Letters From A Tory

Dear David Cameron,

Your recent aggression in House of Commons debates is nothing more than a wholly justified and rational response to the deceit and incompetence flowing from the government.  Yesterday’s draft Queen’s speech was yet another example of the total lack of respect that Labour have for the public’s intelligence and your remark about Brown using the speech for his “short-term political survival” is impossible to disagree with.

I started reading through the list of Bills in the papers this morning and felt my blood boil as I read each item, and I’m sure you had the same reaction:

1. Banking reform bill. To protect the public from a future Northern Rock bank failure and encourage greater banking stability by setting up a rescue fund - actually Mr Brown, it was your changes to the regulation of the financial sector in 1997 when you gave the Bank of England independence that led us into this mess in the first place

2. Savings gateway bill. Sets up a special new savings scheme from 2010 for the eight million lower paid where the government will add to people’s savings - the pilot studies of the Savings gateway have been a catastrophe as your policy was designed so poorly.

3. Business rates supplements bill. Gives big metropolitan and county councils the right to levy up to 2p extra business rates for long-term infrastructure projects such as Crossrail and tram systems - talk about kicking a man when he’s down. British business is already on it’s knees with crippling bureaucracy and regulation and now you’re proposing another tax hike?!

4. Marine and coastal access bill. Creates a national coastal footpath round England and a national marine planning strategy - remind me how many years you’ve been in government before deciding this was a good idea?

5. Heritage protection bill. Reforms the listing system for historic buildings and ancient monuments. Outlaws illegal trade in artefacts - see 4!

6. Education and skills bill. Transfers funding back to local councils for 16-18 further education and training and sets up a new national apprenticeship scheme - the Learning and Skills Council was set up in 2001 and was responsible for all post-16 education in the country.  It cost over £10 billion a year.  Now you’re scrapping it.  Good work Gordo.

7. Equality bill. Sets new national standards for equality legislation and legislates for political parties to use all-women shortlists until 2030 - using all women shortlists is discriminatory and should therefore be illegal.  Positive discrimination in this situation is appalling and flies in the face of attempts to make politics more of a meritocracy.

8. Welfare reform bill. Aims to reduce welfare dependency by strengthening law to force absent parents to contribute to their children and simplifying benefit system - yes, because the Child Support Agency has been such a wonderful success in tracking down and communicating with absent parents, and I think Mr Brown will also find that the benefit system was made incredibly complicated by him….

So you see, Mr Cameron, by this point I had to stop reading because if I continued reading I may have raised my blood pressure to dangerous levels.  I know that you’re concentrating on beating Labour in Crewe seven days from now, but I hope that your researchers are busy scurrying around and digging up all the information you need to knock back these Bills if/when they arrive later on this year.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

I doubt I’m as fed up as you are about grassroots Conservatives calling for tax cuts every week.  Yet again I find some very sensible comments from you being warped into some kind of internal party struggle about future tax cuts, even though you are absolutely right.

I’m quite surprised that any Conservative anywhere in the country thinks that this country is going to be able to afford tax cuts after the next election.  I am in complete agreement with you that the financial situation we will be in for 2009/2010 looks disastrous.  We have no budget surplus to play with, the government is borrowing more and more just to stay afloat, the economy is slowing down - all of these factors (and many more) are crippling our national finances so I don’t understand how anyone can expect tax cuts as soon as the Conservatives walk into Number 10.  I, like everyone else, would love to see some extra money in my pocket but cutting tax receipts for the government is hardly likely to improve the situation for the government and this country in the short-term.

The Conservatives will need all the money they can find to get this country back on its feet after the next election.  Stability will be crucial and I believe that UK voters would much rather see you and the Conservative Party concentrate on crime, immigration, the NHS and other major policy debates instead of jumping on the tax-cut bandwagon.  I strongly suggest that you ignore the grassroot calls.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

A bold move, indeed.  Many Conservatives, including myself, would like to see our party take a strong stance on devolution from the point of view of finances and voting arrangements.  The Barnett formula has been the source of many newspaper headlines over the past year and it continues to divide voters in England on whether they believe the Union - as it stands in its current form - should continue.  You believe it should, and I strongly disagree.

Your assertion in the Telegraph this morning is a little puzzling.  Being a Unionist is a perfectably acceptable stance but to narrow down the argument in favour of further devolution with Scotland to the availability of drugs in the NHS is far too crude.  What about the lack of student loans in Scotland, the ability of Scottish MSPs to vote on purely English matters in Parliament, the lop-sided Barnett formula passing a disproportionate amount of funding to Scotland?  If you want to portray yourself as a Unionist, you will have to face down these arguments rather than idling strolling past them.

I wonder whether your views, which are clearly at odds with a large portion of the Conservative Party, will come back to haunt you as promoting Scottish devolution could prove extremely popular on both sides of the border.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

Your strategy of addressing the West Lothian question is the correct one.  No drama, no glamour, no hype - just asking the sensible questions.  Alex Salmond has made some fairly inflammatory remarks this morning.  He may well be right about Scotland becoming considerably richer should they have control of their own oil, but this is no cause for concern.

There are two ways of looking at this problem, both of which support your stance.  Firstly from a financial point of view, England would probably suffer in the short term if we lost control of oil revenues.  However, North Sea oil has not got more than a few decades of revenue left and when it dries up, we do not want to be anywhere near the situation because it will collapse whichever economy is in control of it.  Secondly from the perspective of the union, this does not have to cause any ruptures or strain between England and Scotland - in fact, I think handing them the North Sea oil while rebalancing the Barnett formula in favour of England (if not making Scotland financially autonomous) will probably improve relations between us.  Matthew Elliott and the Taxpayers Alliance are the people to speak to about the sums of money involved, so use their expertise and knowledge to your advantage.

