Letters From A Tory

Dear Matthew d’Ancona,

Your insightful article in the Sunday Telegraph provided an interesting perspective on how Gordon Brown will approach the Labour conference.  In amongst the will-he-won’t-he election talk, a lot of commentators seem to have forgotten that the conference may need to focus on other issues if it is to be successful.

The main point that I disagree with you on is how much work Brown has to do at his conference.  The threat of a battle with the unions appears to have somewhat receded over the past couple of weeks, as I suspect the unions will support him wholeheartedly in a 2007 General Election campaign despite their recent mutterings about pay rises.  The polls are suggesting that Gordon Brown is already chipping away at the Tory votes without having released anything like an election manifesto, which to me indicates that he is in a strong position and just has to ensure that he doesn’t make any blunders at his conference to continue this momentum.  It has seemingly escaped the media’s attention that Brown has released very few policies of note, even in a period where the Lib Dems and Conservatives have been vociferously battling over green issues - so my guess is that his conference will be full of vacuous and gentle soundbytes as opposed to bold and controversial statements of principle.  I’m not convinced that the public are that bothered about what policies Brown has, given the lack of alternatives at the ballot box in their eyes.  Either way, this conference will be remembered as the will-he-won’t-he conference in the political history books, regardless of the decision he eventually makes.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory