PMQ’s becomes more and more frustrating by the week.  A badly scripted bunch of soundbites dressed up as a pantomime.  Today was no exception.  Brown carps on that he wishes to discuss policy but again never answers one question.  To an outsider it must seem that 2 men come in and pretend to debate with each other but don’t actually interact on the same level but follow whatever agenda they want in front of the cameras to capture best TV share on Sky News.  PMQ’s makes a mockery of Parliament.

What I find frustrating is that Gordon Brown comes to the Chamber with the same old staid points.  Tories will make cuts, Tories to slash this, Tories to slash that.  Then he talks of the do nothing Tories.  Gordon, if you say the Conservatives are making cuts, how would that equate to doing nothing.  Crazy man who is a repetitive 1 track album.

Even more frustrating is that David Cameron could make such political capital from focusing on some key questions himself for the Prime Minister and playing to what should be natural Conservatives strengths.

Let’s take the major political issues and lessons we can learn from recent elections and the mood of the nation.

The Economy.  This will be the main election background.  How a Party will pull the UK out of recession, lay the foundations of a long, sustainable, period of growth and importantly pay off a huge, cancerous, strangling level of national debt.  Brown has one line of attack against Cameron.  He repeats it week after week.  The Tories will make cuts and slash services.

Now, economists and analysts are united in their views, be it the World Bank, the Bank of England, the IMF, the IOD, IFS etc etc that the UK needs to reduce its debt level as a matter of urgency.  We have even had Standard & Poor reference that our credit rating as a nation may be reduced from its current ‘AAA’ status, unless we can reduce debt.  Hence, whatever Party wins the election, will have to make spending cuts.  Brown knows this but wont commit to this and will continue to lie as he knows that he has little chance of winning the election.  And if he did pull the rabbit out of the hat, that’s fine as the public are used to his lies and spin.

The public are fed up in this recession hearing of the sugar coated safety of working in the public sector.  This is not about the pay and job security of nurses, doctors, teachers, fire or policemen, but all those bureaucrats, civil servants, public review bodies & quangos that have grown up under Labour and need to be scythed down.  That is what the public want.  Those in the private sector are facing wage freezes and many jobs are being cut.  Then they see the likes of Tube drivers striking for a pay increase of 5% and job security for all members.  Delusional.

So DC should make spending cuts a Conservatives strength.  Turn the issue into simple language that the average voter understands.  Like Mrs Thatcher used to say.  If a family spends too much, they get into debt and they may lose their house to repay their debt.  Pure and simple, average voter understands that all debt has to be repaid.  Currently, the British economy is like a family losing control of its finances and in real danger of having to go to the IMF for a bail out.  The Conservatives recognise that it is not fair on our children to pay for this Labour generation’s debt and will seek to cut spending, where possible, without affecting key services in the health service etc. This is the most sensible way of looking after our children’s future security and prosperity.  Then turn it back to Gordon Brown.  How does he intend to repay debt?  He says he wont reduce spending.  He says tax levels will now remain at parity.  So how will the debt be repaid?  It wont be from increased tax revenues because the most entrepreneurial in society are getting whacked with a 50% tax bill.  Unemployment is rising and will rise for many months to come. 

So how does Gordon Brown intend to repay debt?  The answer.  He doesn’t.  That is surely a damning position to be in.  Brown can be painted as the man bankrupting Britain, spending frivolously, without a care in the world, with debt spiralling, with no plans to repay it but a fanciful hope that the economy bounces like a rubber ball out of recession and his tax revenues rise again.  This is playing dangerously with our children’s future.  An economic maniac, a spendaholic, addicted to debt, gambling our future away and bringing chaos to our nations purse strings.  I could imagine a Conservatives political broadcast with a spinning roulette wheel, with a desperate looking figure, (Brown), gambling more and more chips, looking more and more stressed and exhausted as the debts grows but the addiction to spend continues.  ’Would you trust this man with your money and are you willing to gamble on your childs future prosperity?’, a booming voice asks of the viewer.

