One of the things that irritates me about the Tories in opposition is that, unlike Labour, they have not learnt from their mistakes. They seem to have the unfortunate tendency to think that 1997 (where they experienced their heaviest defeat) was a blip, a protest vote. They seem to fail to realise that two aspects of their psyche, the dirty tricks and the desire to privatise every institution, is not shared by the electorate which seems to be essentially Social Democratic. To be fair though, many of them are not like that individually, but as a political party the story is sadly different.
So it is that this week we have seen this badly hidden Tory nature emerge. First of all there is the story, rather intriguing one at that, that it seems that Tory Central Office was behind some of the smears against Nick Clegg and Osborne may well have been involved in particular. If true, then it is a sad state of affairs and says (not for the first time) about Cameron's judgement in picking this individual as his Economic spokesman. Are the Tories really serious about him becoming Chancellor?
The 2nd story is about the constant fear many of us have that the Tories will privatise the BBC. They say they won't and some put it down to paranoia, but 45 respected individuals inc David Tennant have written to the Observer with a different point of view.
If there is going to be a hung Parliament, the Liberal Democrats must ask themselves whether it is the Conservatives or Labour who are worth supporting in terms of protecting value and quality in our services and, given the recent attacks on them, whether it is worth their self respect in supporting the Conservatives
3 comments:
Re: The BBC. If I told you that I had a constant fear that Labour would turn Britain into a socialist state, you would, no doubt, tell me that that was quite wrong.
But if I then believed someone who said 'No, it will happen', would you not think me unwise for choosing to believe them rather than you who was in the know?
After all, you are a member of the Labour Party. If anyone knows its policies, you do!
If that is the case, why should we believe Mr Tennant et al over the Conservative Party?
Or is this simply a case of declining to believe that the Tories are telling the truth on this matter? If it turns out that they are, I trust that you will promise to publish a retraction!
Malcolm there are many Tories who are keen for this to happen (just look at Twitter feeds). How will Cameron keep them at bay if the Tories get in
I'm sure the Tories are quite capable of keeping the fringe right at bay.
In just the same way that New Labour have been effective at keeping out the fringe left.
As Malcolm pointed out.
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