Sarah Sands: Tory Posh Boys have shifted from Gents to Players

The argument that the Tories need to win is that they represent the many over the few
1 October 2013
WEST END FINAL

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The account in Matthew d’Ancona’s book, In It Together, of the formation of the Coalition Government reads rather like the recruitment process for the Empire. Young men from a very few schools, called upon to serve their country. They had a born instinct about how to rule. “Educational background was truly the glue of the Coalition,” writes d’Ancona.

Since then, the Government of Gentlemen has been bloodied. The Cameron Cabinet bridles at the “posh boys” tag knowing that it remains its political weakness. Defensiveness distorts its Tory instincts. Cameron believed that his huskies and hoodies phase displayed an empathy for the sensibilities of a wider population, but it was Downton Abbeyesque in its noblesse oblige. The nation’s other ranks were more concerned with the cost of living.

It is obvious that the poorer are the main victims of crime, just as they experience immigration and welfare most directly. Their grievances arise from the behaviour of their neighbours. Less so in Chipping Norton where neighbours span counties.

Cameron’s attempts to soften his party’s image were worthy but they were also agonisingly posh. What he had to learn was the polecat Conservatism of self-improvement from those further down the social ladder. In deference to this, Osborne’s speech yesterday was blue collar, boysy and anti-state. Following a long conversation at the Serpentine party last week with Jeremy Clarkson, he announced a freeze on petrol prices and praised the invention of a mightily fast car. Less “get on your bike” more “fire up the motor”.

As one Conservative minister explained it yesterday, respect must count for more than popularity. He blinked at my suggestion that the Tories had returned to being right but repulsive but agreed that competence rather than “niceness” was their natural territory.

This is the penultimate party conference before the election and the political arguments are being pummelled out in front of us.

The slogan for this conference is For Hard-working People but the argument that the Tories need to win is that they represent the many over the few. If there is a recovery, who benefits? This may be why speakers are so keen on the “global race”. The maths sounds so epic. “We could combine it as the global race for the hard-working,” suggested one senior Tory.

Eric Pickles’s proposed slogan, perhaps influenced by the fact that he was on his way to meet the Scouts, was: “Fair Dibs for Everyone”.

Behold, the transformation of a group of gents who assumed power into a Government prepared to fight to the death to retain it. One social outrider told me he found the Cameron set entirely businesslike now. Even Boris Johnson has become obedient, name-checking George Osborne without a hint of subversion. This is how the few have managed the many in the party. The election slogan will probably be: Don’t risk the recovery. The internal message loud and clear to rebels and mavericks is, don’t risk losing power.

Karren is conference queen

The thing about Tory women is that they emerge out of nowhere. Few predicted the rise of Margaret Thatcher until, for her opponents, it was too late. I had not even registered that Karren Brady was a Tory before she strode onto the stage at Manchester. Now she is being tipped as a future Tory Mayor of London. Like Lady Thatcher, Brady defines herself as a woman in a man’s world. Her territory is sport and business. She triumphs over sexism rather than suffering from it. Last time around the mayoral contest was between two Alpha males. It would be thrillingly unfamiliar to see, say, Tessa Jowell, for Labour, taking on Karren Brady. How very old-fashioned Westminster politics would look by comparison.

Gangs out of sight must not be out of mind

In his fringe speech on Monday evening at Conservative Home, Boris Johnson played down the problem of gangs in London, explaining that crime had fallen under his tenure. This depends on your perspective. A London MP pointed out to me afterwards that gangs have retreated from the public space and this creates its own danger. We may think it does not impinge upon us, therefore it does not matter.

Meanwhile a hell is being created in pockets in London. Violence is more extreme. Girls are treated as sex slaves. Isolation from society means there is nobody to intervene. Imagine the fear and the strength of character required in those teenagers who reject the gangs. We must not abandon them because they do not fit the new crime statistics.

Bridget comes full circle

The death of Mark Darcy in the new Bridget Jones novel has hit the public hard but it is a necessary device. Bridget Jones is a Victorian plot masquerading as a contemporary one and innocence and virtue often get bumped off. It also makes sense to move Bridget along a decade or so. The China-sized market for entertainment is middle-aged women. Post Mamma Mia! everyone is seeking the older female audience.

Jennifer Saunders had a shot at it and missed with the Spice Girls musical. Bridget Jones III could be the role model for this generation. Darcy had to go because the romantic comedy could not have survived a divorce. Either his infidelity or Bridget’s would have been too upsetting. Death is a neater end and restores Bridget to her natural comic state (tinged with a new sadness) as a singleton. The search for romantic love is touching and absurd at any age.

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