender and, worse still, concede that there is substance to the attacks of your enemies. This acceptance that the Conservatives have been unappealing and done a lot wrong is inaccurate and highly damaging to the reputation of the party.
In retrospect it seems that the defeat in 1997 was a trauma which wholly deflata ed the self-confidence of the party. Michael Portillo was the prime example of someone who had been a Thatcherite but whom defeat changed into a neo-Blairite. Even David Willetts, as nice and intelligent a politician as you could find, has spent a large part of his time in the post-Thatcher years compromising the passion and belief of the past in desperate attempts to appease the enemies of what he used to believe in.
What came through last night was a suggestion, at least, that there is new generation of younger Conservatives out there who have had enough of appeasement, who are not marked and wounded by that 1997 defeat but, instead, increasingly are outraged by the failure of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown's socialism-lite. They believe that free markets work better. They believe it matters and is absurd that the poor are heavily taxed. They want to cut waste and hand back responsibility to people for their own lives.
And if people say, 'you want to dismantle the NHS' they are prepared to say, 'Yes. We do. It is a lousy system. Why wouldn't anyone sensible want to replace something that has failed - that causes thousands of unnecessary deaths a year with something much better?'
Some of them were also arguing that the party needs to be saying such things for years and that, as the failure of the NHS model - for example - becomes still more apparent, then the party's idea will be seen to be vindicated and the Conservatives will be perceived as the right organisation to do something about it.
It is interesting and encouraging to see some of the Cosnervatives, at least, getting their guts back. It makes quite a background to the leadership contest. The fight can be seen, in part at least, as one between the appeasers and the believers.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in NHS • Politics
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If you look at the really great marketing campaigns out there, what they do is something very simple but very effective. They have one simple, clear message that is easy to communicate. Then they state that simple message to everyone who will listen, all the time. They never waver, and are not deflected by 'events'.
For me, the party needs to decide what the message is, and it then needs to be hammered home by every consevative supporter and MP to everyone who will listen, and even those who won't.
My two-penneth is power to the people - we need to be seen as being on the side of the little guy aganist the state.
Posted by: Ricky at May 29, 2005 08:06 AM
Marketing is a process by which a company (or other enterprise) analyses and identifies the needs of customers (or voters) and how it can align its efforts to (profitably) satisfy those needs. Promotion and the message is part of the process, but it comes after identification of how a need can be satisfied.
Note that I didn't say "what customers want", I said what they need. The difference is that sometimes what they want, or think they want (such as centralised government , and corresponding government action on everything) won't satisfy (indeed, is usually incompatible with satisfying) their needs. A good marketing organisation analyses the need and comes up with the best way of getting to the desired result. It then communicates clearly to its customers why its 'product' is a better means to the end.
There is a clear opportunity for the Tories here. New Labour reacts to focus groups and the like and then dishonestly seeks to deceive the voters with its message, both because it doesn't understand marketing and because it starts with its own self-interested ideology and is just looking for ways to implement it.
Successful companies (unless there are cartels or the like) are successful because they align their efforts to the real long term needs of their customers. This is what the Tories should do - and then explain why their solution will work better long term.
Posted by: HJHJ at May 29, 2005 05:27 PM
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Unfortunately this confidence is not shared, as you point out, by the people who matter in the Conservative Party; the long-standing senior MP's.
The Parliamentary Party (all that matters) seems determined to learn the wrong lessons from three defeats-less democracy not more,change the leader not policies, control freakery and spin to be as much like New Labour as possible rather than openness and honesty and something better.
It is hard to see there is a problem, harder to find the right solutions and even then difficult to make them work. Self-knowledge is not enough, but the Conservatives who matter do not even have that.
After 30 years a Conservative (and that rarity, a Tory teacher) I am in despair. It is not enough to have your site and others which are providing the intelectual and policy ideas Conservatives need to adopt if the leadership resolutely refuses to listen and thinks that "reform" means going backwards. Any ideas?
Posted by: Cllr Francis Lankester at May 28, 2005 04:24 PM