My latest Daily Telegraph column is in today's paper and can be read online HERE. Its main theme is a warning that Gordon Brown is out to destroy the Conservative Party and the Conservative Party had better realise it, and develop a strategy to stop him.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Telegraph Column: Brown Is Out to Destroy the Tories
My latest Daily Telegraph column is in today's paper and can be read online HERE. Its main theme is a warning that Gordon Brown is out to destroy the Conservative Party and the Conservative Party had better realise it, and develop a strategy to stop him.
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48 comments:
I'm sorry to think personal attacks are the way forward. This country is crying out for ideas and solutions- not platitudes and attack.
I think that Brown has a problem and that is Scotland. The logical way of destroying the Tories would be to hold an election now. This would expose the inherent contradictions within the Tory policy papers. However, the situation in Scotland probably stops him making such a move, as the SNP might well win a large number of Labour seats. Cameron has to "hold on" and "iron out" the contradictions within his policy papers. I hope that "Election Battleground" (the 18 Doughty Street programme on constituencies) will focus on Scotland and Labour vulnerability very soon.
In the 1980s, Mrs Thatcher apparently said (I have yet to trace the original, but she did not deny it when it was put to her on two occasions during the 1987 election) that she wanted to "destroy socialism".
It's therefore a bit much to complain that any desire on Gordon Brown's part to destroy the Conservative Party is unacceptable; what's sauce for the goose and all that.
You see Gordon Brown really is the same sort of politician as Mrs Thatcher!
You imagine, in this desperate article, what it means that Brown should appear with Thatcher.
He wants to be "one of us".
You ignore, no doubt deliberately, what it means that Thatcher should appear with Brown.
She would now rather be "one of them" than "one of us".
Brown does not need to destroy the Tories.
They are doing that for themselves.
And you know it.
I don't know this and I am not privy to the internal workings of the Conservatives, but, there must be an awful lot of Tories who either don't like Cameron or who have a score to settle.
I mean, he's leaking people like a leper with body odour.
It's tempting and plausible to blame Gordon the Bogeyman, but surely there is something about Dave that just aint right.
"Just what do you think you're doing, Dave? Dave, I really think I'm entitled to an answer to that question?" (HAL 9000)
Well spotted Iain!! He's been at it from the get go. And twas always the objective of the Project - as well as pissing off Labour lefties naturally.
Iain, I am an admirer of your work and your dedication but to be honest you and your party are not in deep trouble but terminal decline.
The latest Tax measures announced will not only loose you votes but destroy what little chink of hope there was of voters turning to you.
Perhaps you need to have a weekend off, no golf or Audi driving and take a hard and cold look at Cameron, he is not at all popular in the heartland and there is your problem. People have already forgotten about Blair and are comfortable with Brown Scottish or not he is capable and that is all the UK populus wants.
Why doesn't your party give the UK populs some hope and be bloody bold for a change? Give us a constitution, cut corporate tax to 18%,start zero tolerance etc etc.
But all we will get is politicians of all colours and party's looking after themselves. Lets face it you make your living out of the political world as well so you have a total conflict of interest in all subjects.
Brown is destroying the Tories but I am afraid as a neutral observer the Tory party are not popular have not stood up for the UK people in the last 10 years in any significant way and that is the key to your current maliase and will not be forgotten.
Tories are getting to be irrelevant in England not because of Brown but because of the Tories. It's not Global Warming that will kill us, but the Chinese. Their economy is growing and in order to keep it growing they will build whatever they need at cheapest prices and to hell with what anyone says. The only thing the so called West can do is stop buying "Made In China" and pass strict and severe laws to ensure Chinese components are clearly marked.
But there again, there is a pot of money to be made in trading with China, so there is ZERO how of decreasing pollution. The paltry plans of the West to reduce emissions are totally swamped by the increased emissions of China.
They pollute, we get taxed your party have joined in the feeding fenzy on the hard earned cash of the UK public, you loose votes, duh!
