Thursday, June 28, 2007

How to Frustrate Cornerstone: Lesson No 94

Tim Montgomerie and Matthew D'Ancona are having an exchange of views on their take on how David Cameron should take on Gordon Brown. It's definitely worth a skaz* HERE. One thing which Tim wrote mystified me a little...
The Whips Office need to stop their hamfisted attempt to frustrate the work
of the Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs. The circle around the leader needs
to be more open and friendlier.

I wonder if he would quantify what he means by "stop their hamfisted attempt to frustrate the work of the Cornerstone Group of Tory MPs." I think we should be told, if only so we can congratulate the Whips Office for their sterling work!

*skaz is an old Essex term meaning 'butcher's hook' which is a cockney term for 'look' :)

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is fairly well known that the Whips have told MPs that if they want to get on the frontbench they have to leave the Cornerstone Group. Would have thought you knew that iain?

Anonymous said...

If that's the case it's disgraceful. I support the Cornerstone Group and their aims, which are essential if we are ever socirty and this country back on a even keel.

Anonymous said...

Socirty should read society.

Anonymous said...

Cameron has Cornerstone ministers and Edward Leigh Chairs a Select Ctte - its a key reason why I can't take any of Cameron's modernising rhetoric seriously.

SPAM ALERT said...

It's very easy, the whole opposition bench point in unison at Lord Hawhaw of Grantham every week at PMQ's as Dave asks if you want to return to another 18 years of people like that running the country.

Madasafish said...

Having read the definition of the Cornerstone Group at Wikipedia.. it is clear it is a socially inclusive and liberal group worthy of every MP's support -


if they want the Conservative Party to remain moored in opposition and with no MPs in the larger cities in Northern England.

Anonymous said...

If the Party membership doesn't matter and policy groups ignored why should Cornerstone matter?

Anonymous said...

D'Ancona's hit the nail on the head here.

Authenticity is the key that opens the door to number 10.

After 10 years of lies and spin, us lot outside of the political bubble have become highly adept at sussing out liars and their lies. Liars and PR merchants neither talk the talk nor walk the walk and there's nothing they can do about that because we can smell them a mile off.

We recognise them though a thousand cadences of speech, in a thousand contradictory nuances of body language and the barely perceptible flickers of their eyes.

Brown pees in the wind when he claims we can trust him now, as he smiles his phoney smile while dropping yet another criminalising regulatory control (stealth tax) on us. And it's as good as peeing on our heads for the great regulator and centraliser in chief to lecture us about bottom up democracy. We know he dislikes and fears us all (even nulabs) and we simply don't believe or trust him any longer.

So it should be a walk over for Cameron...and it was...at first. Cameron was a breath of fresh of fresh air, an authentic politician we instantly trusted - so what happened?

Spin. That's what happened. Cameron allowed the spin doctors to persuade him that they know best, that his naturalness, easy rapport and naturally trusting manner - the characteristics which won the instant support of so many of us - weren't quite good enough and had to be trained to perfection and moulded into dangerous strategy of hard headed managerialism and divisiveness.

Auntie Flo'

Anonymous said...

All that the divisive approach has achieved is to alienate large sections of Cameron's broad tent coalition. Even the left don't believe it. And that divisiveness erodes the trust that Cameron instantly inspired when he first campaigned for leadership.

The majority of us don't trust trust Brown any further than we could thrown him. However he's experienced - the devil we know. Given a choice between one spin merchant and another, I think the majority of us would plump for the devil we know.

The real Cameron, the one behind the spin mask, won our trust with his naturalness, courage and spontaneity, by trusting us enough to come out onto the streets to meet us. He won more support with that authentic expression of the man inside the mask than he'll ever win with a hundred well spun speeches.

That's where the real Cameron will beat Brown - outside of the political bubble, outside of the masks and the spin - because that's where Brown will never dare go.

Anonymous said...

Dave should be very careful. Because among the membership the Cornerstone Group have a lot of support. Cameron's only use is electoral, and the trend of recent polls shows that his usefulness is diminishing by the day. He might need all the friends he can get soon, and treating these decent Tories in the way he is should bring his ruin sooner rather than later.

After the revolution, Dave and others will hang from the lampposts.

Anonymous said...

with no MPs in the larger cities in Northern England.

You can take that for granted...William Hague is in charge of that project so inertia should be high on the agenda

Anonymous said...

I read the aims of the Cornerstone Group and found that I agreed with all of their precepts except one. I suppose that puts me into a tiny and delusional minority.

Victor

Man in a Shed said...

Pull out the cornerstone and what do you get ? A pile of rubble.

Be careful what you wish for.

Madasafish said...

" Because among the membership the Cornerstone Group have a lot of support"

Maybe.
But as ONE of the Cornerstone's is the support of the Anglican Church (worthy no doubt), that IMMEDIATELY puts of non Anglicans . So 90% of the population is excluded.

Hey but if the Conservative Party wishes to be a minority party - and a declining one at that - the Cornerstone Group make ideal leaders...

Anonymous said...

Maybe not that exclusive since their President is a Roman Catholic.

There endeth that conspiracy.

Anonymous said...

skaz = shuftie

Anonymous said...

How could a party that represents 90% of the population be a minority party? Surely a minority party would only represent the other 10%.

Anonymous said...

ALL political parties are by definition minorities....with 180.000 members Labour can hardly claim to be of the people and with 21.6% voters choosing it in the last General Election that only leaves 78.4% who were too revolted to vote for them.

I mean just who does this regime represent ?

At least 5 times as many people attend Church of England Services on a Sunday as join the Labour Party........there are more members of the RSPB than want to join factional groups like the Labour Party.

Anonymous said...

That must be a typo - doesn't he mean the Tombstone Group?

Anonymous said...

I agree with the approach to the Tombstone - giving Nadine 'bonkers' Dorries free rein to spill her 'mouth of the scouse' rantings, vitriol, bile and assorted nonsense to a wide range of audiences will guarantee its prompt destruction as a party within a party.