Vernon Bogdanor

The Tories need a genuine liberal

Vernon Bogdanor says that David Cameron is the only Conservative who can read the nation’s mood and respond to it

issue 15 October 2005

Vernon Bogdanor says that David Cameron is the only Conservative who can read the nation’s mood and respond to it

In the 1960s Harold Wilson sought to make Labour the natural party of government. Tony Blair seems to have succeeded in doing so. The Conservatives have now been in opposition for eight years, their longest period out of government since the days of Asquith and Lloyd George before 1914. Never before, during the period of mass suffrage, have they lost three consecutive general elections. Moreover, at no stage since 1997 have they appeared credible as a potential party of government. That is bad, not only for the Conservatives but also for the country. Governments, under our constitution, even though elected on a minority of the popular vote, enjoy almost untrammelled power. Without an effective opposition, that power will not be properly scrutinised.

Labour, too, was out of office for a whole political era, from 1979 to 1997.

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