Iain - Yes. And why didn't the Tories develop their stragegy 18 months ago?
They've only just realised Brown wants to destroy them? They didn't realise that when smirky Tony said he were going to destroy them (can't remember his phrase) with all his little communist fleas around him, he meant it? It has taken this long for Dave Wossname to understand the battleground?
I despair. Especially because Wossname still doesn't get it. He still thinks it's jolly boating weather and all the chaps are going to be jolly good sports.
My enemy is my helper.
Brown's approach is providing Cameron with less choices. This makes his life simpler, and rallies the troops behind him.
Brown's Stalinesque approach to Prime ministership is likely to weaken the loyalty of his supporters. Stalin without the full deal of threat including elimination for any hint of disloyalty, and without Stalin's ability to be exraordinarily charming to boot, falls between two stools.
It's lke Blair said - a clunking fist...implying no smoothness of operation, and no real threat. Just a whole lot of childlike posturing..a lot of bark but little bite.
The Conservative party might get itself all in a dither, but Cameron's leadership is proving to be adaptable enough to meet these latest 'big deal' behind the scenes non-events.
As for Bercow why keep him on as an MP? He should face a committee of his own Constituents and show that he still has their cnfidence. It would be good for party morale to encourage les autres un peu.
Gordon Brown is following a consistent pattern of pulling off tactically brilliant political coups (reducing basic rate to 20%, the big tent, Baroness Thatcher to Number 10) that on analysis are strategically stupid.
If I were David Cameron, far from being annoyed about this, I would take heart.
You've finally moved me to join the fray again...
He doesn't need to ! They're doing a good job of doing that all by themselves !
The Cameroonies who took over the remnants of the greatest political party has destroyed itself. The ideology of the A list was the foundation which has caused tens of thousands of conservative activists to walk away. It has developed from liberal conservatism to conservative socialism ( with the happy clappy planet taxation and regulation )
The backshot is, it is picking up cheaply, the brand mark of the LOONY PARTY.
Your hard evidence is the massive split in Cornwall, N Wilts and Newark.
If anyone's out to destroy the Conservative Party it's David Cameron and his supporters. They're doing a better job than Brown could do any day.
"Just Gordon, and Northern on the Rocks" is a good slogan from the Spectator blogger. But I ask the question where is the Shadow Chancellor? Where are the faces of the Shadow Cabinet? Where are the modern day Parkinson's, Bakers, Tebbitt's and Heseltines?
Brown is Electioneering!
That is the most bizarrely written, paranoid, delusional drivel I have read since Julie Burchill gave up journalism.
What the hell are you on about, man?
Did you knock your head on holiday, or spend a little too much time in the sun?
The only people destroying the Tories, are Cameron and his crowd.
The Tories are doing a very good job of destroying themselves with all this Green Crap. Tax this,tax that, be worse off but save the environment. B...sh..t
The Tories are committing suicide by parading billionaire Eton toffs like Goldsmith to tell us we should be paying more green taxes to save the environment. Like Goldsmith will ever feel the financial pain - thats what the ordinary voter will be thinking.
500% import tax on Chinese goods is the sort of stuff the Tories should be coming up with.
“The next four weeks, I believe, will determine the course of politics for the foreseeable future.” Coo its like Thunderbirds “ Anything could happen in the next half hour” .....isn’t it all too thrilling Nonetheless I agree with your estimation of Brown. It has been clear for a long time that the Labour Party have been thinking beyond democracy into the “Post Democratic Age” as Mandy put it . They are attempting what amounts to ethnic cleansing in the South of England. The public sector swelling to 8,000,000 threatens democracy alone .The manipulation of figures and the media and the issue that seems to be the perennial fault line Europe show the extent to which Brown despises the people he seeks to destroy . The English.
I have been saying for a long time that the relative slumber of the electorate is misguided . I `ll go further Iain
We have one Month to save the country. Bum Bum BAAAAAAAA!
