Didn't the Brown years teach the Conservatives anything? Don't they understand that dithering isn't seen as 'weighing the possibilities'. It is seen as not knowing which way to jump.
Today's newspapers report that Cameron is 'prepared to consider an EU referendum' - that sounds like dithering to me. It is probably intended as a sop to the more than 100 Conservative MPs that are pushing for a pledge to hold an In/Out referendum in the next Parliament
I don't understand though why the Conservatives don't grasp the nettle. This is the issue that will differentiate their 'brand' from their competitors.
I think that most people understand that the UK economy will continue to be buffeted by external forces and so not much can be done to achieve any meaningful growth. Of course making real cuts in public expenditure and in income taxes would be a great start but the left-leaning media (does 90 degrees to the left count as leaning??) will not allow that to happen. They and their overpaid unionist fellow travelers along with the Labour Party will strive to derail and ridicule any attempt to bring sanity back to the public finances - look for 'bleeding stumps' and 'wheelchair victims' of cuts to continue to be paraded on your TV screens. Don't bother looking for those hard working 'ordinary' people who work, pay their taxes, obey the laws and see others doing nothing and having a better life-style (work-shy long term unemployed) or committing criminality and getting away with it (bankers).
Real public sector cuts could also be a differentiating factor but I sense that absent concrete examples - something like, 'we will reduce the cap on welfare benefits to £15,000 (or £10,000, maybe) and we will introduce regional welfare payments and we will introduce regional pay bargaining for all public sector workers' - people just won't accept it. I believe that the 'people' see the sense and justice of this but we lack politicians with the spine to do what is necessary - that is, to roll back the state and to make work pay!
Europe then, that can differentiate the Conservatives and galvanise their supporters and the 'waverers'. The Lib Dems are wedded to the EU. Clegg has to stay with the EU, which is where his next job will be, after all. Labour? The federalist EU and its 'nanny-state' approach to all matters of life, fits squarely and neatly into the Labour philosophy. The EU thinks it knows best how to control our lives - if you don't believe me, ask the Greeks! - and the British Civil Service just lap up and speedily implement all of the regulations that spew out of Brussels and Strasbourg.
So, Cameron, Go For It!
What to go for?
How about a pledge, made now, that the next Conservative administration will:
Today's newspapers report that Cameron is 'prepared to consider an EU referendum' - that sounds like dithering to me. It is probably intended as a sop to the more than 100 Conservative MPs that are pushing for a pledge to hold an In/Out referendum in the next Parliament
I don't understand though why the Conservatives don't grasp the nettle. This is the issue that will differentiate their 'brand' from their competitors.
I think that most people understand that the UK economy will continue to be buffeted by external forces and so not much can be done to achieve any meaningful growth. Of course making real cuts in public expenditure and in income taxes would be a great start but the left-leaning media (does 90 degrees to the left count as leaning??) will not allow that to happen. They and their overpaid unionist fellow travelers along with the Labour Party will strive to derail and ridicule any attempt to bring sanity back to the public finances - look for 'bleeding stumps' and 'wheelchair victims' of cuts to continue to be paraded on your TV screens. Don't bother looking for those hard working 'ordinary' people who work, pay their taxes, obey the laws and see others doing nothing and having a better life-style (work-shy long term unemployed) or committing criminality and getting away with it (bankers).
Real public sector cuts could also be a differentiating factor but I sense that absent concrete examples - something like, 'we will reduce the cap on welfare benefits to £15,000 (or £10,000, maybe) and we will introduce regional welfare payments and we will introduce regional pay bargaining for all public sector workers' - people just won't accept it. I believe that the 'people' see the sense and justice of this but we lack politicians with the spine to do what is necessary - that is, to roll back the state and to make work pay!
Europe then, that can differentiate the Conservatives and galvanise their supporters and the 'waverers'. The Lib Dems are wedded to the EU. Clegg has to stay with the EU, which is where his next job will be, after all. Labour? The federalist EU and its 'nanny-state' approach to all matters of life, fits squarely and neatly into the Labour philosophy. The EU thinks it knows best how to control our lives - if you don't believe me, ask the Greeks! - and the British Civil Service just lap up and speedily implement all of the regulations that spew out of Brussels and Strasbourg.
So, Cameron, Go For It!
What to go for?
How about a pledge, made now, that the next Conservative administration will:
- Renegotiate the powers of Brussels and repatriate all those that do not explicitly relate to the Single Market (or the Common Market as it was once called and for which most Britons think they signed-up)
- If the renegotiation is successful, the result to be put to a referendum with the question, accept or reject.
- If negotiations are unsuccessful, a referendum held with a simple In or Out question.
- The above to be conducted within the first 6 months of the Conservatives being elected and this Pledge to be an immutable part of any Coalition agreement.
- Working Time directive - that goes
- EU Army and Foreign Office - they go
- EU Commission - undemocratic so bye bye
- Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy - need you ask?
- EU foreign aid - that goes too! if the people of the UK want to provide aid, they can decide to whom and how much
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