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:: Sunday, October 27, 2002 ::
Are the Tories the "Know Nothing" party for the 21st century? If Michael Howard's performance at an "in-the-round" session last night is anything to go by, it is the new party policy. Despite being at an event with party activists (ie: onside), the Shadow Chancellor managed to annoy most if not the entire room. Instead of listening to the points being offered, he instead mouthed centrist platitudes and non-committal statments. Michael Gove echoes my sentiments with his impassioned call for politicians to stop looking at their navels and pay attention.
His waffle was so bad that a party activist and funder of long standing, who gives £5k a year, pledged not to give a penny more. The entrepeneur was looking for policies that help small businesses; instead he got nothing. What was most interesting about the evening is the strong desire in the room for radical policies. It seemed that, like me, many in the room believed the way back to power is to continue the work Thatcher had started (and Major pissed away) and drive towards a much smaller, more accountable state. Amoungst the younger attendees there was a cry for more "classical liberal" (end to inheritance tax, streamlining of the tax system, more privatisation, de-centralisation, etc) policies and less centrist rubbish.
Howard continued to state that his desire was to do things "better", but he never made any commments to do things differently. He was described by one attendee as a "big government fiscal conservative." An apt description, if this discussion was anything to go by. Despite repeated attempts to deny it, it is clear the current Tory policy is to wait for Blair to fail. It is a high risk policy that may well, in fact, be doomed to failure.
As the attendees wandered off into a coolish London night, many of them wondered aloud why they had bothered. If a senior member of the Cabinet cannot convince his party members of the correctness of the party's policies, what chance does he have to convince the country, as a whole, to vote Tory.
:: Andrew Ian Dodge 10/27/2002 08:29:00 AM [+] ::
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