Cameron will be thrilled!!! He is out to destroy the Tories as well.
Bruvver Broon doesn’t need to try very hard does he? . . . he could just hang around and watch the death throes.
Its main theme is a warning that Gordon Brown is out to destroy the Conservative Party.
I disagree. Only the Conservative Party can destroy the Conservative Party, and that, incredibly, is what they appear hell bent on doing.
He is going to have a civil war on his hands, long before he destroys the tories.
Desperate stuff Iain. Desperate.
You guys tried this "unite or die" stuff before. Remember when Iain Duncan Smith tried that last desperate press conference? Why do you think trying to scare the troops back in line will work this time?
Surely by inviting Tory supporters and MP's to join in his "big tent" (or whatever G calls it) he's admitting that he's unable to find sufficient talent within his own party. Far from embarrassing the Conservatives, shouldn’t the embarrassment be labour’s as their own leader doesn’t think enough of his colleagues to want them to assist him? With any luck he’ll adopt a few sensible Tory policies and eventually cross the floor to join us. No, kill that last thought – I couldn’t bear it.
The trouble with the Conservative Party and it's traditional supporters, is that it needs something to believe in and strive for. It just isn't there at the moment, and until we see a real conviction politician offering a real alternative choice to Labour, we will continue failing to excite the imagination of the voters,and continue to frustrate the majority of our supporters.
Judging from many of the comments to your article Iain many on the right are happy to dig Cameron's grave for Gordon Brown - in fact they're queuing up begging to have a shovel.
Good article. Just as Thatcher destroyed Socalism, is Gordon trying to do the same to Conservativism?
Thatcher was able to destroy socialism as the (left wing) labour party was divided and more interested in fighting amongst themselves. Bit like the Tories at the moment.
I still feel that the Tories need five or so policies, or ideas, pledges etc to rally members and voters around.
A thought-provoking article as ever, but perhaps not the whole story?
http://lettersfromatory.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/sorry-but-im-not-convinced/
If Brown calls an election this year then that is his best chance of inflicting a mortal wound on Cameron. If however he delays then events such as; the economy, the ending of his "honeymoon" bounce and the diminishing base of councillors move factors into Cameron's favour.
The longer time goes by the greater impact Coulson will have.
I don`t see the need for panic. Brown is now loathed in his own Party and his bounce dead already. He is so arrogant that he spurns quickly nipping in to snag the election on novelty and this will be his Callaghan sized mistake.
Brown is already crippled obver the Europe Lie the English votes lie , the immigration and law and order lies , the lies he told the Unions to kill Snowball and the failure of Tax credits etc. . As a PM he will have no power even if he sneaks it which looks about the best he can do.
Fortunately he is not going to be in a position to destroy anyone .I expect he would agree with Ken Livingstone though who once charmingly remarked " What do you call four dead Conservatives...a start"..and this is the man who reperesents London...
Except........
It was the housing bust of 1989-1992 and in particular the bizarre decision by the pigmies in the cabinet to stay with the ERM that destroyed the Tories' election hopes for 15 years.
People who were topped and tailed in the housing market then - natural Tories - still haven't forgiven the party.
They don't vote Conservative because they were abbandoned by the Party NOT because the Party is "too right wing and old fashion"
If there is to be another housing bust who will get the blame this time?
Brown may well be out to destroy the Tory party. So, where's the bare-knuckled fight that Cameron promised us a couple of weeks back? Why aren't he and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet laying into this government at every opportunity they can? Attack them for the billions wasted on the NHS; attack them for the pensions raid; attack them for the appalling lives that so many on council estates have to put up with; attack them for lying about the Constitution; attack them for the mismanagement of the economy now that the chickens are coming home to roost.
Why aren't Cameron, Osborne, Hague et al (Davis is a little better) sinking the knife in as hard as they can? That, as much as anything else, is what's causing a centre-right, slightly activist Tory like me to lose confidence in them. The leadership seems to have forgotten the will to win. They seem to have forgotten that governments lose elections more than oppositions win them.
