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October 04, 2004
The Tories: to KBO or not to KBO?
I haven’t considered voting Conservative since I was 8 years old, but there is something rather sad about the inability of this once-great party of pragmatism and excellence to attract votes.
There were some interesting reactions after the party came fourth at Hartlepool:
Nicholas Soames: “We should follow Churchill’s advice and KBO - keep buggering on. … The strength of a political party is its ability not to divert itself either to the right or the left.”
Boris Johnson: “We’re still thought of as vaguely uncool and unfashionable, like Marks & Spencer. We just don’t seem to be the buzzy thing on the shelf for the political consumer.”
There are probably lessons for all of us here. The Tories have been outmanoeuvred by New Labour’s (centre-right posing as centre-left) leadership and then humiliated by the goons of UKip. Despite Soames’s good advice, it really does seem that the Conservative party can be shunted to the right, and off the political stage.
politics.guardian.co.uk/byelections/story/0,11043,1318044,00.html?gusrc=rss
Posted by Simon Holledge at October 4, 2004 12:40 AM
Comments
The Tories were successful as the oldest British party by eschewing attachment to any particular political principle. Their only principle seemed to be to adopt whatever policy would ensure their achievement and retention of power.
In the 1990s T. Blair, having watched the Tories tearing themselves apart over a real political principle - namely their attitude towards the European Union - decided to adopt the Tories' time-honoured stance of having no principles other than what would ensure power for his party.
As a result, the Tories have no real space to move. They cannot get much more right-wing than Blair and the LibDems occupy the ground to the left of New Labour, while UKIP have trumped them on Europe.
What will emerge from the Scottish Tories, kept alive only by the (vaguely proportional) Scottish Parliament voting system, remains to be seen.
Posted by: Robin MacCormick at October 18, 2004 10:47 AM
Yes indeed and thanks for commenting.
It will be interesting to see what happens at the next Westminster election. No-one (at the moment anyway) is questioning a comfortable Labour victory over a Conservative opposition that nevertheless maintains its major party status.
I wonder. Given the unpopularity of 'New Labour', the weakness of the Tories is an invitation to tactical voting. Maybe we will be surprised by the outcome!
Posted by: Simon Holledge at October 18, 2004 09:35 PM