:: Conservative Revival ::

:: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 ::

Use the tools we have
As of last week the Conservative Party is the largest party in local government. The raw figures understate our strength in some ways and overstate it in others. While we are only slightly ahead of Labour in terms of the number of councillors we are well ahead in terms of the number of councils. However, at the same time we are overwhelmingly a rural and suburban party, lacking strength in metropolitan areas (which is important as we need to capture about half the metropolitan seats to have a chance at forming a government). The large number of councils and councillors will give us a useful tool for campaigning at the next election (simply in terms of the increased number of volunteers) but we should also be looking between now and then to use it for other goals, namely:

1. Setting the scene for advancing into the metropolitan areas (for example, there are elections in some boroughs next year and some of these might yield some breakthrough results (e.g. in Swindon where I live, we are one seat short of an outright majority)

2. Providing a degree of opposition, that we are currently unable to do at Westminster.

The first point needs to be got across to those now in charge of the councils we have just gained: we will only be able to spread further if people start to identify Conservative Councils as well run and low tax. We therefore must avoid Tories being elected on a low tax platform and promptly putting up taxes. By ringing metropolitan areas with successful and well-run councils we strengthen our hand for campaigning in those areas.

The second point is controversial, but I believe will feed into the rehabilitation of our party, the ability to achieve the first goal and enable us to score some hits on Labour that our Westminster party is incapable of doing (whether simply by dint of numbers or by a lack of will).

I want to be clear that I am not advocating the sorts of nonsenses that loony-left councils got up to in the 1980s and that we regretably used as the excuse for the emasculation of local democracy (i.e. opposing national level policies at the local level, cf "nuclear free zones"). What I mean is that where Central Government is damaging local government or harming its ability to do its job, we should not just be complaining, instead we should be fighting back. To take an example:

One of the causes of this year's ridiculous Council Tax rises is that the Government deliberately changed the funding formula to redistribute money to the Labour heartlands, thus cutting the amount of central funding well run councils could rely on. This was a blatant bit of corruption, but our potests barely registered. When this continues next year, a group of Tory Councils should go to court to try and stop the change. They won't win, but the very act of going to court makes it a bigger story and will guarantee wider coverage of the issue in the media. (And ensure that the government gets the blame when people's taxes rise after the councils lose in court).

Another example:

One of the causes of increased local costs is the increase in pointless public sector jobs, such as Boris Johnson's famous dead sheep collector. Very well, it may be a requirement of the law that these of meaningless jobs are created, but the law can't force them to be filled. Save council tax payer's money by advertising them at ridiculously low salaries. Combine two or three of them into single positions, thus guaranteeing better value for money and ensuring that no one is able to do them "properly". (An extra win since these "jobs" quite often have a net negative effect on the local economy).

There are plenty more strategies like that available to us should we decide to adopt them. This idea will be criticised for being obstructionist, but when we have so few avenues of attack open to us we shouldn't pull our punches.
:: j 5/06/2003 02:02:00 PM [+] ::
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