Tonight:
2°c
One thing in this election has been quite convincing. The government should be taken over by our newspaper columnists, some of whom — as I read them in the morning in Turkey — have been saying all the right things.
You can have some fun with the appointments. Sir Max Hastings, with his short fuse and even shorter attention span, would be the ideal Prime Minister. Bruce Anderson could have Education. Simon Jenkins ought to be Home Secretary. I am not sure where to put Sir Ferdinand Mount, whose book Mind the Gap is the best thing about what is happening to English society that I have read in years. Hamish McRae can do the money, Lord Tebbit can be Foreign Secretary, George Walden can be made responsible for the re-introduction of corporal punishment. We would then have a government where we knew what it stood for.
As things stand, what are we Ancient Tories to make of it all: a Tory election campaign, launched with rock music from some band or other, that waxes prim at the very idea ? The tieless business and the fake vowels? This is not our world.
Perhaps they know what they are doing, but the great danger for David Cameron's campaign is that his core supporters will simply not bother to vote at all, or go for the Liberals — which already appears to be happening.
That happened in 1974. The country was in a humiliating mess, lights out at 10, and the then Conservative government plainly had no idea what to do. The face of the prime minister on television was an invitation to say, “oh God”. Two million Tories (including the young me, for the first and only time until now) stayed away or voted — a mistake — for whatever the Liberals were called back then.
The result was in the end beneficial. Edward Heath was replaced by Margaret Thatcher and by 1979 there was a real government again. The first half of the Eighties was an extraordinary time. She was denounced by the great and good, and, writing energetically in support of her when I was Professor of Modern History at Oxford, I made myself very unpopular. But I was right. The country came back on the world's map.
The interesting question about that era was where it went wrong, because it did fizzle out in a return of inflation. I have been writing a book on the post-war world, in which the Eighties has the starring role: you can see where, around 1985-86, things ran out of steam. We signed the Single European Act, which let the Europeans dictate the present flood of laws, reaching far into our national life, and not for the country's good. The way was opened for that mess of small-print stuff that brings you so much irritation.
A real Conservative Party would just promise to put an end to the stupid vexations we have to put up with. These are great and small, but the small ones mount up. Does anyone really want to live in a country where the government has the power to stop people from smoking in private clubs?
Or where the perishable rubbish is collected every two weeks (in Istanbul they collect rubbish twice a day, because otherwise the cats scratch open the bags; and since we are on the subject, if an able-bodied young man started begging, he would be honour-killed and quite right, too: the begging slot is reserved for old women who deserve it).
As things stand, old-fashioned pubs close down at the rate of six every day (or did when I was last home) and yet gruesome, noisy clubs stay open until all hours, with the effects we all know. A Conservative Party that announced it would relax the anti-smoking stuff and bring back a more sensible version of the old licensing laws would at once collect votes in millions.
If it wants further support it could just announce that no one would have anything at all deducted from a wage packet of under £10,000. It is absurd that a young man doing some badly paid job rather than whimper in the street should lose any money at all, or that cleaning ladies have to work cash-in-hand. But there is a fat chance of such sense being talked. The party is heading for 1974, and I shall help it on its way.
In a very smudgy way, this election — on the face of things, not really about anything — is like a famous one in history, 1929. Back then, the Liberals were still a force, and they even came up with the best ideas (they had taken their economics from Keynes). Many Tories hated their own leadership; Labour had more or less been tamed.
There was a hung parliament, and the Liberals put in Labour. Then the fun started, as Wall Street crashed and the world's economy followed. Exports fell by two-thirds and unemployment shot up. In 1931 there followed another coalition government, in effect of Liberals and Tories with a token Labour element.
We could be in for a repeat of this — not the Doomsday of the 1930s, of course, but something quite bad, just the same. With the Conservative Party in its present Dianafied state, it is as well to keep it away from office: let a new Lib-Lab coalition take the responsibility.
Norman Stone's new book, The Atlantic and its Enemies: A Personal History of the Cold War, is published on May 6 by Allen Lane.
Reader views (11)
Norman is spot on over the Smoking ban but the question is have the Conservatives the common sense to give all people choice,smoker and non smoker alike ? it should be a basic law that All people get treated the same and without discrimination,but it seems they forget that when it comes to smokers,yet they contribute so much to our tax revenue,but David should see that Smokers are Voters and do the right thing,the Fair thing and make that Change he talks about.
