Can the Tories become relevant again?

Northern variant - @FUDdaily  from Twitter

So how long before "Close, AND a cigar?"

Well, it worked for Churchill... so it's worth a little thought exercise on how @KemiBadenoch  could turn things around for the Tories.

Her party's two basic problems are credibility and trustworthiness. To build credibility she needs to be rid of the toxic, the deadbeats and the hasbeens. Priti Patel, for instance, cannot be anywhere near the front bench. Her political career should be over. 

Badenoch says the party is changing. If she wants people to believe it, we need to see proof. The ambiguity is a killer. Activists and influencers won't wait two years for positions and policy. We need to know what the party stands for now. General vibes aren't good enough. The party needs to be explicit about what it will do. 

If we are to believe that the party has changed then we need a clear indication that Net Zero targets will be repealed. The party must be clear that no more land will be gobbled up by solar panels and no more windfarms will be built on land or at sea. The EV mandate must be scrapped, along with all heat pump measures. We don't want or need them.   

Repeatedly Rishi Sunak stood at a podium with the slogan "stop the boats". He stopped short of taking the full measures available to him to ensure the deterrence scheme would work. Voters will tolerate no more half-measures. We need to see a plan that repeals the HRA, neuters the ECHR, renounces the Refugee Convention and takes the courts out of political decision-making. 

This has to be bold. We're not going to put up with "we'll decide when the time comes".

The public wants an end to it. Migrants arriving at Dover should be on an aeroplane out of the country within 72 hours - whether it's to the Falklands or Rwanda or their country of origin. Nobody cares where, so long as it's not here.

On immigration, nobody wants to hear any waffle about "integration". The time to have that conversation was twenty years ago. Now that we have Islamist sectarianism entering all areas of politics, it's time it is eradicated. The state has to put them on notice. 

On benefits, no immigrant should be entitled to benefits or housing ever. If they failed to establish themselves and are not able to financially support themselves, they must go home.  We do not have the resources to look after our own people, never mind the world's detritus - or "flotsam" - to be accurate.

On infrastructure, we need action now. Whatever it is that causes years of delay and budget bloat, repeal it. We cannot have judges deciding whether we can build a power station or a runway. We cannot have blob NGOs calling the shots. On that note, NGOs must be defunded. 

We can have no more guessing games or policy triangulation by focus group. Decide what is right and argue the case.

As to outflanking Reform, that shouldn't be too difficult. Reform, fundamentally, is a populist party. They will promise the world on a stick. What they lack is credibility. There is no outward sign that they know what they're doing. There's no sign of a plan. If they publish policy at all, it's likely to be half-baked, simplistic and rushed. The answer to that is to simply do better. Which isn't hard.   

Badenoch has said we shouldn't expect policy for two years. Fair enough. Detail takes time. But we do need to see an unequivocal agenda. We do need to know whether Badenoch gets it. We do need to know if the party is heading in the right direction. We need to know that the party understands the scale and the urgency of the problems, and we need to know the party has the stones to do what is necessary regardless of how the media whines. 

Right now, right-leaning voters have no reason to trust the Tory party. They have no reason to care whether it lives or dies. There is no reason to even pay attention to it. We know what we want. We're just looking for someone to deliver it. We've seen what's been done in America just with the political will, and we want that to happen here. Only for us, the choice is between the amateurism of Reform or the treachery of the Tories.

The only way to prove that the Tories have changed is to be decisive and make a clean break with the past. No more compromises. No more pandering to the liberal wing. No more "middle way". It's now do or die for the Tory party. If being robust and decisive upsets the liberal wing, then do it anyway, because the alternative is extinction. 

Voters will eventually make their own minds up. They will take a punt on Reform's empty sloganeering and hope for the best if there is no real alternative. The answer is to be a better alternative. Show people the party has the right ideas and the answers. Show people the party is serious. Otherwise, 2029 is the end for the Tory party - and no-one will care

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