Are the Tories Worried ? Sounds like it to me !!

by johnofgwent

It seems it's not only New Labour and their harder left former bedfellows now chucked out of the party in the interests of electoral presentability who are running round scared shitless of the British National Party. Have a look at what this site had to say for itself the other week.

Claiming to give "Comprehensive Coverage of Britain's Conservative Party" the author of the artiicle above really ought to be given honorary membership of the BNP for services rendered because what they have written is manna from heaven.

Under a headline "Tory MP's mull anti-BNP tactics" the author, Tim Montgomerie has this to say :-

Up until now the Tory strategy - strongly advocated by Eric Pickles and accepted by David Cameron - has been to work around the BNP. It's where I've been, too. The idea is to deny the BNP the 'oxygen of publicity' and work harder than them when it comes to pavement politics.

Some Tory MPs are beginning to worry that that strategy may no longer be tenable. One MP told ConservativeHome: 'The BNP activists are not like they were. They don't wear bomber jackets. They don't have number one shaved heads. They don't have tattooes. They look smart. They smile. They are talking about housing and jobs, not race. They aren't fitting the caricature and voters are confused.'

At a meeting of Conservative Peers earlier this week the rise of the BNP was evident from a number of regional presentations made by party campaigners.

CCHQ isn't currently moving from its 'no oxygen' tactic but Tory MPs are mulling alternative options. There is a particular concern to find messages that stop normally Conservative voters from supporting the BNP in June's European elections. Three stand out at present:

1. Connect the BNP with criminality. This was what The Sun did a few years ago - highlighting the criminal connections of many BNP candidates. 'Voters won't vote for a criminal party,' the Tory MP told me.
2. Connect the BNP with falling house prices. This was the tactic pursued vigorouly two years ago by certain Conservatives.
3. Connect the BNP with Left-wing, socialist policies. This is a strategy set out by Charles Walker MP.

Laugh, I nearly wet myself. I won't even bother googling the links to take them down, any amateur could find the details for themselves. But to take their three points and chuck each a one line rebuttal:-

• I think the Liars Buggers And Thieves site does a fairly reasonable job of showing people where the true criminals are in our political system right now. Enough Said.
• Please please can I have a tory come round here and tell me the BNP are responsible for the value of my house falling off a cliff. It will make such a change from Gordon telling me "It's The Global Economy, Stupid"
• And as for connecting the BNP to left wing, socialist policies, well, they're havin a larf.
  

But it's nice to see the tories are really well prepared to fight their corner over the European Elections !

EDIT: I don't like changing things after people have started to comment, unless its to correct a factual eror or the like, but this image deserves it. Taken from The Political Compass website it shows the drift of the three main parties over time. It speaks for itself really but observe how today's (well last year's actually) LABOUR party is more right wing than the tories under Edward Heath's One Nation Conservatism .... ... and more fascist than Maggie Thatcher. Proving if anyone needed to see it that they are slightly to the right, and slightly quicker to don the jackboots, than Ghenghis Khan (!)