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I have said how annoyed and concerned I am about all this moving to the centre and all parties having the same policies before on your blog. I can't vote yet but in one years time I can do and when that general election comes up in 3 or so years, I have no idea who I will vote for if they all carry on like this- somebody has to start making themselves and their party different or I don't expect I will be the only person in this predicament- anyway I have got to go now as I have a politics AS level in half an hour so my political thoughts need to focus there!!!

It's an interesting strategy - even though Blair and Brown are positioning themselves in order to make necessary cuts in the next few years, Cameron is not burdened by any such necessity, and can happily sit back and bemoan their impending fate knowing full well that he'd do at least the same in the govt's position. It's politics at its most amusing, but I'm keen to see the argument move from there to the central philosophy of how we run public services, and by extension a government, and I fear that this will be lost by the posturing that's bound to ensue.

Nick

Isn't this all just about the electoral arithmetic? a few thousand "floating" voters either way in 50 or so constituencies will decide who wins the next election, and these are disproportionally middle-income public sector employees.

Nick: I had a friend visiting from Spain with his grandfather, a veteran of the Spanish Civil War, this week. I was explaining to him the current trend of mix-and-match politics in UK. His comments were pretty interesting -- despite the fratricidal carnage he undoubtedly witnessed -- he lamented the fact that 'in those days you knew where the parties stood'.

This is a trend that is often noted and will surely go on being flagged in the future. I don't think it should be a great surprise. It seems like a very delayed reaction to me, people still expressing surprise that the government appear right of the Tories. The clue was in the title, New Labour. The Labour Party isn't right of the Tories, because it no longer exists - and I can't imagine it ever suddenly making a comeback. Blair wanted to break with left-right politics, which is his post-modern dream. Yet he behaves in so many ways belonging to what we know as right-wing that we simply can't go along with his hall of mirrors and smoke tricks - Tony Blair is right-wing and always has been. And Gordon Brown, the second most important man in all the actions of this Government, certainly does not offer a break from that.

All those in New Labour thinking that one day they'll get back to leftist ideals are living in a terrible amount of bad faith. They ought to leave the party right away, otherwise they are endorsing what the administration has done and is doing.

Another thing I note: How when things are bad for Blair he frequently turns to right-wing rhetoric and causes in a desperate hope of appealing to the right-wing media that he is losing. He acts like a desperate man, he is a desperate man.. and his white knuckles desperately grasping onto the slippery reigns is going to damage this country for many years to come. Which is fitting, given his admiration of Thatcher.

Both my parents worked in local government. Both knew what a political football it is for the main parties. They were always at the brunt of complaints about overstaffing and waste. The salaries paid are always seen as being unmanageable and productivity very low.

Yet the problem they have arises from the inability of central or local government to provide them with workable and consistent policy. They make policy then, prior to implentation, change it. They prioritise policies and then, when the next crisis happens, immediately cancel and move on.

Public sector employees are poorly paid, badly treated and constantly belittled. Councillors and MP's look after their own interests while walking over those who implement policy.

There is to much interference from local ruling party functionaries who have no official position. My father often tells the story of the councillor who would sit in his chair waiting for him to come into work. Shout at him for something that he wanted done, only for dad to explain that the policy set down by the councillor made this impossible.

So why are they disspirited?

Nick,

I don't know why people are so suprised at David's approach. Conservatism is simply an ethos; a way of life. Conservatism says "if it's not broken leave it alone", it says "only tax the population to pay for services and not for social engineering purposes". So yes, both New Labour and The Conservatives can comfortably sing from the same hymn-sheet on a whole raft of issues.

The difference between them is noticable when you ask "why do they want to be in charge of the country?".

Labour want to be in charge because it allows them to control; to be manipulative; to toy with people's wealth.
Conservatives want to be in charge because that's the only way to stop Labour!

It was always the case that the Tories would have to give up publicly bashing the services.

As the years roll by and labour achieve success at the ballot box, the more the services are seen to succeed.

Many parents now have children with education results.Patients are now seen by more Doctors and new hospitals and schools will be seen everywhere come Tony's retirement.

The Tories have insulted everyone everywhere that have played a leading role in promoting our future.

Cameron is in the last chance saloon and he knows his one last throw of the dice is to ditch the tories and embrace socialism. It won it for Tony and Dave thinks it can win it for him.

Gary

Dear Nick,
Your double spin (new spin on top of repeated old, which you now accept as common knowledge and conventional wisdom) in pieces like this is getting to me. One I can take without mistrusting you, but more ..
It's as if you are police, judge, jury and warder. Trapped in your own web, you need to attract by ongoing calumny.
I respect the job you are doing (calling our rulers to order) but fear you are losing my/our respect as much as the pols you are unfairly bashing.
I would happily do more on this important issue myself, but only if it is read and useful. If so, please advise.
Bruce

I strongly recommend cross-dressing on the Labour side because it's what the public wants from them. They were elected as thatcherites and should stay that way. TB and GB know this only too well - see Brown's latest conservative soundbite on immigrants having to learn English.

