Palace Intrigue
by Max Wind-Cowie
Allegra Stratton indulges in a fascinating spot of Kremlinology in today’s Guardian – exploring the rivalries and rifts at the heart of Nick Clegg’s team (a cabal of advisers who now insist, apparently, on being collectively referred to as ‘the palace’). Of course, the article’s all the more interesting to Demos staffers for the inclusion of a certain Richard Reeves (our much missed former Director) in any Clegg-related gossip worth its salt, but what struck me was not the titbits of information on a former comrade but the dismissiveness with which the LibDems now regard something much closer to my heart; progressive conservatism.
‘The Tories are vacating the territory of progress’ is the allegation, whilst an aide describes Steve Hilton as ‘Thatcher in a tee-shirt’. It would seem that the Liberal Democrats have confidently decided that the coalition is no longer a tug-of-war over who owns the caring, compassionate and centrist territory – that the Tories have dumped the rope altogether and slunk off to the Right in some self-mutilating sulk. As proof, these jubilant Liberals cite the response of senior Conservatives to the looting that erupted in August – describing the reaction as ‘Cameron’s Summer of Rage’.
All of which is well and good. Certainly, mass outbreaks of criminality gave us Tories pause for thought and violently reminded us of a central conviction – that culture is the force about which we most care. But does that really mean that we have ‘vacated the territory of progress’? Not in the slightest. The Conservative Party may have remembered that changing the culture of Britain – to make it more responsible, more morally certain and less equivocal – is our mission in life but just look at how we seek to turn that aspiration into reality. Banking reform, elected Police Commissioners, free schools and pupil premiums, welfare reform – these are not the extremes of politics. They are nuanced, thoughtful and progressive interventions designed to push and provoke cultural change in a conservative direction by both enshrining responsibility and cutting dependency and want. This is the centre-ground of British politics.
The differentiation sought by LibDems can only lead them to define themselves against the Conservative Party by drifting Leftwards. Fine. But the reality to which ‘the Palace’ must wake up is that the British public don’t define their centre as equidistant between Ed and Dave. They define it far to the Right of the Labour Party and, often, far to the Right of the Conservative Party. In pursuing Westminster’s cold calculation of what the centre is, the LibDems risk abandoning the British public’s view of it. That would be a rather silly mistake to make just as our third party is finally showing, through coalition with the Conservatives, that ‘competence with compassion’ is something they can just about muster.
Mark Macho
The last time I heard about moral certainty from the Tories
Maggie Thatcher was the reigning Joan of Arc.
I guess that is why after all that virtuous handbagging I now
pay my electricity bill to EDF which for all those nurtured
in monoglot British culture stands for:
Electricite' de France.
Voltaire
"the British public don’t define their centre as equidistant between Ed and Dave. They define it far to the Right of the Labour Party and, often, far to the Right of the Conservative Party" And the evidence for this is?
As Malcolm Rasala says how many people vote Conservative? When did their vote last exceed over 50% of voters? How many people vote to the right of the Tory Party for the National Front say? Miniscule numbers. So there is not a shred of supportable evidence for silly assertion.
The problem of guys like Max Wind-Cowie is he patently reads too many Sun, Mail and Telegraph editorials. However, they do not represent the British people despite their claiming that they do. If they did 2 out of 3 voters as mentioned above would vote Tory. In reality it is always closer to 1 and 3 a minority of the British voters.
And, given the dire mess the unadulterated greed of Tory bankers have just landed us in, little wonder.
Max Wind-Cowie
Gosh. A raft of remarkably similar comments. Most grateful to you all for your contributions.
I don't, for a second, believe that a majority of the British public voted for the Conservative Party. On a raft of issues, however, the public is consistently to the Right of the Conservative Party (which does not, by the way, equate to voting for the National Front). On immigration most people would rather a lower cap, on Europe most people favour referendum and/or repatriation of powers, on welfare most people want more conditionality, on capital punishment a majority believe in reinstatement and on education a majority rank discipline as the most important factor. I don't agree with all of these positions - I simply report them as fact and would suggest to the LibDems that ignoring public concern for public morality is politically suicidal.
Malcolm, as a final point (and to allay your kind concern), I'm not an alcoholic. But yes, I do read the Daily Mail. I also read the Guardian. Both are concerned with public morality (allbeit in differing ways) as are both Ed 'something-for-something' Miliband and David 'responsibility' Cameron. British politics is regaining its moral spine.
