In the past the Conservatives have ensured their survival by a major pivot on some major policy issue (e.g. the Corn Laws). There is no present sign of a major pivot, just more of the same old, same old.
What the Conservatives could do is adopt Reform policies, maybe even form a new Conservative and Reform Party. But they won't.
DJ - yes, the Tories need a major policy issue, although getting voters to believe they intend to and are capable of delivering it may turn out to be too difficult to have a major impact. What they could aim for is to take advantage of Labour-induced despair.
For a conservative, instinctively 'bottom up' Party, the Conservatives have lumbered themselves with a remarkably 'top down' Party organisation. They could use the present shrinkage of CCHQ to devolve radically - for example, return the power to select candidates to the constituency associations. When the soul of the Party returns to being truly 'bottom up', they might start generating the kind of 'bottom up' policies that the electorate would want to vote for.
Reform are of course imploding as they try desperately to get rid of Lowe. And it does indeed look desperate, as they got him on charges of bullying the day after he was outspoken about Farage. You'd think that they would have learned how not to do things from the main parties, but no....
My guess is that the Lib Dems are hoovering up "moderate" voters who think that Reform is too right wing, have got the message about Starmer, yet realise Kemi is a dud. Or maybe they are objecting to a Nigerian leader, which makes them too racist even for Reform....
It's a long time until the next election, though. The internet will bring about a lot of cultural change before then, and there are of course further bear traps for Labour coming up.
Anon - good point, a 'top down' Party organisation hinders feedback from local parties, especially feedback about voter concerns. The Conservatives became so incompetently unresponsive that they deserved to fail.
Sam - yes it does look desperate, it also makes them look like just another political party with familiar internal ego problems. The internet probably will bring cultural change and political parties seem likely to struggle in their efforts to keep up with it.
5 comments:
In the past the Conservatives have ensured their survival by a major pivot on some major policy issue (e.g. the Corn Laws). There is no present sign of a major pivot, just more of the same old, same old.
What the Conservatives could do is adopt Reform policies, maybe even form a new Conservative and Reform Party. But they won't.
DJ - yes, the Tories need a major policy issue, although getting voters to believe they intend to and are capable of delivering it may turn out to be too difficult to have a major impact. What they could aim for is to take advantage of Labour-induced despair.
For a conservative, instinctively 'bottom up' Party, the Conservatives have lumbered themselves with a remarkably 'top down' Party organisation. They could use the present shrinkage of CCHQ to devolve radically - for example, return the power to select candidates to the constituency associations. When the soul of the Party returns to being truly 'bottom up', they might start generating the kind of 'bottom up' policies that the electorate would want to vote for.
Reform are of course imploding as they try desperately to get rid of Lowe. And it does indeed look desperate, as they got him on charges of bullying the day after he was outspoken about Farage. You'd think that they would have learned how not to do things from the main parties, but no....
My guess is that the Lib Dems are hoovering up "moderate" voters who think that Reform is too right wing, have got the message about Starmer, yet realise Kemi is a dud. Or maybe they are objecting to a Nigerian leader, which makes them too racist even for Reform....
It's a long time until the next election, though. The internet will bring about a lot of cultural change before then, and there are of course further bear traps for Labour coming up.
Anon - good point, a 'top down' Party organisation hinders feedback from local parties, especially feedback about voter concerns. The Conservatives became so incompetently unresponsive that they deserved to fail.
Sam - yes it does look desperate, it also makes them look like just another political party with familiar internal ego problems. The internet probably will bring cultural change and political parties seem likely to struggle in their efforts to keep up with it.
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