Local Elections - Cameron vs Conservatism

Over at A Very British Dude there is a very passionate call for all those who are right of centre to vote Tory at the upcoming local elections. I’d imagine that it will get quite a bit of equally passionate response…

Jackart writes:

“The local government elections are an opportunity to thrust a knife into Blair, Brown and all the other bastards who have comprehensively ruined this countrys once elegant constitution and once powerful economy.”

That’s the one of the two problems I have with Jackart’s post. I can see how local elections are a tempting way to give our leaders a sound kicking. But these elections aren’t about the national parties – even given the massive amount of coverage that the Main Stream Media gives the impact of these elections on the national parties. Local councils still have some impact on the way your community is governed, and therefore you should vote for whichever party is going to manage your local council – or your regional assembly – the best. I cannot see any point, for example, in voting SNP to piss off Blair, Brown and the rest of the Nu Labour troglodytes if you don’t believe in Scotland leaving the Union. It is the very epitome of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Equally, I would argue that even if you are a Tory, if you think your Labour Council (or indeed Lib Dem Council) is doing a good job, you should vote to re-elect them*. The Councils will make a massive contribution to deciding how much Council Tax you pay, so vote for the party who you think will reduce council tax the most/spend your money most officially. Not to give Blair a final kicking and to embarrass the drab Scottish oaf most likely to succeed Teflon Tony.

But my second problem with Jackart’s post is far more fundamental that the first. What his argument boils down is the direction Cameron is taking the Tory party in. Jackart is very much taken with politics being the art of the possible and that the sensible approach is to compromise to be part of the governing party:

“I am bored of commentators and bloggers lazily trotting out the line that "the boy Dave is just another Tony Blair and we might as well go and vote UKIP", just because he refuses to promise Tax-cuts, and has worked out that making people like you makes them more likely to vote for you… There is more to policy than tax-cuts and Europe, and no-one can get everything they want out of a Party, if they're prepared make the compromises nessesary to be part of a Governing movement. If you're prepared to look like ridiculous lefties… each with their own religious belief in their solution to societies ills, then go ahead. Stick to your principles to the letter. Or you can grow up.”

Ignoring the irate and goading language used in the above**, there are a couple of things in there that I would strongly disagree with. First of all, it is not just the question of tax cuts and Cameron’s adoption of a lot of the spin and prevarication that Blair showed prior to clawing his way into Number 10. I would like to hear about Tory commitments to tax cuts, but not if they are going to come at the expense of a strong economy and future economic growth. Equally, I don’t like the way Cameron presents himself, but if he needs to appear like a Tory version of the young Blair to win power, then I can at least understand why he is doing it, even if I don’t agree with him.

However my problems with Cameron are more deep seated than simply objecting to his stance on tax cuts and his presentational skills. Cameron has failed to say what he stands for, for the most part. The only real way we know he is a Tory is because he won the Tory leadership election. But hiding beneath a blue rosette is not enough to win me over – I need to see why he is a Tory and what he will do when/if he gets into power. Muttering about freeing up society to deal with its own problems is not enough, particularly when he is increasingly banging on in favour of nonsense that you would normally associate with the left wing, like environmental taxes and poverty being relative rather than absolute. Perhaps Cameron does have to move towards the middle ground to beat Brown in the next General Election, but he needs to stand by some traditional Tory policies and he needs to avoid lurching so far into the middle ground that he actually becomes left wing.

I have no issue with compromising, and back in the days when I was a Tory activist I did have to make some ideological compromises as the Howard led Conservative party did not match my exact beliefs. But there is a difference between compromising some of your beliefs and compromising your beliefs so much that you end up compromised. There are some things that I struggle to compromise on – equality of opportunity besting equality of outcome being one key area. When Cameron started talking about Toynbee being an icon for the modern Tory party, I realised I’d had enough. So I left the party. At the risk of repeating myself, I cannot see the point in winning political power if you have forgotten why you wanted to win power in the first place. Compromise is all well and good, but if a party compromises too much, then it loses its’ fundamental identity.

Those who have moved away from the Tory party since Cameron took from Howard are not necessarily on a power trip, or seeking attention, or need to “grow up”. A lot have serious ideological objections to the direction Cameron has taken the party in, and may end up voting for other parties – like UKIP – who speak more for the right wing in this country. The question facing those on the right in or of the Tory party at the main election may yet prove to be whether you vote for a husk party who bear the Tory label but stand a chance of forming a compromised government, or whether they vote for a party who can’t win power but far better represent their core beliefs.

*I appreciate that this would be a very difficult think for a die-hard Tory (or, indeed, die-hard supporter of any one party) to do, but in the past I have voted for different parties nationally and locally in the same election.

**Not least because I use irate and goading language myself on occasion…