So the Built to Last document has been approved with such a resounding majority as to be almost unanimous…
This is great news. For all the vocal whining by some extreme right-wingers (should that be right-whingers?) only 1.9% of the party’s electorate voted against it. Those in favour could be forgiven apathy, but if you opposed the document I am sure you would have voted.
So let us — those members who like to think they’re not bigoted and are open minded — sing that 1.9% figure from the rooftops and silence the naysayers!
September 21st, 2006 at 9:21 pm
I’m sorry Gav, I was never convinced and still am not.
This reads like the mission statement for the Titanic Deckchair Rearrangement Corporation.
I felt it was patronising when they polled members on the broad statements earlier (which prompted me to quit), and I still feel the bulk of it is patronising now.
No one can disagree with many of the statements presented. Granted, one can come down heavily against some of the details, but that’s beside the point. These “principles” are things that most people would agree with anyway.
Plus that foreign policy speech last week (as well as the hug-a-hoody speech) completely lost me forever to the Party under his leadership. The only thing that keeps me voting Conservative is a decent constituency MP.
The party has made a truly Faustian pact.
September 21st, 2006 at 9:25 pm
BTW, membership appears to be down by about 6,300 bodies. So if 20,000 people have joined because of him, about 26,000 have left the party. A full 10%. Maybe the conference rumours of 25% from last year weren’t far off.
September 21st, 2006 at 11:11 pm
Membership is never given in absolute figures (it’s embarassing sometimes) so we must rely on these snapshots to guess how many members there are… I reckon 6,300 could be within margins of error.
I keep telling a friend of mine — Cameron’s not really saying anything that we wouldn’t broadly agree with. He’s certainly not drawing up left wing policies. His hug a hoody, I guess, was misjudged by the reaction it received, and this latest Scottish one was daft too, but overall he’s staying on message.
The reason I think he’s so cany is because people like you (and my friend) are almost in the bag. A little more Tory-ism closer to the election will return most to the fold. What he’s doing now is appealing to those who, before the last election, would say “Never Tory”.
I know people who were in that camp who are softening to his message. That he doesn’t have a message doesn’t matter too much, it’s that they think he has a message and that that imaginary message is on the right track is what matters to them.
I hope I don’t come to swallow my words but aside from some constitutional nonsense surrounding the English Question I truly believe he’ll be our Tory when his words change things; and until then he can keep on with the BBC-wooing — it’s working in the polls.
September 22nd, 2006 at 1:58 am
Like James I didn’t vote against the document. When I read it I knew the Tories no longer stood for the things I believe in. It wouldn’t matter if Cameron about-turned on the whole thing - if elected he would be just as interventionist as Blair.
Come elections, it is better not to vote at all as this de-legitimises any government that might win - or save that vote for a third party.