I have touched upon this issue before.  I find it curious that Labour thinks it can fool us into believing that there will be a substantial change for the better when Gordon Brown takes over the premiership.  Mr Brown has been one half of the terrible twins these past nine years and has been involved in every decision made by the Labour Government.  Mr Brown is a very big player in Labour’s team and is tainted with every mistake and wrongdoing.  Peas in pod, says Martin Samuel.

It is only right that a person who incurs an expense in performing a duty, contractual or otherwise on behalf of another, is reimbursed for that expense; not a penny less, not a penny more.  Parliamentary rules might not have been breached by various Ministers or ordinary MPs in claiming such allowances, but nevertheless it is very clear that the “reimbursement” is extremely generous. These gravy trains are not appreciated by the General Public.   We are being ripped off.   It has to stop, now.[1]

Much has been made of Francis Maude’s comment that the Conservatives might not win the next General Election. Why? Commentators have been saying as much since before David Cameron was elected as leader.  We are informed repeatedly that the Conservatives require a percentage “swing” in their favour well beyond anything they have ever achieved against Labour in any General Election since 1945.  Commentators have been talking down the Conservative Party’s prospects of winning an election ever since doubts began to surface about Tony Blair’s Government.  That the Conservatives cannot achieve such a swing is not an immutable law. It is the result of a number of factors, not least of which is that the psephologists seem to miss the point that until 1997, all Labour administrations since 1945 seemed to expire after about six years, whilst save for that of Edward Heath, Conservative ones lasted thirteen and eighteen years, respectively.  By the next General Election the New Labour administration will have reached that longevity where if it has not turned substantially from its current course, it will be punished at the polls in a fashion that had been reserved previously for Conservative Governments that had overstayed their welcome.

David Cameron has been in charge of the Conservative party for just four months.  He has a lot of work still to do.  For the Labour Government, everything is just hunky-dory.  No matter what it does wrong, it does not appear to be prejudiced unduly in the opinion polls, at least not for long.  For the Liberal Democrats, though in truth their tide is ebbing, they shall shortly enjoy the euphoria of success against both Labour and the Conservatives in the forthcoming local elections.[1]

The Conservatives should not look to achieve short-term success or popularity.  They are working for sustainable success in the long-term.  The Conservatives’ policy review must be given time to correctly identify the electorate’s real concerns and effectively address them.  It matters not that David Cameron’s project to reform his party appears to stall, because in truth, it has not.  Indifferent opinion poll results mean nothing.  To a great extent they are a collective, self-fulfilling prophecy.  The largely pro Labour media must be expected to focus relentlessly upon the Conservatives’ “failure” to effect a break through in popular support, whilst correspondingly ignoring or playing down Government waste, incompetence, venality and/or sheer deceit.  With the dice so heavily loaded against the Conservatives, it is hardly surprising that the going is tough.

The electorate is not going to be convinced overnight.  The Labour Party’s success in rebuilding itself after spending years in the political wilderness was not achieved during Mr Blair’s brief few years as Leader of the Opposition; the process had started years earlier under Neil Kinnock.  It cannot be any different for the Conservatives, no matter what the legion of pro Labour political commentators and journalists say or infer to the contrary.