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear David Cameron go on the attack on this and admit cuts.  It’s sensible economics.  Imagine him asking Gordon at PMQ’s:

‘How does the Prime Minister propose to pay back our budget deficit without reducing expenditure or raising the level of income tax?’

Immigration.  Is this an election issue or were the British people in protest mode when they voted for the BNP?  Immigration should be a natural Conservatives strength.  As stated in an earlier blog, this is not about the issue of race but the level of people entering the UK and residing here.  It is pure and simple and economic issue.  An issue that can be nicely tied into spending cuts. This is not a BNP race issue.

So immigration is a question of finance.  How should the Conservatives play this delicate issue?  Quite simply, the British people will understand the arguments that immigration affects all the following: Housing   (limited housing stock and depressed housing market, lack of money to build new houses);  Jobs   (rising levels of unemployment, not enough jobs to go round); State benefit system  (already overstretched with unemployment benefit rising and depleted exchequer revenues);  Health service  (stretched to the bone, not enough beds, increasing waiting times); Education  (already cuts in University funds are seeing students turned away, pressure on schools and classroom sizes); Travel infrastructure  (Decrepit roads at a standstill with overwhelming traffic, trains creeking–need for money and public not incentivised to travel on any form of public transport as poor service and very expensive); Environment  (building more houses in the countryside, growing pollution, more cars on the road, more wasteful emissions and wastage occurring); Depleting energy resources  (more people using more and more resources, speeding their depletion);  Social Fabric  (how differing cultures seamlessly blend in stressful recessionary times and live harmoniously).

Let’s play the immigration card to our strength.  Not in any term of race like the fascist BNP but lets remove the emotion from this issue  and turn it into an economic and social debate, over what the UK can afford and how society should grow.  If we had done this pre the local & European elections, the BNP would have had less share of the vote, as the issue of immigration would have been nullified.

Europe.  The issue that splits the Conservatives right down the middle historically, (as it does Labour).  The strength of the UKIP vote in the local and more so the European elections can be attributed largely to a protest vote over the expenses scandal.  But the UKIP Party, made up of many disgruntled Tories, still provided clue blue water between their proposals on Europe and the Conservatives.  Again, David could turn this into a major vote winner for the Conservatives.

What is clear from public mood is that they are sick to death of the transfer of powers away from our elected representatives to unelected bureaucrats in Europe and a misfiring European Parliament.  Now the current policy of a referendum on the Lisbon treaty is very cool and appealing but the fudge happens if the Irish ratify the Treaty and it becomes law.  Will Cameron, if the election is in 2010, hold a retrospective referendum on the Treaty?  Well that makes it harder to pull out of the Treaty of Lisbon when it is law and arguably loses impact as an issue.  Brown has the Treaty of Lisbon all sewn up in the UK and hence pulling out and returning powers back to the UK becomes the issue in 2010.  Trickier to play that card….how is the question?

Europe has passed the point of the debate of full scale withdrawal.  That is not in our Economic benefits.  The reasons why Margaret Thatcher signed up for a Single trading market, free from protectionist barriers allowing free movement of people, goods and capital across Europe, remains sound today.  It’s the Single Currency and Economic & Political Union we don’t want or need.  What David Cameron needs to do now is paint the vision of what Europe looks like for the Conservatives. Inspire the people into our vision and state as a country we have gone too far.  Tone is key.  Labour can be painted as the Party willing to hand over all power to Europe.  Again a great election broadcast could show the Palace of Westminster, with a guide closing the door to the House of Commons, with a sign, closed for business, all powers given to Europe.

So three big issues.  I have not touched on electoral reform or MP’s expenses a they should be expected to be non issues in 2010.  In terms of the health service and public services, David Cameron has made massive advances for the Conservatives, turning these into electoral strengths, (unheard of by previous Conservative Leaderships).  Hence, the power of winning more votes, extending our majority on the big issues of the economy, immigration & Europe.  DC should start today painting a stronger position and putting real pressure on Labour.