Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Another own goal
Geoffrey Wheatcroft in today's Guardian believes that the Tories should be charging ahead but they keep on getting knocked back by their leader's lack of judgment:
And yet, in this festive season, one is left with the uncharitable reflection that whenever the political match is going their way the Tories score another own goal - from their association with plutocrats to Cameron's recent stunt in Ulster, or even his naff Christmas card. He once claimed to be Blair's heir, and sometimes he does resemble the last prime minister at his worst: a man not so much seeking office to put a programme into effect as looking for a programme to be a means of achieving power; all form and no substance; or as Wagner unkindly said of Meyerbeer's music, all effects and no causes. But whereas Blair's opportunistic cynicism worked for a time, Cameron isn't even a skilful opportunist.
The columnist concludes that although voters can see Cameron trying to reform his party by standing up to the right-wing headbangers, they can see no evidence that his judgement is any better. Even the Tory leader's opportunism is mistaken:
Much of political life involves calculation of interests and assessment of opportunity. Cameron's harshest critics in the Tory press are really rightwing Trots, who prefer revolutionary defeatism and doctrinal purity to anything so vulgar as winning elections, and Cameron is right to ignore them. But if he is going to make calculations, he might at least make sensible ones. There's not much to be said for a party of inopportune opportunists, or cynics who get it all wrong.
And yet, in this festive season, one is left with the uncharitable reflection that whenever the political match is going their way the Tories score another own goal - from their association with plutocrats to Cameron's recent stunt in Ulster, or even his naff Christmas card. He once claimed to be Blair's heir, and sometimes he does resemble the last prime minister at his worst: a man not so much seeking office to put a programme into effect as looking for a programme to be a means of achieving power; all form and no substance; or as Wagner unkindly said of Meyerbeer's music, all effects and no causes. But whereas Blair's opportunistic cynicism worked for a time, Cameron isn't even a skilful opportunist.
The columnist concludes that although voters can see Cameron trying to reform his party by standing up to the right-wing headbangers, they can see no evidence that his judgement is any better. Even the Tory leader's opportunism is mistaken:
Much of political life involves calculation of interests and assessment of opportunity. Cameron's harshest critics in the Tory press are really rightwing Trots, who prefer revolutionary defeatism and doctrinal purity to anything so vulgar as winning elections, and Cameron is right to ignore them. But if he is going to make calculations, he might at least make sensible ones. There's not much to be said for a party of inopportune opportunists, or cynics who get it all wrong.
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Trot's in the Conservative party bloody hell. But the fact is the Lib Dem's should be moving ahead as voter look at an alternative to Labour, I've voted Labour all my working life and then suddenly saw Blair at work, then Brown and now we have Purnell Milibands and a few others and the smell stinks to high hell, so what do I have to choose from lets see the Tories so close to Labour if they joined I'd not notice, in Wales Plaid blood brothers of Labour, and in third place the BNP if your not dam careful
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