Fw: Ben brogan blog
March 8th, 2010 9:34
If the Tories want to win, they've got to fight
Let's try again, shall we? Last week was mostly a write-off for the Tories. You will remember it started with Dave's Brighton speech that was supposed to steady the blues after several weeks of wobbles. The idea was to move swiftly on to a week spent demolishing Labour's economic record and in particular the dire state of the debt. Yet on Monday a line-drawing operation turned into an ordeal that shows little signs of abating. Labour has successfully shaped the Ashcroft business into its 'same old Tories' narrative, and drowned out anything else the Conservative wanted to speak about. I say `mostly a write-off' because the only success was Michael Gove's series of education events and announcements that made headlines and showed that someone in the operation was still focused on making the Tory case. But the overall effect was fairly dire. At least the polls showed no immediate evidence that Lord A's difficulties have coloured public opinion.
So why is it so dire? And why is there no sign of it getting any better? Looking back over the past eight days, it is difficult not to wonder whether the fight has gone out of this operation. The most startling thing, to my mind, has been the way Team Dave has let itself be kicked around daily by Labour. It's as if they don't have a dog in this fight, as if they have walked off the battlefield sniffling because — sob — those tewwible bullies are too wough. The best defence is a good offence, as Vince Lombardi used to say (or was it Yogi Berra?), but offence we have had none. The Tory communications machine has not been, well, communicating. Instead it has let itself be bitch slapped by Peter Mandelson, including this morning in the Guardian. In the past we've heard the whisperings that the Tory high command is directed by a sense of entitlement, but I reckon the real problem is that the leadership is not sufficiently directed by an all-consuming, nail biting desire to win. I've said it before but the cemeteries are full of people who have underestimated Gordon Brown. Like the Terminator reduced to grabbling bits of metal, he is still coming for you Dave. And what cheers him? The kind of self-satisfied complacency shown by Ed `Friend of Dave' Vaizey. Another week gone and the best the Tories can do on a Sunday is suggest Sam Cam votes Labour. Nice. Team Dave needs to snap out of it and get stuck in.
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