Saturday, July 28, 2007

Rumblings in the Conservative party

Since Gordon Brown has taken over Labour has led in the polls. The last YouGov poll had them 9% ahead.

There then seems to have been some rumblings in the party, some pointing to the great grammar school row, others to the flooding. Some appear to be questioning David Cameron's leadership.

There is an interesting article in the Spectator by Fraser Nelson, looking at who the potential contenders could be should David Cameron fall under a bus, whilst over the weekend we are going to be treated to a series of articles on who could follow Cameron with the finale being an article on who Labour would most fear.

Personally I don't buy it. David Cameron is the only game in town. However there are concerns about the front bench.

Just where the **** was Peter Ainsworth the Conservative shadow Environment minister during the floods asks Iain Dale? What ever he was actually doing he got no air time. Guido pens a short article on the same theme here.

In this article Ben Brogan expresses some concern over just how many part timers the Conservative party has on its front bench. (I have covered the number of part timers on the Liberal Democrats front bench here).

What it all boils down to is this: If we want to win, and I can assure you many of us do, we are going to have to work very very hard. What is more we are going to have to up our game. Those members of the front bench who can't get air time need to take lessons from those who can and do like David Davies. Also Andy Coulson needs to seriously help up the game. It is not just about press releases.

Over the summer, we need to up our game, hit Labour and hit it hard, day in and day out. There is much work to do.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Benedict, one of the reasons that the Conservative front bench doesn't seem so willing to work their socks of to get Labour out, is that Labour don't seem anywhere near as threatening as they used to. They keep copying Tory policies for heaven's sake - how threatening does that make them seem? So much of the old baggage from the Foot/Kinnock/Smith eras has been dropped that they almost appear as "Tory Lite"
This is a mistake, since Labour have been quietly doing an awful lot of damage as you well know. The major problems IMHO being chronic mis-administration and weakening the constitution.

Benedict White said...

Disraeli, I could not agree more.

Look at my articles on the constitution under threat for example.

Also we need sound fiscal management, or else we will be in trouble.

We can't afford another Labour government.