Moral values call to Tory leader

[Anarcho-Socialist]

Conservative traditionalists have entered the fledgling Tory leadership contest bypushing their next leader to fight liberal attitudes.
A group of "socially conservative" Tory MPs say the party should echo George Bush's "faith, flag and family" slogan.

Tory MP Edward Leigh says his party has become "too concerned with being on message" and must be more radical. His call comes after frontbencher Alan Duncan said the "Tory Taleban" risked consigning the party to oblivion. He criticised the party's "moralising wing" over social attitudes.

Mr Leigh marks a counter-offensive against Tory "modernisers" in the new pamphlet from the new Cornerstone Group of about 25 MPs. He says: "Combined, tradition, the nation, the family and free enterprise represent the instincts and preoccupations of most Britons and so, unsurprisingly, they have the capacity to inspire.

"In the USA too, these core conservative issues excite voters. George Bush understands this and wins. Strangely, the Conservative Party has deserted conservative Britain, and so Britons have deserted us."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713181.stm
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A reminder that the 'Nasty Party' lingers on.

[Mr Creosote]

1. If they think

that the way to win is to put up a British version of Dubya they are quite extraordinarily out of touch aren't they?

[Greeby]

2. Too true

Tory Taliban is right. They've morphed into the British wing of the Republican Party.

[mr blur]

3. Well, thankfully,

desperate to come up with a strategy to make themselves anything other than a joke, they're taking exactly the wrong direction. Does anyone even notice that they're there these days? Too liberal for the BNP fascists, too dumb for everyone else.

[fedsron2us]

4. Conservatives 'must be more radical'

Surely this is a contradiction in terms. Somehow the Tories do not seem to understand that modern capitalism does not give a shit about tradition, the nation and the family. Moreover,blindly aping G. W Bush's policies just as the wheels of his administration are starting to come off is plain stupid.

[non sociopath skin]

5. Excellent strategy. I'm all for a Tory party totally out of touch ...

... with the 21st century which will never be elected again.

The Skin

[ikri]

6. They're cracked

Totally out of touch with reality.

The last time they tried to pull this sort of crap was John Major's "Back to Basics" campaign. Just look at how well that worked out.

The Tory party are the LAST people on the planet who should ever be talking about moral values.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. Tories? "Moral values"? Ahahaha!

Oh, that's funny. The very thought is too humourous for words. Makes me think of Thatcher saying "there is no such thing as society".

[LeftishBrit]

8. Won't work as long as people remember Maggie!

Her main contribution to mingling 'faith' with politics was to inform us that the real moral of the tale of the Good Samaritan was that he must have prudently saved his money, in order to have some to help the injured man!

The clergy often criticized her for her totally un-compassionate and basically immoral attitudes (remember the then Bishop of Durham?)

I don't think this will work at all; most people in Britain, even those who vote Tory, absolutely HATE Bush! If we really were the '51st state', as Blair would like us to be, we might have tipped the balance so that Bush got defeated.

Imitating him is not the way for any party to be elected. And, while I don't want the Tories to get elected, I also don't want them to turn into such a joke, that the Labour PM can rule virtually without opposition - we've seen what that does!

[non sociopath skin]

9. Perhaps the real role of the LibDems long term IS to be ...

... a more user-friendly Business Party again, rather as its predecessor aspired to be at the turn of the 20th Century.

The Skin

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Depends on where Brown takes Labour, I think

He has the potential to be business-friendly (PFI), or redistributive (tax credits, etc.). If he did drop PFI, and stopped the overseas' crusades, then I could see the Lib Dems deciding there isn't room for them to the left of that, and positioning themselves as socially liberal, but, as you say, business-friendly - which might attract the Alan Duncans from the Tories (and I think there are quite a few - remember, Portillo had a good amount of support, as did Ken Clarke). If Brown stays with PFI, then all I can see the Lib Dems doing is ploughing the 'local income tax' furrow - sort of a 'local, liberal' version of the Labour leadership.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

12. I think the centre and centre-left have a chance of extinguishing

authoritarian conservatism from the British political map.

For 2009-10, Labour and the Lib Dems should sign an electoral pact. Labour doesn't stand in Tory/Lib Dem marginals and Lib Dems don't stand in Labour/Tory marginals.

Brown then can take Labour back to the centre-left, the Lib Dems can move to the right of Labour as a socially-liberal pro-business party.

This would have the effect of telling socially-liberal Tories that there is an alternative to jump ship to (Lib Dems) which will leave the rump Tory Party as an authoritarian, racist, sexist mess holding the extreme right of electoral politics, with no electoral prospects whatsoever.
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The elimination of the Tories will leave Labour and the Lib Dems as the two main parties. No doubt that they'll be very competitive and disagree over many issues, but Britain will be better off for it.

[non sociopath skin]

14. There is, however, always the possibility of a split on the right....

... with the Tory party splitting into its Two Tribes, the "modernist" vaguely pro-EU, socially more liberal tendency (a la European Christian Democracy) under an Alan Duncan or a Chris Patten figure and the Nasty Tendency, free to hiss and spit venom at anything which smacks of reform or centrism, and probably picking up most of the Baggy Trousered Misanthropists of UKIP and the more savvy acolytes of the far right fringe on the way.

These two would then be free to loathe each other like poison during an election campaign but then find themselves "forced" into an "Anti-Socialist" coalition to preserve British Values TM.

Fortunately (?) I think that the Tory instinct for self-preservation at all costs might save us from such a nightmare scenario.

The Skin

[T_i_B]

11. Thatcher was a Methodist (albeit a bit of a lapsed one)

and even now I can remember Methodist preachers in Church when I was growing up complaining bitterly about her misquoting John Wesley. If anything Thatcher helped make British politics more secular, but also a lot more selfish with it.

And the problem with the Tories trying "moral values" again is that it wasn't too long ago that we had "Back to Basics". I think we can all remember what a huge success that was!

[fedsron2us]

13. Tory ideology is hopelessly confused

When Maggie said there was no such thing as society, just individuals, she undermined the traditional Conservative view of Britain as a hierarchical entity with a natural governing class at the top. Her ideas were the very antithesis of the notion of tradition, the family and the state.

[T_i_B]

15. The Tories can be very muddled about religion

Believe it or not most RWer's I come across are about as irreligious as the rest of the UK population. However, many like the idea of the Church of England, if only as a "necessary illusion" to go all Straussian on you (That "Power of Nightmares" programme rears its head again!).

However, they are not always so keen on what the Church of England does in practice. Whenever the Archbishop of Canterbury starts condemning immigrant bashing or pointing out that the Iraq war was not a just war they are the first to complain. I can clearly remember the Daily Mail doing articles attacking both the current Archbishop of Canterbury and his predecessor for not being right-wing enough.