Saturday, July 08, 2006
Back in those wild days in April 1997 my grandmother's children were meeting in her house when my Aunt and Uncle announced they would be voting Labour at the next election. This was quite a big thing for them to admit as they'd met at a Conservative Association and been Tory voters for decades.
Almost ten years on and under David Cameron the Tories are slowly ditching the policies which have kept them out of power since then. I'm not sure they can ever do anything to win my vote, even if I could be persuaded that Conservatism in the real world (as opposed to what I understand of Conservatism as a theory) can help poor and vulnerable people one only has to look at the number of changes to the Labour party's views on going from Opposition to Government (Freedom of Information Act? Nuclear Power?) to question whether any pledge by any member of the big two parties is worth the manifesto it's printed on (unless it's a pledge to be beastly to foreigners).
Still, here's some good news.
Almost ten years on and under David Cameron the Tories are slowly ditching the policies which have kept them out of power since then. I'm not sure they can ever do anything to win my vote, even if I could be persuaded that Conservatism in the real world (as opposed to what I understand of Conservatism as a theory) can help poor and vulnerable people one only has to look at the number of changes to the Labour party's views on going from Opposition to Government (Freedom of Information Act? Nuclear Power?) to question whether any pledge by any member of the big two parties is worth the manifesto it's printed on (unless it's a pledge to be beastly to foreigners).
Still, here's some good news.
