Comments on: The Cameron Dilemma

By: Chris Gale

Chris Gale — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:47:53 +0000

Tom

Please tell your colleagues how important it is to highlight to the public what it is that Cameron stands for re hunting.
The public must be made aware of his closeness to the hunt thugs and his pledge to ensure the ban on hunting is repealed as soon as he gets into power.
Much of the media is pro hunt (including papers like the Guardian and Independent) so it is vital the message is got out there to voters.
Many thanks

Chris

By: Linda

Linda — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 19:34:57 +0000

I enjoyed your post. I was very active in those days, and yes I viewed John Golding as impossibly right wing. There was a thrill about being on the left of the political spectrum. Mind you the consequences of it all brought enlightenment – that and higher education! Ideas alone don’t make society more inclusive and fairer, neither does the economy its back to tactics and political manoevering or, as they say the Art of the Possible. So 30 years on I am a big supporter of new labour but I just love the understanding of how things work Marx gives us.

By: Tom

Tom — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 09:53:12 +0000

Bob – Yes, the splitters and the Falklands played a part but I think it is impossible to make the case that our policies at the time were credible to most people in Britain. Though you’re right about one thing, we will be arguing about this in 20 years time.

Andrew, thanks for that personal analysis. I wish I’d met John.

Dominic – welcome back, I’ve not seen you over here for a while. Your harsh views on Osborne are chronicled all over the internet. I take it you wont be supporting him for the leadership.

Chris- Interesting post. I think Cameron said that the first thing he will do if he became PM was to repeal the hunting laws, so it is no surprise that the countryside alliance are supporting him.

By: Chris Gale

Chris Gale — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 08:36:58 +0000

It is a mistake to think he is not popular with his party in the deep blue shires.

I live in the West Country and he can do nothing wrong as far as the Tories here are concerned, as long as he delivers on hunting and Europe they dont mind what else he comes out with.

They have 100s of activists (many of them supplied by the Countryside Alliance) lined up for each of the hyper marginal seats in the West Of England that they must win if they are to form a government.

Opinion polls dont show all this.

Camerons hunting friends have 50,000 activists ready (and already working on the ground) to take the marginal seats.

By: Andrew Brown

Andrew Brown — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 06:52:54 +0000

Good post, Tom. But I talked to John about the way he approached the manifesto in ’83 and while he may have not done one of his famous rearguard actions the reason was less about the post election fall out for the hard Left than his inability to get the vote for a more sensible position.

He told me that the group he drew together ranged from the hard Right through to those who were loyal to Foot. Many of that group were anti-Europe and anti-nuclear, positions that Foot also took, and that meant that people like him, Kaufman and Hattersley could do little to change the manifesto.

Of course John and his allies did then go on to organise even more effectively against the hard Left post ’83, helping Kinnock to do what needed to be done.

What I can’t see – but maybe I’m not best placed – is where are the John Golding’s of the Conservative Party?

By: Praguetory

Praguetory — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:15:21 +0000

Most of this is noise and the grammar and spelling is as poor as usual, but you know as well as anyone that Cameron is Osborne’s only meal ticket. Re the nasty party, yes, I expect him to attack the government record.

By: zenfrog

zenfrog — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 22:07:57 +0000

Hi sorry if this isn’t the correct place, but I wonder if you could blog about the HEFCE funding cuts. It’s a hugely important issue, and it’s not going to go away. We’ve got a facebook group, a web site going live very shortly and various blogs.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5335572035

I’d love to know your stance on this issue.
Many thanks
Linda

By: Bob Piper

Bob Piper — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 19:57:06 +0000

What I was most impressed with about Golding’s strategy was the way he succeeded in engineering that little war in the South Atlantic that took Thatcher from being polled as the most unpopular Conservative leader in polling history in Bob Worcester’s polls… to a resounding victory. This, of course, gave the non-SDP right-wing the opportunity they were looking for; a chance to blame the defeat not on the hopelessness they had created in office between ’76 and ’79… but the poor beleaguered left who had never held office for a single day.

In 20 years time Tom, when I’m dribbling in the corner of my MacDonalds Rest Home for the Elderly, you will be able to re-write the history of our defeat in 2013… and I bet the left are blamed for our defeat. You see… in one version of history, it is always our fault.