Malcolm Rasala
Max where is your evidence? Merely parroting Red-Top editorials is not evidence of what the British people believe. You may be correct. But you have no widespread evidence for your assertions. Pray tell when did the British vote on 'immigration, Europe, capital punishment, education, conditionality et al? And if they do believe in all your right wing nonsenses why did they not give your party a majority in the last election? um???? Answer that one.......
Finally, British politics regaining its moral spine? In what way? By standing up to the bankers in 2019? By cutting our armed forces and having aircraft carriers with no planes? By making it harder for working class kids to go to university? By healthcare reforms no one wants aimed at benefiting Tory donors? By selling off our forests to Tory donors? By selling off our green belt to Tory developers? Public Morality? More like the morality of Greed. The Nasty Party - to quote a certain Tory......returns.
In essence as the new Demos report 'Do you believe everything you read' ...."mistakes, half truths, propaganda, misinformation and general nonsense".
Mark Macho
Max, most people this...and most people that....How
do you know? By polls paid for by groups with declared
and undeclared interests? By newspapers with political
bias,corrupt owners and party political customers? Puhleeze.
There was once a time when politicians argued the
reasons for their case then trusted to the public to judge
and vote. Would you avoid this step altogether and get
your opinions by crowd sampling? The crowd did not want
computers or votes for women until they had them. And now they
would be hard to take away.
Besides if you were correct the majority would have voted
Tory. The majority did NOT.
We are approaching a time when if crowd sampling is the only function of politicos and representatives and MPs
we may do away with them altogether and vote with our laptops and do it efficiently.
Voltaire
Yes just think Mark everyone could vote via their laptops. We would not need politicians or their hanger- on like Max and his ever biased propagandist friends. The orders of the people - the supposed middle ground Max pines for - would be implemented by our hard working civil servants. Then he would have the 'moral spine' policies he clear craves for.
One thing though. Did not such a voting system lead to the defeat of Athens at Syracusa? And the death of the Athenian Empire?
Max Wind-Cowie
Good morning Malcolm, Mark and Voltaire. Again, commendations on your closely aligned and almost simultaneous comments.
Yes, I do premise my assertions about the moral preferences of the British public on opinion polls. I don't think that then translates into it being 'right' to carry through everything for which there is a public preference. I am deeply opposed to the death penalty for instance. But I do think such polling can tell us something interesting and useful about where the public are on issues of morality. The blog itself was about the LibDems and whether reasserting an essentially Left-wing belief about society will be helpful to them. I believe - based upon polling, the focus groups I regularly carry out as part of my job and on recent electoral results such as the defeat of AV - that the public are a generally quite conservative people. That doesn't mean they will always vote Conservative but it tells us something about their preferences.
Hope that helps to clarify chaps.
Malcolm Rasala
If as you assert Max" the public are a generally quite conservative" why do they not vote a majority to the Conservatives? If you are right
why did 2 in every 3 of them who voted in the last election, despite the legacy of Labour, not vote Conservative? And arguably add in the rest who could not bother to vote Conservative the number of the public who voted Tory thus evidencing your 'the public are a generally quite conservative' was nearer 1 in 4. Thus, possibly, 3 out of every 4 do not hold 'conservative' views. So once again you appear to make asssertions not supported by the facts. In polite society we call this bigotry.
PS
In impolite society something to do with the hind end of male cattle comes to mind
Malcolm Rasala
We have a minority Tory Government. Only 36% of those who voted in the last election voted Tory. This means 64% did not. That Max, in case your maths is deserting you, means two out of every three people who voted DID NOT vote Conservative. Two out of every three people who voted do not like and do not want your Conservative 'culture'. Soto argue that this Tory greed driven culture is what the nation wants and voted for is to put it kindly 'delusional Nuts'.
Already people are looking on with increasing anger at a Tory government trying to sell off the nations forests and green field to its party donating developer friends; even the Daily Telegraph thinks the greed is beyond Thatcherite. And look how history views her evilness.
Add this to the all other greed motivated policies that always underly Tory policy and to argue that the centre is 'far to the Right of the Conservative Party' indicates either you have been hitting the bottle or reading too many Daily Mail editorials. You need to go into a dark room and regain your sanity. The above nonsense suggests you are loosing it big time. 2 out of 3 voters Max DID NOT VOTE FOR YOUR TORY CULTURE. Say it slowly until the penny drops.