Local election results are a harrowing punishment for the
Coalition’s last couple of turbulent months in Government. An ineffective Labour
Party under weak leadership have claimed council 713 seats, whilst the Tories
have made a dramatic loss of 378 seats and surrendered the control of 12 Councils.
These results are completely unacceptable for the Conservatives and such a
substantial loss could have been avoided.
Those on the Left will exploit this defeat and explain it,
incorrectly and misleadingly, as being allusive to the countries anger at
austerity measures. This is simply not true. Every indication and poll reveals
that the public do accept the need for cuts.
Rewind to this time last year in the Local council
elections, despite high unemployment, hard-felt cuts and protests, The Conservatives
actually made significant gains of 86 seats and 4 councils, an outstanding
achievement for a party of government wielding painful cuts. This is reflective
of how competent the Conservatives appeared at the time. Fast forward to this
year and it’s a completely different story.
Of course the underlying reason behind this embarrassing
defeat is the perceived sheer incompetence and corruption from the leadership
in the national party. This all started with the poorly handled Budget in
March. Alone this would probably not have proved so costly come elections, but
the event was not one in isolation. This has been followed up but bleak
economic forecasts and political scandal which has highlighted poor leadership.
In short, the elections couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Coalition.
The Conservatives have lost touch and appeal to their
traditional voters. The Tories attack on the elderly through the ‘Granny tax’,
a product of a poorly presented Budget, is a betrayal of our loyal
supporters. No real Conservative
government fails to look after our elderly. The truth is that many, and far too
many to be politically forgiving, are disillusioned by a government that tries
desperately to appease everyone and succeeds in looking after nobody whilst
taking the concerns of our core voters for granted, because this isn’t a government of principle,
it has become a Government of apologists.
The support of House of Lord’s reform is a classic area over
which Cameron has led the Tories into the pockets of liberals. Too conscious to
appear ‘modern’, Cameron is supporting reform that will see our Upper Chamber
taken control over by a bunch of career politicians, under the thumb of their
leaders in the Lower Chamber. What’s more is that he and Nick Clegg want to do
this without putting it to the public in a referendum. If Cameron wants to
claim back our supporters then he must climb down over this policy, which conservative
voters feel threatens our parliamentary democracy. This is not a Conservative
policy.
Cameron and Osborne must too ease the tax burden of our
supporters. The Coalition has failed to do anything to this extent. Those who
earn in excess of £25,000 are substantially burdened by high tax demands. Those
that earn an income of £50,000 pay a massive £15,000 of hard earned money in
tax. Under no interpretation is this a Conservative
tax system. Especially during times of austerity, these policies are an unforgiving
attack on our aspirational and hard-working Middle England. To ensure we don’t
lose these votes to Labour again, we must not exploit them through unreasonable
taxation.
But the issue that directly affects everyone is the economy.
It’s only through Ed Miliband’s weakness and Labour’s serious lack of any
credibility over the economy that has seen Cameron and Osborne get off so
lightly. When compared to Labour, The Coalition appears business friendly, but
in reality they are not pro-business and inadequately Conservative. Osborne’s
failure to see through an even lower corporation tax, as well as the top rate
of income tax is sheer weakness. This is a party that got elected on a mandate
that it will make the tough decisions necessary to recover the economy, yet
caved in over the budget out of fear of being branded a ‘Party of millionaires’,
which those who they feared would say this, did anyway.
The only threatening opposition to this Government is coming
from their own Conservative back benchers and voters. Labour are up to nothing,
yet are being rewarded for the Coalition’s own failure. This must be addressed
before going into General election in 2015. The only small chance of Labour
winning will come from Cameron throwing it away through turning away the
genuine conservative vote.
Cameron has to give up the idea that he can appease the left
with anything short of socialism. Third-Way social democratic policies only
succeed in putting off Conservative voters and the aspirational. Desperate
stunts to appear ‘modern’ are work of a party in opposition. Cameron is not in
opposition anymore, he is leader of a Conservative Party in government. These Local
Council results one would hope can only remind him of this. The only bit of
good news is the imminent re-election of Boris as London Mayor. Whilst Boris
has retained his supporters, Cameron is leading the national party away from
his. This could prove very significant if Cameron’s leadership comes under
threat. And it is only by listening to his voters that he will avoid a
leadership challenge.