- tug, uk, 21/04/2010 14:11
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All the 1980s produced was a short-term economic bubble created by selling off what little industry and public services we had left. Now that bubble's gone, everyone's left scratching their heads and looking for another Thatcher to do it all over again.
What Norman Stone fails to realise is that the world has moved on since the 1950s and that Britain has had to change as well in order to maintain the influence and standard of living that it was used to. Navel gazing about the past is not going to get anyone anywhere.
- John Buckeridge, London, 21/04/2010 10:58
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'.. he would be honour-killed and quite right, too ..'?
Um, excuse me?
You are drawing comparisons between the UK and a country that has a problem with the prolific murder of Christians?
Enjoy your holiday, don't come back.
- Frank, Home Counties, England., 21/04/2010 10:32
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It might be good for the party in the long term for the Tories to lose this election, but that's not what the election is all about. Power for power's sake is the hallmark of the present resident of No.10 - that power is supposed to be in order to govern the country on bhehalf of it's citizens in the best, most efficient manner. That is not what is happening now, and it is not what will happen if the Tories do not get in.
- Rogan, Irving, 21/04/2010 02:20
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Wonderful stuff from Norman Stone but all this heart-searching from Ancient Tories always comes up against the great imponderable: did Mrs T. really save GB in the eighties? Many people of different persuasions (e.g. New Labour) feel (to varying degrees) that she did. But there is an alternative argument, you know. That Thatcherism was just a 'narrative' made possible by the fact that North Sea oil came on stream at this time and thus insulated the British government of the day from the harsh realities of the world as it was then. Was it a good narrative? I suppose that is the real question. And the answer will depend obviously on your political persuasion. Can it be restored? I think not - much to the chagrin of Ancient Tories. Life's not so simple. Is another Mrs T. waiting in the wings? Can cows fly? I think not. Dave's the best you guys can hope for unfortunately.
All the best
K of E.
- ken of england, london uk, 20/04/2010 21:36
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Surely EVERY election is a good time for Tories to loose just ask the millions thrown on the scrapheap by right wing Thatcherite policies a process Cameron would repeat again!
The fact is the country has moved on but the Tories are still stuck in the past.
As for europe instead of being at the centre with French and German Centre right parties they align themselves with parties with more in common with the BNP instead of working to change things.
Cameron thought he would be served the Country on a plate when instead Nick Clegg served him a plate of custard right on his toffee nose!! - (wonder what custard and toffee tastes like?)
- Melvyn Windebank, Canvey Island, Essex, 20/04/2010 19:27
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Isn't it obvious enough after three failed attempts to get back into power that the so called Ancient Tories are out of tune with modern times- dinosaurs of another age? With friends like Norman Stone and John of Highgate, the Modern Conservatives really don't need enemies like Mandy.
- Maggie, Highgate, 20/04/2010 17:13
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Would one of Norman's mates kindly point out to him that his suggestion of no tax deducted from income below £10K is already a cornerstone of one of the other parties' platform?
- Bloke, Lambeth, 20/04/2010 15:05
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I think they are lazy. They think they can win by bullsh*t alone. It's not good enough.
- East Londoner, London, 20/04/2010 14:06
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You don't have to be an 'Ancient Tory' to agree with every element of this article. As a man in his 30s with Conservative leanings, I (and indeed all around me) are clasping their heads with despair. Many of the the points you make are ones you hear day after day in ordinary conversation. It is risible that the Tory party is unable to tap such rich seams that are not only overwhelmingly popular but fully in line with Conservative principles. Though Conservative convictions all appear to have been dropped of course - as part of a strategy to guarantee a glorious election win apparently. Time to start all over again...
- OH, London, 20/04/2010 14:04
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I regret to say that Norman Stone is absolutely right. Cameron's political judgement is unsound both in his policies and in his choice of front bench spokesmen. He has got nothing right. He has betrayed the ideals of the Conservative party and has said absolutely nothing that I as a supporter of the Conservatives for forty years want to hear. Come to that he has said nothing that first time voters want to hear either judging by their overwhelming support for Clegg. On television Cameron looked uncomfortable between Clegg and Brown, probably because he knew that what he had to say was weak and vacuous. He deserves to lose.
- John, Highgate, 20/04/2010 13:54
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