Labour don’t get it

Bloggers4Labour waking up, Conservatives look at real change too.

Tygerland quoted on the front page of Bloggers4Labour

Liam Murray has an excellent post on how Labour - and the left in general - just don’t ‘get’ the reality that David Cameron’s new “compassionate conservatism” is real, rooted in history, and ideologically sound.

Of course it’s still hard, for those like me who grew up under Thatcher, to not be suspicious of the Tories, but maybe Liam is right. Maybe Cameron is serious about improving social justice.

I think he must be, even at Conservative Home they are introducing a series of posts looking at the health of the Tory right, and following a survey of it’s readers they found these responses within the first one hundred replies:

1. “Very weird/deluded”
2. It is not Right wing, it is Reactionary wing. Same people who resisted Thatcher, now resist new ideas again.
3. Somewhat out of touch with mainstream politics. Some of them verge on the dangerous.
4. Out of touch with the general electorate and who are far too vocal.
5. People who have forgotten that one can only win power by attracting votes from outside the ranks of core supporters.
6. A little too detached from the need to debate in private and stand together in public.
7. In danger of perpetuating the view of many of the electorate of wanting to bring back ‘Thatcher-style’ policies.
8. Out of touch and a hindrance to winning a general election.
9. As a group strategically inept.
10. The “saloon bar” party - appeals to our gut instincts but doesn’t realise that the world has changed.”

Remember these responses were from Conservative readers, folks in South Shields should be under no illusions, as both parties now agree, there has been a sea change in the thinking of Cameron’s Conservatives.

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Tale of two videos

Miliband does not look convincing

Political leadership these days demands great presentation skills and a feel for the camera knowing that you are putting your face into millions of living rooms, Tony Blair had a natural ability to communicate, Gordon Brown has a natural ability to switch me off, but what of David Miliband and David Cameron?

It’s possible that the two could be facing each other after the end of Brown’s ill fated government.

Take a look at these two videos, first we see South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband campaigning in Crewe and Nantwich, then we see Conservative Leader David Cameron talking to the Institute of Directors.

Who looks the more natural to you? (I have to be open and admit that I think our own MP always appears to be comfortable within himself when I watch him on the television, but that does not necessarily mean I am comfortable with his communicative ability - a bit wooden at times, or has he just convinced himself of the futility of this particular exercise?)

David Miliband in Crewe

David Cameron at the Royal Albert Hall

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