Britain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague has startlingly declared that his party is on the right track and does not need to make any significant changes in order to be successful in the 2015 general election. This despite losing control of 10 county councils in local elections on May 2nd, while the right-wing UKIP picked up 147 seats nationally.
Hague, in fact, insisted that the current Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition does many of the things that UKIP voters are looking for, and that it was up to the government to get its message across more forcefully.
Said Hague: “"It's not a matter of changing course but it is a matter of pointing out that it is a choice at the next general election between a Conservative Prime Minister and a Labour Prime Minister and we are doing our utmost to tackle the issues that people are concerned about in this country. A General Election is not an indulgence as a local election or by-election can be. It is a choice. Do you want a Conservative government that is going on to carry on its important work and hold a referendum on the European Union, or do you want a Labour government that would go back to all the things that went wrong under Gordon Brown? We have to be clear that we will succeed in bringing down immigration, capping welfare, keeping down the cost of living for people, bringing down the deficit. These are part of our mission as a government - and we need to present that clearly to people over the next two years for the next general election."
Hague’s comments reveal the disconnect between the Tory leadership and the British people. Firstly he remains convinced that the existing status quo of Conservative v Labour will remain for eternity, when in fact it is only 65 years old. The ruling classes of both parties, just like Democrats and Republicans in America, cannot conceive that this arrangement could ever change. It’s an astonishing level of denial considering history yet these are the people who rule on both sides of the Atlantic.
Then his statement ‘do you want a Conservative government …. that will hold a referendum on the European Union’ sends heads spinning right of their necks. Hague claims that the votes are not there in parliament to force an EU vote. Yet this is the perfect election issue if the Tories were actually sincere. Demanding the vote and then pointing out those who oppose it is a winning election strategy. Instead, Conservatives have retreated from the issue and internally punish those who push for it.
Meanwhile, former Tory leadership contender David Davis has warned Prime Minister David Cameron to lose his Old Etonian advisers to get the party back on track. The MP for Haltemprice and Howden said as long ago as 2005 that people did not want "a privileged elite interested only in ourselves", but needs to understand "that actually we're on their side." He then added after the heavy election losses last week "The fact is that if we want to win the next election, we have to break this impression of being privileged and out of touch, The British public are neither snobs nor inverted snobs, but they do expect the Government to understand their problems and do something about it. That means more straight talking and fewer focus groups; more conventional Tory policies, not because they are Tory, but because they work; less pandering to metropolitan interest groups; and please, please, no more Old Etonian advisers."
It may well be because of their public school background that Tory leaders like Cameron are insulated from everyday opinions and unable to relate to them. It is a situation that must change if the party is to recover. Davis demonstrates his understanding of the situation when he says ‘more conventional Tory policies, not because they are Tory, but because they work.’ Conservatism does work, but too many Conservatives are afraid to try it!