The Tories seem to be doing a remarkably good job of destroying themselves without any help from us. Policy review reports all over the political spectrum only help to illustrate how policy-lite is young Dave.
Council by-election results this week from Chelmsford Borough and Brent (thanks Mike Ion for highlighting the latter) suggest that Tory supporters are not just staying at home but switching to the Lib Dems and Labour...
My comments deleted why is this?
"Just Gordon, and Northern on the Rocks" is a good slogan from the Spectator blogger.
How about "Flush Gordon"?
Iain Dale in 'Yes its true, the Pope is a catholic' exclusive!
I agree that the Conservatives need a strategy for Brown, but the gathering economic storm is likely to blow Brown right out of the water anyway.
As long as the Tories are playing "more Labour than thou" I'm not sure I care. Let 'er rip. Maybe something useful will turn up in the ashes.
The doom-sayers claiming that the Tories are in terminal decline are wrong. A lot of people said the same about Labour in the early '90s.
What the Tories need to do is either to unite totally behind Cameron or replace him. How can Cameron effectively lead the party when some of his most vocal critics come from his party?
If, if, the tories ditch Cameron and go for Davies, can he pick up the pieces of these policy reviews and form something which can at least fight Brown at an election with?
I can't see it will work. If Cameron gets stabbed in the back, then all Brown has to do is call a snap election and he wins. I doubt he'll leave enough time for Davies to get in, pull people together and get a manifesto which makes sense together
Perhaps the time is ripe for 'the men in suits' to get hold of Cameron and tell him that The Party is far more important than him!
You need foot soldiers and with the nonsense in the Gummer Report/ His ridiculous stance against Grammer Schools etc etc he will not have many foot soldiers out there knocking on doors in the election.
They should give him three months to show he has the backbone and spirit to take the fight to "Not Flash just Gordon" --IF EVER A SLOGAN SHOULD BE TAKEN TO THE MAN HIMSELF IT IS THIS ONE!
The EU migrant "Blue Card" will result in more and more immigration with the EU dictating who gets what. Important issues like this, and crime & punishment, housing etc are not being discussed at all but they are of concern to millions.
Meanwhile we get the angels on the head of a pin stuff while the rot accelerates.
What's left of it to destroy?
Sorry Ian but you have now totally lost the plot. Your grassy knoll conspiracy theories and thoughts are delusional. Is it Browns job to help the Tories…hardly?
The Telegraph article was dialogue of the diatribe nonsense, while reading it I could almost picture you typing it out while you frayed your arms in the air simultaneously spitting at the screen. This is pretty desperate stuff. Ten weeks ago the Brown bounce was only going to last a few weeks, then the recent problems with F and M, floods, and terror plots were going to see Brown wane. Now you seem to have come up with this all new 4 week thing !!!!!!. I’d say CPHQ must have spent all night dreaming up that gem.
Wasn’t Brown supposed to be a hard core union leftie according to Cambo 10 weeks ago? You would be pretty stupid to repeat such an allegation. Poor old CPHQ just keeps getting it all wrong, and the more often you do it, the worse it will get.
Quote from Iain
“”Gordon Brown does not yet believe the next general election is in the bag, but among his foot soldiers you can smell the stench of complacency”””
Yes of course you can Iain. You have completely lost it now.
Your problem….. You just don’t get it…and never will. Caulson wasn’t a master stroke…he is a flippin disaster.
I have just posted about Iain's conclusion over in OurKingdom
http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/2007/09/14/the-next-four-weeks/
I cannot believe that Cameron and his advisers do not appreciate that 'green and travel taxes' are the biggest vote loser imaginable. Further, because a lot of the ideas come from a prvileged millionaire who simply inherited his wealth makes the whole thing grate all the more.
Who is advising him ? It must be a Nu Lab mole.....
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