Competence versus chaos—that’s what the Tory leadership want to frame the next election as a choice between. Hence George Osborne’s repetition of this phrase five times in one brief interview with the BBC’s Nick Robinson.
The Tories want to make the voters think that they offer competence and everyone else chaos. As George Osborne puts it, ‘And it’s not just Liberal Democrats, it’s Labour, UKIP, you can put them all into the same mix. What they’re offering is a chaotic alternative of higher taxes, higher borrowing, a return to economic chaos.’
One of the reasons why the Tories are so keen to polarise the contest in this way is, one Downing Street source says, to sway those voters in Lib Dem constituencies who prefer Cameron as Prime Minister but are minded to vote for their local MP. One of the great Tories worries about 2015 is that the Lib Dems’ Labour facing seats will fall like dominoes while the Lib Dems will hang on in their Tory facing ones.
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