UK Government disbanded! Parliament dissolved!

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by Atahualpa
Why do the Tories have such a hard time

Short answer: because they're sh1te.

Long answer: because at the 1992 election they won on one platform only - the economy and their competence in running it. Polls showed that the electorate thought Labour would be better on healthcare, education, and so forth - but in the event they voted Tory because they wanted their incomes to keep going up (forgive the oversimplification, but that was the basic reasoning).

Now that perception has been utterly destroyed - the Conservatives are blamed for Black Wednesday (when they were forced to drop out of the exchange rate mechanism) and the ensuing recession. Now Labour (rightly or wrongly) has a reputation for economic competence that any Tory chancellor would envy; unable to challenge them there, the Tories have been desperately trying to gain ground in the social arena, and failing miserably for the most part. They have a dreadful tendency towards knee-jerk reactionism, attacking immigrants, ethnic minorities and asylum seekers with woeful predictability.

Add to this the recent furore over their proposed spending cuts (the party's deputy chairman was sacked, expelled and deselected after revealing that the Tories planned expenditure cuts far deeper than they'd announced). Add to that the depressing state of their election campaign, which (as the election flyer I got today testifies) focuses on hospital cleanliness, school discipline and the 'handover of power' to Brussels - distinctly lacklustre even when compared to the government's vague promises. Add to that...

I could go on. Suffice to say the party is weak, disorganised, has no clear agenda and has had its traditional electoral safeground comprehensively stolen by New Labour.

[Atahualpa]

Thx, I think that answers my question!

[Ben Kenobi]

I mean, everyone loves direct rule from London. Just ask the Northern Irish.

Awesome! How much are you willing to support those willing to throw off the shackles of our eastern emperors?

[C0ckney]

clear skies, when have the tories attacked 'ethnic minorities'?

i don't see why the tories should fail miserably on any 'social' agenda. the number of deaths from MRSA, and the undereporting of them, is a scandal, gun crime and violent crime in general is on the rise, and has been for some time, and our immigration system is, despite years of talk by labour, nothing short of shambolic. these are issues that people care about and the tories should certainly be attacking on these fronts.

[Dr Strangelove]

Couldn't Tony be removed via a vote of no confidence, or could it be that most Laborites are secretely pleased at the progress of the war in Iraq?

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Awesome! How much are you willing to support those willing to throw off the shackles of our eastern emperors?

Hey, if the Brits won't take you we could always try reviving "54 - 40 or fight".

[Ben Kenobi]

I'd like to remain a subject of the queen, thank you very much.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
I'd like to remain a subject of the queen, thank you very much.

Ahh, for the good old days when you could be compelled to attend the Queen's church too. Now that's monarchy!

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, if she's willing to start that up again, she's welcome to.

After all, the majority of those in her realm would be Catholics.

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by C0ckney
clear skies, when have the tories attacked 'ethnic minorities'?

Do the Romany ring a bell?
And you should've seen the campaign they ran in our local elections up north. In every ward they couldn't win they practically begged people to vote BNP 'to keep Labour out'.

i don't see why the tories should fail miserably on any 'social' agenda. the number of deaths from MRSA, and the undereporting of them, is a scandal, gun crime and violent crime in general is on the rise, and has been for some time, and our immigration system is, despite years of talk by labour, nothing short of shambolic. these are issues that people care about and the tories should certainly be attacking on these fronts.

The Conservative plan to stop MRSA deaths is, wait for it, to publish hospital cleanliness tables. Not to increase funding to badly overstretched hospital management departments, not to remove the absurd provision that forces them to contract out their cleaning services to the lowest bidder (read: crappiest provider), not even to place underperformers into some remedial management category (a reasonable ploy that's been used by Tories in the past) but to name and shame hospitals for doing what is forced upon them.

What I meant, however, editorials aside, is that in large part the Tories' social agenda has been usurped by Labour. "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" ring any bells? The Tories' problem is that they're left without a leg to stand on, playing catch-up to an agenda that they feel should be theirs by rights. I'm reminded of a Steve Bell cartoon portraying Jack Straw (then Home Secretary) and Tony Blair as 'Maggiepies', stealing jewellery labelled 'Law and Order' from Thatcher's handbag. The Tories' problem is that Labour make better Tories than they do; they're stuck needing to distance themselves from a government that's roundly hated, but that's roundly hated and sitting squarely in their traditional territory. Hence the voters leaving Labour in droves - but decamping to the Lib Dems rather than the Tories, as the polls show. And hence the attacks on the traditional middle-class bogeymen - asylum seekers, immigrants, yobs and so forth. Blair's Labour is pushing the Tories off their territory and onto the fringes; as an electoral strategy, you can't really fault them. After all, it's won them two, soon to be three elections.

[Seeker]

"We've got the Welsh"

.......

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by Clear Skies
Do the Romany ring a bell?
And you should've seen the campaign they ran in our local elections up north. In every ward they couldn't win they practically begged people to vote BNP 'to keep Labour out'.

yes as a matter of fact. so who has mentioned the romany, who are an ethnic minority, in a negative light? the answer is no one. the tories have mentioned ‘travellers’, who are not an 'ethnic minority'. take a look here for a discussion on the issue and exactly what the tories have said.

i'm sure you'll forgive me if i don't take your word for it about the BNP, don't suppose you have any proof...?

MRSA, well yeah great, attack the tory plans, if that makes you feel better. but you might want to remember who has been in power for eight years, increased NHS funding three fold and yet in all this time, with all this extra money (our money), still hasn't been able to keep hospitals clean. that record is what the tories are attacking, and rightly so.

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Well, if she's willing to start that up again, she's welcome to.

After all, the majority of those in her realm would be Catholics.

Ummmm.... You don't remember how state religion worked back in the days of yore do you? At the time of the American Revolution a royal subject could be any religion he wanted to..... provided he showed up at his Anglican parish on Sunday and paid his tithes.

[Clear Skies]

Originally posted by C0ckney
i'm sure you'll forgive me if i don't take your word for it about the BNP, don't suppose you have any proof...?

Nope. But I co-founded the anti-racist group at my sixth form that helped beat off the BNP candidates and we were appalled by the hostile attitude we got from the Conservative candidates. Since I didn't tape-record all the abuse we got, no, I can't prove it.

MRSA, well yeah great, attack the tory plans, if that makes you feel better. but you might want to remember who has been in power for eight years, increased NHS funding three fold and yet in all this time, with all this extra money (our money), still hasn't been able to keep hospitals clean. that record is what the tories are attacking, and rightly so.

But my point was that they aren't actually planning to do anything useful about it. There's no point 'attacking a record' when your own plans are just as dismal. It doesn't 'make me feel better'; I'd far rather there was an effective opposition to this excuse for a government, but this sort of non-policy makes me want to tear my hair out. Do you honestly think that simply publishing these 'tables' is going to solve the problem?

[RGBVideo]

"Romany" = gypsies?

But I co-founded the anti-racist group at my sixth form that helped beat off the BNP candidates and we were appalled by the hostile attitude we got from the Conservative candidates.

sounds really organised, generalise the whole parties from that experience, way to go.