Stick to your guns, Mr Cameron.  Alex Salmond will fight to the death for Scottish interests, but always remember that English and Scottish interests may well turn out to be one and the same thing.

Yours sincerely,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

Rather than giving my own views on the papers today, I thought it would be more instructive if I simply listed a sample of the headlines from the Telegraph:

Gordon Brown hit by Tory poll surge

Bluetongue spreads from cattle to sheep

Asylum crisis getting worse say officials

Labour failed to heed superbug warning

One school in 10 is failing children

Gordon Brown feels squeeze over Europe

Walkouts could wreck postal strike deal

I’m sure Gordon Brown’s government will fight back at some point, but today is a good day to be a Conservative.

Yours in amusement,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

So here we are.  After the rollercoaster of a ride that has been the last six months as leader of the Conservative Party, one could reasonably argue that it all comes down to one speech.  The polls are still being fairly unkind to the Conservatives, although the fact that Labour have just had their party conference obviously skews the polls considerably.

Softening stamp duty, going after benefits claimants, tax breaks for families - these are all good things, but it’s not enough.  Crime, the EU and immigration is where the battle lines between yourself and Gordon Brown must be drawn.  You have no choice but to boldly state to the country why you as the Conservative leader offer a genuine and respectable alternative to Labour.  Needless to say you have to highlight Labour’s weaknesses as much as possible in addition to stating your own case - even so, your message must be a powerful one.  You have to convince Conservatives to support you, you have to bring back the voters who have jumped ship and gone over to Gordon Brown, you have to tempt some Liberal voters, and I’m sure you can chip away at UKIP and the BNP if you get your message right.

I don’t know whether the possible re-emergence of foot and mouth disease plus the bluetongue virus might make Gordon Brown think twice about an autumn election.  For now, you must assume that it won’t.  I don’t envy you Mr Cameron, as you cannot afford to have anything less than a perfectly choreographed conference with no infighting, no backstabbing, and no dissenters.

Best wishes, and good luck.

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

I respect the fact that you are not bothering to fight Gordon Brown for the headlines during the Labour Party conference.  There isn’t really much point, seeing as he will steal the headlines regardless of any counter-offensive you launch.  But as you rightly spotted yesterday, Gordon Brown’s speech was light on content and was clearly designed to bring the State further into people’s lives - and this is where you have to bring him crashing down to earth.

To save you a little time, here is a list of points to attack Brown on, either because he forgot to mention them or because he failed to address them in sufficient detail:

EDUCATION - How will he halt the freefall in the credibility of our national examinations?  Why should it only be people on low incomes who get free university education?  How come ‘catch-up’ classes have so far failed to stop an increase in the number of NEETs?

FAMILY - Why talk about child poverty, seeing as poverty has increased under Labour?  How can you extend maternity leave and not paternity leave?  How can small businesses cope with such a change?

CRIME - How can he attack underage drinkers after 10 years of ignoring them?  Surely 24-hour licensing has made things worse?  Is more stop-and-search really going to help community relations and cut crime?  Has he forgotten that he has introduced most of the bureaucracy in the police force that he is now trying to cut?  Didn’t Labour claim to be tough on the causes of crime ten years ago?

EU - Why should we be “good Europeans”?  Where is our referendum?

NHS - Has he forgotten that he was Chancellor when all the hospital wards were being left dirty?  How we will double the number of matrons when we aren’t training enough hospital staff at the moment?

As if all that wasn’t bad enough, he’s talking about spending lots more money when he is cutting public sector pay this year, he completely ignored immigration controls and the EU referendum, he didn’t propose anything to help mend our ‘broken society’, a lot of his initiatives were re-releases of old policies - and last but by no means least, his references to ‘Britishness’ were sickening.  He doesn’t care about the appalling deal that England gets thanks to his funding arrangements, nor is he going to stop Scottish MPs voting in England as it increases his level of support relative to the Conservatives.

Mr Cameron, this speech was a gift to you.  He failed to produce anything to capture the public spirit and he failed to achieve any advances in policy over Blair.  If you can’t tear him to pieces over this speech, there really isn’t much chance for the Conservative Party at the next election - whenever it may be.

Yours in hope,

A.Tory

Dear David Cameron,

The ‘crisis’ at Northern Rock continues to make the headlines today, although it is becoming increasingly difficult to gauge how serious the situation is when on the one hand financial experts are playing down its significance and on the other hand the media are more than happy to talk it up, as they always do.  Amongst this confusion, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article in the Telegraph that laid out some very sensible proposals for preventing a similar situation from re-emerging in future.

Your concerns about our economy being built in debt is a fair assessment, due to the incredible levels of personal debt now being reported and your suggestions of how to address these problems in the short and long-term, such as increasing the independence of the Bank of England and taking the power to alter fiscal rules away from the Chancellor, are likely to benefit the stability of our economy.  Lowering personal debt is going to be your biggest hurdle as this will inevitably lead to less disposable income, thereby causing a downturn in inflation (unless it is combined with other measures such as reducing taxes to offer an element of ‘balance’).  Even so, it is good to hear you setting out your case so concisely and I hope that you continue to pressure the government to make sure that the public hear your message and realise how poorly Labour have run the economy over the past 10 years - which in itself represents a significant challenge.

Yours respectfully,

A.Tory