Voltaire praised the English for their boldness: “how I like the people who say what they think”. The slow and steady contraction of the polls continues, and Rachel Sylvester is convinced that the Tories must embrace risk and revoke ‘health-and-safety politics’. She writes:
‘Increasingly, his pronouncements seem designed to grab a headline rather than challenge the status quo — it’s bash-a-burglar, prison ships and PC-gone-mad, instead of hug-a-hoody, husky sleighs and general wellbeing. He drips out minor policy announcements on broadband and planning laws, while failing to confront a more important issue and force his biggest donor, Lord Ashcroft, to say whether he pays tax in this country.’
The sudden berserk approach to policy was engendered by an as yet unresolved strategy re-appraisal in the wake of negligible growth. Can the Tories afford to stand for radical change? Or must they offer reassurance? The dilemma will become less opaque later today when George Osborne speaks; but I doubt that the position will be exactly clear – such are the Tories commitment issues.
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