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I’m looking forward to helping out again with Aidan Burley’s campaign in Cannock this coming weekend, on which I’ve previously posted an article (see here).
One of the unknown factors in Cannock for the coming General Election will concern the electoral impact of the BNP. Across the West Midlands, the BNP have been picking up council votes in wards, usually at the expense of the Labour Party. Across the diverse urban/ rural landscape of the West Midlands, these wards can be identified through their relatively higher level of deprivation compared to the surrounding area. For example, in Warwickshire local BNP candidates have been successfully in elected in wards within Nuneaton which used to be ex-mining settlements.
As a second-generation British-born Asian, I would obviously dispute the BNP’s central message around race. However I would fully support their right to be heard as a democratically elected party, including the recent appearance of their leader Nick Griffiths on Question Time. Because there a variety of motives that lead people to vote for the BNP, including apathy or anger with the conduct of mainstream political parties, we need to adopt a range of strategies to help counter their appeal. These might range from greater openness on issues such as immigration to more direct empowerment of communities in deprived areas.
However there is a significant risk that the 2010 General Election will see the BNP increase its reach in these marginalized communities, given the broad pattern of votes leaking to the BNP mainly from the Labour Party and the relatively weaker Conservative campaigning presence in these areas. Therefore I have written to the Conservative Party Chairman Eric Pickles suggesting that we should set up a Marginal Wards Initiative (MWI) after the General Election.
The aim would be to follow our City Seats Initiative (for which I have campaigned in London), focusing on those deprived wards where the BNP receives its greatest vote share. The MWI would ensure that at least once every six months voters in these wards would receive Conservative campaign literature on issues that matter to them, supported with direct doorstep canvassing. This campaign could be co-ordinated across the country, so that it became a regular fixture for local associations.
Winning the next General Election is obviously the top priority but the Conservatives should not lose sight of citizens who for whatever reason have turned their back on mainstream politics. I believe that we have a responsibility to engage with these voters, even where there is relatively little immediate electoral advantage to be gained.
I’ve recently published an article on Conservative Home that focuses on the need for ‘early and greater’ intervention to help restore the UK’s public finances back to health – you can read the article here. I've made the following case:
• An ‘early and greater’ approach to fiscal consolidation is needed to restore the public finances back to health.
• We should adopt a two-pronged approach: re-focusing public spending towards frontline public services; and applying the concept of GDP-targeting to public spending, while redefining the provision of welfare support.
• This approach should help to manage risks both to the process of economic recovery and the UK’s sovereign debt rating.
The context for this approach lies in the hardening of sovereign risk around the UK’s public debt burden, which has attracted increasingly critical comments in recent weeks (see articles here and here).
In thinking how we can rejeuvante our national economy, it’s worth considering the case of the West Midlands. A recent FT article (see here) has highlighted that the UK economy grew more slowly in each year of the last decade than any other decade since the war. The FT’s analysis has showed that average annual GDP growth in the West Midlands nearly halved from 2% in the 1990s to 1.1% in the last decade. Why should this matter? In many ways the West Midlands serves as the engine-room for the UK, with a range of activity across the agriculture, manufacturing and services industries and will provide the litmus test for a future Conservative Government – in other words, we will need to get it right here if we are going to get it right across the wider country.
I’ll be focusing on this theme in another article, thinking how the ‘Cuts & Growth‘ debate might impact on areas such as South Staffordshire and Worcestershire. This is clearly going to be a year of challenges for our country as a whole and for communities such as those in the West Midlands.
Conversation with a friend at Christmas threw up an interesting idea. Following on from the successful TV advert ‘Compare the Meerkat.com’ featuring meerkats, she suggested that we should create a similar website for the General Election campaign, titled "Compare the Parties.com"
As the title suggests, this would help voters to easily compare the policies of the main parties – hopefully this would persuade them to vote for the Conservatives!
I'll be forwarding the idea onto the CCHQ campaign team - will let you know if they nibble...
