Archive for the ‘Conservatives’ Category
Johnson closes in on Livingstone
The Guardian reports that Ladbrokes has cut the odds on Boris Johnson succeeding Ken Livingstone as mayor of London, as polls last night appeared to swing in favour of the bumbling blonde MP. Whilst the betting shops don’t always get it right, they’re certainly not stupid and won’t offer odds that they think don’t reflect a realistic assessment of the outcome. I’m not surprised that it’s turning out to be such a close race though, as both candidates have strengths which oppose their opponent’s weaknesses. Livingstone has the advantage of being the incumbent and well-known to the people of London, but this could backfire given that he’s bound to have upset a lot of people whilst he’s been in office. Johnson, on the other hand, is a new face, has lots of energy for campaigning, and, so far, doesn’t appear to have trodden on the toes of too many Londoners.
Personally, I really couldn’t care less who gets elected as Mayor of London, as I don’t live in the city and only visit it about once a month on average. However, given that London’s mayor actually has a significant budget and a say in matters such as public transport, it’s an important decision for Londoners to make. Also, given the radically different personalities of Livingstone and Johnson, I suspect this will be an interesting race to watch over the next few weeks.
From yellow to blue
Here’s something you don’t hear every day, a Liberal Democrat defecting to the Conservative party. Not only is this an unusual switch—what with the Lib Dems consisting largely of rejects from other parties—but it gives the Tories their first council seat in Manchester for over a decade. Admittedly it’s only one councillor rather than a wave of defections, but given the strategic nature of Manchester and the need for the Tories to make inroads in the inner cities if they want to regain their lost status as a meaningful political force, I can imagine Conservative Central Office making a big song and dance about this news story.
Further reading
More female Tory MPs on the horizon?
Conservative leader David Cameron has announced new measures to bolster his existing plans to get more female MPs into the party. He has already been pushing pro-female measures for some time, but the new rules go even further than before. The main change is that a minimum of two out of the final four candidates shortlisted for selection (from whom the local party executive will choose the constituency’s Prospective Parliamentary Candidate) must be women.
Whilst I generally support the principle of encouraging people from underrepresented groups to get involved in politics, I think Cameron is using the wrong methods to achieve this. First of all, his policy is basically one of positive discrimination, and is the same as that used by my local students’ union to ensure that at least half the delegates to the NUS conference are women. Note that this restriction does not work both ways, as under these rules you could have a selection of candidates who were all female, but not a selection consisting entirely of male candidates. I’m not a fan of quotas in general, but if you’re going to insist on imposing them then at least make the figures fair to both sides. A better way to ensure a more even gender distribution would be to have a rule stating that one of the candidates must be female, another must be male, and the gender of the remainding two candidates is not an issue. This would ensure that both sexes would be represented by at least one candidate, whilst at the same time eliminating the possibility of the list comprising of candidates from one gender only.
One consequence that I fear may come about as a result of the application of this rule is the selection of candidates based purely on their gender. This could be manifested in two ways. Firstly, there is the possibility of women being put up as so-called “paper candidates”, where they are not expected to win but are on the ballot paper just to make up the numbers and keep Mr Cameron happy. The other possibility is where there is a choice between a male and a female candidate, and the woman is chosen because of her gender rather than her ability to do the job (I’m not implying that the female candidate wouldn’t be a better choice for other reasons, but the decision should be made on the basis of ability, not gender).
The other problem with this method of selection is that, in my opinion at least, it comes across as being somewhat patronising and degrading to female candidates. I don’t think any woman would like to be told or made to feel that she had been selected just because she was female, any more than a male candidate would want to find out that he had been turned down because there weren’t enough women on the shortlist.
In fact this whole debate, as is often the case in British politics, sounds suspiciously like an episode of the popular sitcom, Yes (Prime) Minister. The episode in question, ‘Equal Opportunities’, begins with Jim Hacker’s (the Minister for Administrative Affairs) plan to introduce more women into the top jobs in the civil service. As is usually the case, his plan is defeated by Sir Humphrey Appleby, and the final moments of the episode show him being admonished by one of the women he tries to promote, who accuses him of being patronising and treating her merely as part of a quota. Perhaps something similar could happen to David Cameron in the coming months?
Further reading
New logo for the Conservatives?
There has been some speculation over the last week about the possibility of the Conservative Party adopting a new logo to replace the symbolic hand carrying a torch that has been used since 1977. The torch itself underwent a makeover in 2004, but it was still the same recognisable logo, although personally I think it looked a bit less symbolic afterwards. The actual details of the new logo have not been officially released, but a scan of the image has appeared on the BBC website and the general consensus seems to be that it will consist of an oak tree in some form.
My thoughts on the proposed new logo are somewhat mixed. First of all, I think the party really needs to concentrate on developing and publicising new policies, rather than embarking on a quest to find a new logo, which will probably create internal rumblings within the party—something to be avoided at all costs. Ditching the torch will almost certainly antagonise the older members of the party grassroots, but then again it’s probably about time that they were pushed to one side to an extent anyway.
However, I do think that a new logo will help move the image of the Conservatives away from the Thatcher era, the shadow of which still hangs over the party to an extent (I remember asking at a party meeting if it was about time to cast off the spectre of Thatcherism and get young people involved—it resulted in a round of applause but of course nothing came of it). With a new leader and more liberal policies, the party does seem to looking forward to the future instead of back to the past of the 80’s heydays. A new logo might be the final nail in the coffin of the old “home guard” Conservatives and the bridge to a prosperous future for a party that is starting to once again look like it could win a general election.
