Europe needs to get real on defence; Britain needs to get real on Europe
13 February 2025
Let’s see more of the Tory candidates please
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Post
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6 October 2009
I didn't see much of the Tory Conference yesterday. I was locked away in a radio studio for most of the morning, doing interviews in advance of World Mental Health Day later this week. Then lunch with a former colleague before hopping on a (strangely quiet) train to Leeds, where I was doing a speech, time for a run and a quick bite to eat and that was the day pretty much gone.
So BBC Newsnight was my way of catching up, and there was a very telling moment during the programme. No, not Jeremy Paxman looking heavenwards and sneering at a politician, in this case Theresa May. That particular look is as much part of the programme as the titles. Nor was it Paxo's jovial exchange with Boris Johnson who, yes folks, really is as big a clown as he seems.
No, for me it was the moment when Michael Crick tried to quiz a number of candidates about their position on a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. I know the Tory line on Lisbon is far from clear, and that therefore these inexperienced would-be politicians might worry about a sustained interview on the subject, the likes of which their leader did not do very well at the weekend.
But what was extraordinary was that none of them could utter a word. The order had apparently gone out, nobody was to speak on Lisbon. So all we got were these mumbled dismissals of Mr Crick and, in one case, one of the wannabees pretending that David Cameron was calling him on the other side of the room.
But we also got the sense that these people were not really on the same planet as the people whose support they are seeking. And as they scuttled away to their next champagne reception, I was left realising that apart from a very small number of people at the top of the party, the country knows next to nothing about the people standing for the Tories at the election.
Newsnight gave us a tiny glimpse last night, which made me think this could be an election where local politics counts more than usual, and where candidates such as those we saw last night could become a serious liability.
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I think it helps to seee more of Cameron too. Just heard him say he went hunting. They have not changed one iota.
IS it not interesting that even though he has a problem with his voice, Cameron is doing all the interviews on Osborne’s big day. Could that be because the Tories know that the public see Osborne as even more of a toffee-nosed publicschool boy than Cameron who is … you know the rest
Paxman was far too chummy with Johnson.What was all that calling him by his first name? Rude and agressive except when he has blond Tories on maybe?
….”I know the Tory line on Lisbon is far from clear….”
It is perfectly clear to me…If the Tories are in power before the treaty is ratified by all members there will be a referendum.. If it is ratified before the Tories are in power then they will look at the available options…which part of that do you find difficult to understand? now who was it that promised a referendum in his manifesto?..ah yes I remember none other than your friend Gordon Brown…
How about “Lets see more of the last Labour Party manifesto please” ?
You know. The one in which Blair/Brown PROMISED the British people a referendum on the EU treaty.
Cameron does seem to be doing the rounds today over and above his Burlingdon Club ‘oik’ Osborne on what’s supposed to be his day…
thought he (Cameron) had a pretty easy ride on FiveLive this morning – no mention of Europe…
Your point that the electorate doesn’t know who the Tories really are is a good one – and more needs to be done to expose the true nature of the beast. I read somewhere there are 15 ‘Old Etonians’ on Camerons front bench, which to my mind is hardly representative of the British electorate.
Lackluster performances so far – apart from “Bozza” – from Manchester. These men don´t have any substance in them. Of course the “media hyenas” think they are the best thing since sliced bread.
AC. Have you got a Rapid Rebuttal for William Hague’s list of Labour Achievements? (Hat-Tip Dizzy Thinks)
– GBP22,500 of debt for every child born in Britain
– 111 tax rises from a government that promised no tax rises at all
– The longest national tax code in the world
– 100,000 million pounds drained from British pension funds
– Gun crime up by 57%
– Violent crime up 70%
– The highest proportion of children living in workless households anywhere in Europe
– The number of pensioners living in poverty up by 100,000
– The lowest level of social mobility in the developed world
– The only G7 country with no growth this year
– One in six young people neither earning nor learning
– 5 million people on out-of -work benefits
– Missing the target of halving child poverty
– Ending up with child poverty rising in each of the last three years instead
– Cancer survival rates among the worst in Europe
– Hospital-acquired infections killing nearly three times as many people as are killed on the roads
– Falling from 4th to 13th in the world competitiveness league
– Falling from 8th to 24th in the world education rankings in maths
– Falling from 7th to 17th in the rankings in literacy
– The police spending more time on paperwork than on the beat
– Fatal stabbings at an all-time high
– Prisoners released without serving their sentences
– Foreign prisoners released and never deported
– 7 million people without an NHS dentist
– Small business taxes going up
– Business taxes raised from among the lowest to among the highest in Europe
– Tax rises for working people set for after the election
– The 10p tax rate abolished
– And the ludicrous promise to have ended boom and bust
– Our gold reserves sold for a quarter of their worth
– Our armed forces overstretched and under-supplied
– Profitable post offices closed against their will
– One of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe
– The ‘Golden Rule’ on borrowing abandoned when it didn’t fit
– Police inspectors in 10,Downing Street
– Dossiers that were dodgy
– Mandelson resigning the first time
– Mandelson resigning the second time
– Mandelson coming back for a third time
– Bad news buried
– Personal details lost
– An election bottled
– A referendum denied
Dear AC
I listened with great interest to a forum on Radio5 Live yesterday where ory politicians were quizzed by Manchester locals on the ratification of the lisbon Treaty and Job creation. One lady put it so well at the end of the debate she said she came in thinking she was going to vote Conservative and had changed her mind again. This was due to the fact that the audience could not get a yes or no answer on Lisbon and the Conservatives just wanted to play musical chairs with further education rather than creating jobs.
best wishes
gary
Paxman was far too rude to Mr Johnson. What was all that calling him by his first name?
I sometimes think that your naivety in media matters gets in the way of your analyses.
Michael Crick has an agenda. What you took from his package – a cosily reassuring anti-Tory message – was exactly what he wanted you – and YOU wanted YOU – to take.
It’s a bit like saying, “Communism is right – even Fidel Castro says so!”
Once you’ve been in this game long enough, Alastair, you won’t be so easily sucked in.
Yes let’s see much more of the Tories please! The more they pop up in public the fewer votes they’re likely to attract.
David “Country Sports” Cameron got a pretty easy ride from a clearly nervous Evan Davies on Today this morning. Even so he managed to display no real grasp of his party’s pension proposals – he didn’t even know if the potential savings included or excluded women – and anyway the proposal turns out to be to hold a review. So no substantive proposal at all then.
As the US President is alleged to have remarked “what a lightweight”….