During my previous visit to South Staffordshire, I learnt of the integrated health and social care pilot that was being run in Codsall ward.
As highlighted in a previous article, by 2020 South Staffordshire will have the highest proportion of over-80 yr olds in the country. Restructuring the local health and social care services should provide a more efficient and effective service for the elderly population and also help to achieve maximum benefit for scarce public resources.
Just before Christmas I attended a working lunch with Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Secretary of State for Health. Andrew explained that his team would be publishing a Green Paper in the New Year, focusing on the Conservatives public health policy and how we would improve local preventative strategies. It will be interesting to see how this work builds on projects such as the Codsall pilot and I’ll be examining the Green Paper with interest when it’s published.
Into 2010 and there are new projects on the horizon. I’ve been recently liaising with Philip Hammond MP's office (Shadow Chief Sectretary to the Treasury) and I’ll shortly be starting work on his public sector efficiency taskforce. This will prepare our plans for government to rein back public spending and restore the public finances back to health, without undermining the delivery of public services.
I’m working with a London-based literary agent to develop my plans for publishing a political text titled “Towards a New Politics”. This will propose how we might reform our formal political institutions and processes, as part of a wider rethink of our approach to politics and to show how we can bridge the growing deficit between political practice and the average citizen’s experience of democracy in this country.
I'm also planning a second book titled “Building our Future” which will focus on the post-war period and provide a survey of the leading industrialists, engineers and public servants of the 1950s and 1960s. The period after WWII is normally associated with the UK’s relative economic decline compared to other developed economies (see this paper for further background) but I hope to highlight the significant advances made by the post-war generation across the private and public sectors. For example there will be a significant section on Lord Weinstock and the way he built up the General Electric Company (GEC) from an annual turnover of £100million to £6 billion, before new management wrecked the company in the dot-com era. It’s worth quoting Lord Weinstock: "Dreams have their place in managerial activity, but they need to be kept severely under control."
Speaking of which, back to the grindstone to make sure these dreams are translated into reality…
During the seasonal break this year I found myself travelling up and down the country. The period around Christmas was spent with friends in Rutland, after Boxing Day I travelled up to the West Midlands to see family and more friends, and finally back to London to welcome in the New Year.
In Rutland I attended the Christmas Eve service in the church at Barrowden village, which I had previously in November for their Remembrance Day service when visiting the same friends. On both occassions it was striking how the vicar’s service emphasised a pastoral attitude towards the parisheners, without overstating any formal hierarchy. It was interesting to reflect how this approach compared with the diminished reputation of Parliament and our national political representatives.
One of the traditions of Christmas Day is settling in the armchair to listen to the Queen’s speech. This year the themes focused on the pain of recession and honouring our armed forces that were serving in Afghanistan and other overseas operations. It was significant that the Queen emphasised the links across the Commonwealth and how these could provide a platform for dialogue on important issues – the turmoil around the recent financial crisis and the Copenhagen talks on climate change cannot have been far from the Queen’s mind when she reflected on the strength of this ongoing relationship. It seems to fall upon our monarchy to provide support to the country in troubled times, in light of our rudderless Government, a discredited Parliament, a failed banking system and with the Church itself experiencing financial problems.
Back to the West Midlands to see family and friends. My parents are preparing to travel to India in early January so there was plenty of discussion around their plans. On Sunday evening I went out to dinner with my close friends in the town of Leamington Spa, which featured in the recent publication “Unwrecked England”, by Candida Lycett Green. The impact of the recession was obvious on the Parade, which has served as a retail centre since the late19th century. Now there were a spread of empty shops, reflecting the combined pressure of the downturn and the increased retail appeal of places like Coventry and Birmingham.
Finally seeing in the New Year with friends in London. A wonderful two days, with us able to view the fireworks display from the top-most room in the house and then spending New Years Day enjoying food and conversation. I was reunited with the joys of Lego as I helped my friend’s son build a toy digger. A welcome break from television!