As for the logo itself (as opposed to whether a new one is actually needed), I think the oak tree is a bit of a strange choice. A tree is not a symbol that I would associate with politics in general (except perhaps with the Green Party), and certainly not with the Conservatives. It does appear that some of the logo will feature the traditional Tory blue though, but I remain unconvinced about how the general public will see an oak tree logo and think “Vote Conservative”—which is presumably the overall aim. Time will tell though, as it always does.
Further coverage
Cameron on Radio 1
David Cameron is due to be interviewed on the Coling & Edith show today, broadcast between 1pm and 4pm. You can submit questions online or via email to colinandedith@bbc.co.uk. I’ve already asked the following question so we’ll see if it gets put to Cameron:
What are you going to do to convince previous members to rejoin the Party after leaving through becoming disillusioned with its direction over the past two general elections?
Conservatives to redistribute wealth?
Tories back wealth redistribution via BBC News – Politics
In a surprise move that I never expected to see from the Conservative party, Oliver Letwin – who has recently been put in charge of overhauling party policy in the next eighteen months – has said that a future Conservative government should make wealth distribution one of its goals. This is in an interview in the Daily Telegraph no less – a paper whose readership generally sways towards backing the Tories and centre right policies.
More Information
Boris for PM
One of my friends just forwarded me a to this hilarious pledge on PledgeBank. Only 818 people have signed up at the time of writing this post, but I’ve lost count of the number of people who have told me that they’d vote Conservative if Boris was the leader of the party.
It’s unlikely that this pledge will change anything, however we can but hope…
Boris Johnson returns to the front bench
Everyone’s favourite bumbling politician, the Right Honourable Boris Johnson, MP for Henley, has been appointed Shadow Education Minister by the new Conservative leader David Cameron. It’s not the first time Boris has been on the front bench; many of us can still remember the day he was appointed Shadow Arts Minister, only to be sacked later on for failing to disclose details of his personal life – including an extra-marital affair. Hopefully this time he’ll manage to stay in the job for longer, perhaps even making it into the Cabinet itself if the Conservatives win the next general election (something which, until recently, seemed impossible but is now within reach).
Unfortunately the demands of the post mean that Boris will be stepping down from his role as editor of the Spectator, which he has been involved with for over six years. It’s a shame to see him leave the magazine, but I’m sure they’ll appoint a new editor who, whilst perhaps not quite as eccentric a figure as Boris, will do an excellent job of continuing the success it has enjoyed over the past few years.
In the meantime, best of luck to Mr Johnson in his new job, hopefully he’ll give the current Minister for Education, Ruth Kelly (who is MP for Bolton West, not that far away from me) a run for her money over the coming months.
Further coverage
Who’s going to be the next leader of the Conservative party?
A lot of people have been asking me this question lately, mainly because of my old ties with the party and also because I have a keen interest in politics. My answer is generally “I don’t know, and if I did then I’d be down at the bookies placing a large sum of money on said candidate”, but even now I feel unable to even guess as to how the contest will end.
The vast majority of media sources seem to be predicting a win for David Cameron, with up to a 2:1 ratio in votes. Watching the Daily Politics on BBC 2 today showed this to great effect – almost everyone question was along the lines of “so what do you expect Cameron to do when he takes over the leadership?”, and only occasionally was reference made to the fact that the result has not yet been announced.
Going off what the pundits and the media say, perhaps it would be most sensible for me to place my hypothetical money – I generally don’t gamble with cold, hard cash – on Cameron breaking through the finish line with Davis still only half way around the track. However, the Conservative party has a habit of not picking the front runner – a recent example of this can be seen in the result of the last leadership election (discounting when Michael Howard was made leader, as he was uncontested and therefore won by defaul) when a lot of people were backing Michael Portillo, only to have Iain Duncan Smith, who most people had never heard of, granted the leadership by a ratio of three votes to two against Kenneth Clarke.
Overall, I think that the vote is going to be a lot closer than people have been predicting, and it won’t necessarily be all sweetness and roses for young Cameron. I still believe he is more likely than Davis to take the crown of thorns that is the leadership of the Conservative party, but today’s result has the potential to surprise everyone so I’m not coming down from the fence just yet.
Conservative leadership contest comes to an end
Tories set to unveil new leader via BBC News
As the race to become leader of the Conservative party closes, supporters of both candidates must now spend a nervewracking day patiently awaiting for the result of the ballot of around a quarter of a million party members. The votes are currently being counted by the Electoral Reform Commission, and a final result is expected at 1500 GMT today. Until then we can only guess as to what the outcome will be and even then it will be some time before we will see if the Tories have finally chosen a leader who can take them to victory at the next election, or at least make them a half decent Official Opposition to the current Labour government which seems hell bent on pushing through legislation that is generally either impractical or widely unpopular (or in many cases a combination of the two).
Although I haven’t been a member of the Conservatives for some time, I still feel a connection and a sense of dependancy on this leadership contest. It saddens me when I hear a lot of people saying “we want the successful candidate to be someone who will continue to split the Conservative party and ensure that they never win another election”. Not only does this show an unwillingness to accept that things may have changed since Thatcher’s era (ironically this is an accusation that people often level at the party itself), but it also demonstrates a complete lack of understanding about how the political system works.
Even if you utterly hate and despise everything about the Tories, the fact remains that they are the only real opposition to the government. Admittedly the Liberal Democrats are also on the opposition benches, but they hold less than a third of the number of seats currently controlled by the Conservatives, and their party does not contain many political heavyweights, not to mention a large number of people who have served in government in the past. Like it or not, for the time being the Conservatives are the main body of opposition in the House of Commons, and in a democracy it’s vital that you have a strong force keeping a check on the government, regardless of whether you agree with the policies being put forward by either side. Wishing for a further weakened Conservative party is giving more strength to a Labour government which is already showing signs of attempting to use its majority to steamroller through its legislative programme with little or no scrunity.