Jon Craig suggests that the Conservatives’ lack of credible policies means the result of the next general election is not as cut and dried as some may think
HARRIET HARMAN, of all people, is developing a good line in jokes about David Cameron. At the TUC in Brighton, I heard her tell this one: “I always say about David Cameron that he wants women for one thing and one thing only: their votes.” Then at Labour’s conference in Manchester: “He’s the kind of man your mother used to warn you about. You know the kind of man I’m talking about. He’ll promise you the world. Promise to make all your dreams come true. But if he got his wicked way with you… in the ballot box… you’d never hear from him again.”
How we laughed. As MPs head back to Westminster after the party conferences, the temptation for Cameron is that we won’t hear from him while senior Labour figures are fighting each other and not the Tories.
“Why should we spell out our policies in detail?” is the familiar cry from leading Conservatives. “Labour will only nick them. Far better to sit back and let Labour self-destruct.”
Well, up to a point. But the credit crunch has rather changed all that. And despite their pledges at their conference in Birmingham to “ease the pain of the downturn”, Cameron and the Conservatives will come under more pressure in the weeks ahead in Parliament to reassure voters worried about their job, their mortgage, their pension and the rising cost of gas and electricity, petrol and food.
When the Tory conference was blown off course by the economic whirlwind on the world’s financial markets, Mr Cameron struck an impressive and mature tone with his “let’s work together” plea in his emergency statement on Tuesday.
But we still heard very little from the Tory leader or the Shadow Chancellor, George Osborne, about what the Conservatives would do differently from Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
Osborne’s pledge of a two-year council tax freeze was a headline- grabber. But even some Tories in Birmingham were sceptical about how it would work, since it would rely on town halls cutting their spending. A con trick, said Labour.
Osborne and Cameron had some tough words about City fat cats in their speeches. But while Osborne lashed out at “casino capitalism”, he said nothing to suggest that if he became Chancellor he would do anything to curb the excesses.
At the same time as fighting its own civil war, Labour also hopes to turn up the heat on Cameron over Tory policies in key areas. During its conference, Labour published a series of dossiers headed “Under scrutiny…” on business, criminal justice, Europe and family policy.
The forward to each document began: “The Tories have changed their image, but they have not changed their beliefs. After three election defeats, they set about repositioning their brand. They have done this not with a fundamental change in values or approach to policy, but by using new images, new language and asking different questions.”
Now, of course, the Tories would dispute that. But now that, as Gordon Brown put it in Manchester, “there’s a lot to be serious about”, Cameron will need to convince a sceptical public that he’s got some answers to the economic problems that look set to dominate politics in the months ahead.
The snap poll published by The Sun barely 24 hours after the Prime Minister’s “no time for a novice” speech in Manchester showed just how fast the public mood can change. The Tory lead was halved from 20 to 10 points virtually overnight, according to YouGov.
That poll suggested that the Tories’ big opinion poll leads over Labour in recent months might be fragile. Polls also suggest that while the Prime Minister is deeply unpopular, voters still have their doubts about Cameron and the Tories.
In a Sky News interview on the eve of the Conservative conference, Cameron had the brass neck to claim that the “no time for a novice” jibe was directed at David Miliband and not him. Well, once again, up to a point.
There’s no doubt that Brown’s allies didn’t attempt to dissuade political correspondents in Manchester that the Prime Minister may have been referring to the Foreign Secretary as well as the leader of the Opposition. But “no time for a novice” came slap bang in the middle of a 19-paragraph section of Brown’s speech attacking the Tories and their policies. In his previous sentence, he said: “What has become clear is that Britain cannot trust the Conservatives to run the economy.” We’ll hear a lot more of that from Labour in the months ahead.
At their conference in Birmingham, the Tories rather sensibly scaled down plans to stage a triumphalist celebration of Boris Johnson’s victory in the London mayoral election and other successes, replacing it with an emergency debate on the global economic crisis.
That suggests they get the message that in this time of economic crisis and austerity, voters are looking for real solutions and not mere slogans.
What the Tories need to do if they are to maintain their opinion poll lead and win the next election is persuade voters they have some solutions to the economic problems now facing families – or at least some sensible ideas on limiting the damage of the crisis.
Otherwise the joke could be on them and – against all the odds – the squabbling, feuding, bickering Labour Party could have the last laugh at the next general election.
Harriet Harman told this joke as well in her end-of-conference speech in Manchester: “Have you heard the one about the Tories and the economy? “How many Tories does it take to manage a global economic crisis? None. Why would they? Leave it to the market, of course.”
When even the right-wing Republican President of the United States is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars of US taxpayers’ money into a financial bailout, the Tory policy on the world’s economic problems looks rather feeble.
“Sharing the proceeds of growth”, Cameron’s often-repeated but rather trite pledge, sounds pretty hollow now there’s no growth. Tax cuts? Er, really?
So if the Tory leader wants to have “his wicked way” with all those women voters who could decide the result of the next election, he’d better come up with a more credible policy for tackling the credit crunch.
Jon Craig is chief political correspondent, Sky News
About The Author
