HERE’S a question to ask West Dorset’s Conservative MP Oliver Letwin if you see him during the General Election campaign: “Are you really a Conservative?”
It sounds an absurd question. Dr Letwin is, after all, the Chairman of the Conservative Party’s Policy Review. “I have led the work in preparing the Conservative Election Manifesto,” he says in his new four-page propaganda sheet Oliver Letwin MP in touch with West Dorset.
BRITAIN NEEDS A CHANGE OF GOVERNMENT yells the first page of in touch.
But look more closely at the mugshot of Dr Letwin in the top right-hand corner, ignore his smart new hair cut, and you’ll see he’s wearing a red tie.
On page 2 he’s wearing a pink tie, on page 3 a red tie (twice), on page 4 a pink tie and a red tie.
“Oliver Letwin… a Blairite”
Then consider an article by Steve Richards in the Easter issue of the New Statesman magazine.
“At a fringe meeting during the Conservative conference in 2008, Oliver Letwin told me that he regarded himself as a Blairite. Letwin is ready to unveil an 18-month legislative programme that will continue where Blair left off.”
Mr Richards asks: “How can this be change?”
Another political commentator Nick Cohen says in the April issue of Standpoint magazine, “It’s hugely unfashionable to say this at the moment but Blair was probably the most idealistic, and in some ways the most left-wing Labour leader there has ever been” (Issue 21, p36).
The former Sun editor Kelvin Mackenzie used to refer to Dr Letwin as Oliver Leftwing. Could it be true?
There are plenty of right-wingers who think the Conservatives have been too Blairite. Norman Tebbit, this Easter: “At last the Tories are beginning to understand that if they bring forward Conservative and not ’son of Blairite’ policies, the electors will move in their favour. Even a somewhat timid conversion to Conservatism is already moving the polls.”
What do you think?
Oh dear, here we go again. Is that an election coming over the hill?
Yep. It’s one of our 12 chances in our lifetime to have a say in supposedly running the country. Sanctioned and sterile, arming us only with a pencil and the illusion that our opinions matter, it’s ‘Democracy Time’ everyone.
Without the options of a four week holiday/selective coma/hermitage we’re all going to be dragged in and disgusted by the petty, wool-pulling, photo-shooting, false-claiming waste of paper increasingly getting mashed up in our letterboxes. Not forgetting the phone canvassing, the junk email, the Dr. Who-disturbing door-knocking and the policy-less posters and placards.
I got my first election scam today. From West Dorset Labour Party, or rather what appeared to come from Labour but was actually a thinly veiled attempt by the Liberal Democrats to persuade us that even Labour believe we really only have TWO choices in the next election instead of the FIVE we thought. I’m told “If you vote Labour or the Green Party in West Dorset, you will just help the Conservatives win again”. You what? It’s not my fault that none of the last two wannabe-an-MPs (who, like the present contender, moved into the area to try and achieve their ambitions) didn’t win? Is it? Well yes, apparently so, because ‘Nobody else can win here. Just look at the result last time’.
(Interestingly, they don’t seem to mind if I vote UKIP – as if!).
This assertion is made based on voting figures at the last election (note ‘last’ was five years ago) but that was then and this is now. Times, environments, priorities, opinions and people change. The people of West Dorset are influenced by different things and who’s to say they don’t have the potential to return any one of our candidates as our MP. To deny us that opportunity is hardly democratic. Additionally a statement reads “Our next MP will be either Sue Farrant or the Tory.” Really? How can they possibly know that? Does this mean that the 6,000 of us who last time voted otherwise, predominantly based on ‘principles’, are disenfranchised this year, or that no-one else’s views or intentions have changed in five years? What a depressingly sheep-like opinion the Lib Dems have of the local population.
I thought democracy was about encouraging involvement and increasing that mantra of the age – ‘Choice’. Surely, if you have to appeal to the lowest common denominator i.e ‘not the Tory’ then you haven’t won the arguments, let alone convinced the public that they know/like/trust you. Even this is no guarantee as I personally know, like and trust (as far as I can throw him!) our current MP, Oliver Letwin, yet I have never voted for him.
For about a year the Bridport News has had a weekly feature giving a platform to Oliver Letwin and Sue Farrant to talk on a subject of the papers choosing. It was only after I flagged up the undemocratic stance of an implied two-horse race that Steve Bick was added. It’s an improvement but not the full set I had suggested was equal and fair.
Obviously, as equally reflected in the political make-up of our local councils, West Dorset is a Turf War between the Blues and the Yellows. But what if a single issue, or a charming zietgiesty kind of candidate appeared? How good would it be if say Billy Bragg stood committed to restricting the powers and the excessive bonuses of the banking ‘industry’? I have tried to persuade him before, to no avail (“No – I’m a musician mate”) but maybe other readers might be more convincing…
If trust in politicians is lacking then let’s do all we can to encourage honesty, openness and a level playing field in West Dorset. How about some genuine public debates (Real West Dorset could host..?), or getting the local press to ask the public to provide questions to all 5 (or 6, Billy..) candidates and, if we stop believing the undemocratic lie that here it is only a two horse race, who knows what the outcome might be. Above all else we should keep asking questions, because we’re stuffed if we leave politics to those who are interested in it, and we’re fools if we believe all we have to do to make a difference is mark a cross in a box.
‘and we’re fools if we believe all we have to do to make a difference is mark a cross in a box.’
Our biggest hurdle is getting people to actually register to vote – too many people are happy to leave this to the few who can be bothered. Personally I believe it should be compulsory on the principle that with every right comes a responsibility. Once people stop believing that going out to vote can make a difference then we really are living in a dictatorship and not a democracy.
As far as local politics are concerned I’m very much of the opinion that there are only really two choices – right of Attila the Hun and far right of Ghengis Khan! Let’s be realistic, this still relatively feudal county would really take some turning red – but you should vote for who you believe in, whether or not you think they’ll get in.
What nonsense about Oliver Letwin and red ties! Last week, in a picture of the three main party leaders standing together, Nick Clegg was wearing a yellow tie, David Cameron a blue one and Gordon Brown was sporting a BLUE one! So?
I can see where you’re coming from, but I don’t entirely agree. Nick Clegg always wears yellowy goldy ties – that’s because, according to pollsters, lots of people don’t actually know who he is. The Guardian says that quite a few people get him mixed up with Nick Griffin of the BNP!
As regards Brown and his blue ties, I know quite a few people who get enraged by this sight of this political cross-dressing and start fulminating about him inviting Margaret Thatcher to No 10 and ‘who is he trying to kid?’ and so on and on.
I think politics is about symbol and spectacle and theatre – and colour does send messages and those messages can be tribal. (You don’t see diehard Manchester United fans sporting Man City blue).
So, you may still disagree, but I think it’s worth noting sometimes.