News of Blair since Bush news is thin

[WriterDom]

UK Conservative says 'Save the Pound' was disaster

By Susan Cornwell


LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - The British Conservative Party's election crusade to "Save the Pound" was as big a disaster as Labour's 1980s call for nuclear disarmament, Conservative leadership hopeful Ken Clarke said on Wednesday.

Clarke, the only pro-euro candidate among five contenders to lead the opposition party, said Conservatives must admit they turned off voters by focussing their campaign on keeping the pound to the detriment of other issues like public services.

The Conservatives were trounced on June 7 for the second time in four years by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party.

"It seems to me we cannot face up to this defeat if all we are going to say is that the 'Save the Pound' election was perfectly all right so long as we don't talk about it so often from now on," former finance minister Clarke told the BBC.

"The 'Save the Pound' election was as big a disaster for the Conservatives as the 'Ban the Bomb' election was for Labour in 1983," the 60-year-old Clarke said.

The Conservatives won 33 percent of the vote on June 7. In 1983 Labour was humiliated with just 27 percent of the vote after campaigning on a left-wing platform that included the complete renunciation by Britain of all nuclear weapons.

SLOW JOURNEY

Labour abandoned unilateralism after its 1987 defeat, and began a slow journey to the political centre that was accelerated by Blair after he became Labour leader in 1994.

Clarke, who held four senior ministerial posts in 18 years of Conservative government before Blair was elected, launched his bid on Tuesday for the party leadership post vacated by William Hague the day after the election defeat.

As the country's most popular Conservative Clarke is in a good position if he can square the circle of being a Europhile in a Eurosceptic party. But the frontrunner is Michael Portillo, who was defence minister under former Prime Minister John Major.

The other candidates are ex-party chairman Michael Ancram, party defence spokesman Iain Duncan Smith and parliamentarian David Davis. A decision is not expected until September.

Clarke dismissed the suggestion that he would not be able to find support for his pro-euro views among senior members of the party or the general public.

He said the Conservatives must drop "extreme language" and "extreme policies" on Europe, such as their opposition to the Nice treaty on the enlargement of the European Union.

"I am not asking people to change their views but I am asking people to accept that we have got on Eruope to adopt a more balanced and moderate tone," he said.

Polls say the majority of Britons want to keep the pound but also that they are resigned to having lost it within a decade.

The Conservatives were to elect the chairman of their backbench "1922 committee" on Wednesday. The new chairman will oversee the party's leadership battle.

 

[WriterDom]

Pretty boring I know, but going from an empire to a tourist state doesn't leave much room for good or bad press.

 

[p_p_man]

Yeah life's been a bit humdrum over here lately...

Pretty boring I know, but going from an empire to a tourist state doesn't leave much room for good or bad press.

...that's why we were hoping Bush would have done something new by now...

Anyway nice post but what's it got to do with Blair?

And for everyone's information (if your interested that is) the Conservative Party is choosing a new leader from the biggest group of no-hopers ever to grace a headline...

They forget don't they that leaders aren't for members of the party to approve, they're for the voters to elect...

I'll come back to you on the tourist state remark another time...

 

[Myrrdin]

Give the guy a chance. He's only be in power for four years. During which he's done nothing radical, just follow a fairly conservative programme.

The previous Conservative Gov't had left the ecomy in good order and by increasing taxation and some deft sleight of hand tricks that made it look as though they were increasing spending on health and education, his Gov't managed to hoodwink the country. The value of the pound is being dragged down by the weakness of the euro, but as far as overseas trade goes thats not a bad thing. Anything priced in dollars is now more expensive, but our exports are now more competitive.

The Conservative's whole election campaign failed because they couldn't decide what direction their policies should go, on any issue.

As far as the euro goes it's a non-event. The various national currencies have to be on the same slope of the economic graph. Government debts brought under control. Interest rates alligned etc.

Otherwise it's going to turn into as much of a disaster as when the UK tried to join the euro's predecessor the ERM (exchange rate mechanism). And financial speculators like George Souros (sp) almost ruined the British economy.

And thats the sort of thing that can knacker election chances.

 

[p_p_man]

Yeah that was a classic...

Otherwise it's going to turn into as much of a disaster as when the UK tried to join the euro's predecessor the ERM (exchange rate mechanism). And financial speculators like George Souros (sp) almost ruined the British economy.

...piece of Tory mismanagement wasn't it?

One of the better things Tony Blair has done so far is to take the setting of interest rates out of politicians' hands and make it the Bank of England's direct responsibility.

That's one reason we're so able to handle fluctuations now and at the same time, bit by bit, grow economically stronger.