Sadly for Cameron, for every trendy lefty turned off by these comments there are several conservative-leaning Labour voters who love it (as do I BTW).

The Tories are too scared to make noises like this. Labour are still the social justice good-guys in most people’s eyes so they have the confidence to say it – and this is one policy that i'd say would have labour back bench support.

If Brown stays right on economic policy and moves right on social policy he’ll stay in power. Bring on the Britishness Day pronto, Gordo. "A strong economy. A safe country." That should be his message. If the ecomomy holds out so will he, stoopid.

I know you wont print this you cynical ´óÏó´«Ã½ hacks. I hope you remember it though.

A Conservative

Nick,

All of this is very nice of course, but many of us sitting in the regions still see an increasingly marginalised and metropolitan agenda and debate.

It's all very well Brown and Cameron fighting on either side of an (actually illusory) ideological canyon, but too many of us have switched off entirely and aren't really listening anymore, even those of us who are interested in the political process, because in the shakedown it's all just posturing.

Nick,

As someone from the 'front line' of this debate I can tell you that morale is at an all time low in the Public Sector (and that's saying a lot). My colleagues and I are fed up with this beaureaucrat blame game, of always being the sacrificial lamb for ministerial sins. There is a simmering unrest just beneath the surface, I'm just not sure how or when it will erupt. We are fed up with politicians seeking to divert blame onto us for their mismanagement and power games - all we are doing is implimenting their policies as best we can with the limited resources available. We are also deeply dissatisfied with a senior management who have been politicised to an extent that would better grace one of the more corrupt Third World states. They are as out of touch with the feelings and day to day work of their staff as their masters in Westminster. So much for the impartiality of the Civil Service! It doesn't matter which side of the political spectrum they're from, I don't trust any of them to deliver what they promise.

I believed in service. In the old fashioned sense of serving one's country and community, not the money grubbing, anything for profit and shareholders first meaning we see today. I still believe in my kind of service, I just wish I and my colleagues could be allowed to practice it.

If both major political parties persist in trying to wear each others clothes the minor parties will be the ones to gain. It will be interesting to see the rise of parties such as UKIP and BNP. Whilst the electorate may disagree with some of their policies, they will at least know what they are voting for, and not vote for a party that sways with the political 'wind'.

History, not ideology, is driving New Labour at the moment. Gordon Brown has (imprudently) over-spent on the public sector over the past few years. New Labour has nothing left in the bank to negotiate public sector reforms with, so they are now setting expectations for future pay freezes.

Nick,
My sole comment is, that it the Tories would be hard pressed to mismanage the public services as badly as the incumbents have. Zillions poured in and what is there to show for it.
We are all paying massively increased personal taxes and Council tax with little or nothing to show for it.
That's why New Labour got such a hiding in London and a kicking in most other parts of the country in the local elections.

Actually Cameron hasn't ever said anything that the Conservative Party hasn't believed for decades (for example, the public sector wasn't substantially reduced even under Thatcher, although it didn't grow much). The difference is that the left-wing chattering classes (Guardian/Independent/entire broadcast media including the ´óÏó´«Ã½), having misrepresented Conservative beliefs and policies for their entire working lives, are now meeting someone as good at the game as they are.

Part of it that they're hoist with their own petard. They confidently expected that David Davis would win the leadership last year, and so played up his "right-wing" credentials as opposed to, first, Ken Clarke, and then David Cameron, in the confident expectation that Davis would win, and they could then spend the next five years proclaiming that the Tories had once again shown how nasty we are by not electing their chosen representative of "moderation". Unfortunately, after they spent months building his opponent up as a nice guy . . .

. . . but it won't last. At some point an excuse will be found for labelling Cameron as a right-wing fanatic after all, and then we'll be back to the old approach of abuse and misrepresentation as a substitute for political debate, with extra venom on account of having been wrong-footed for so long.

I watched Oliver Letwin flounce his way through Daily Politics at midday today. He really was the ultimate in non-committal politicians. Bizarrely, voters are under the impression that the Tories will run public services better than Labour, even though no Tory policies of ANY kind have appeared.

Voters of all persuasions seem to be as baffled as I am - who does one vote for? I'm self employed and middle class. I'm a paid-up member of the Tory party but with Cameron at the helm, where do I go? All the man has done is get up my nose.

Bring back the Iron Lady and the Welsh Windbag. At least you knew where right and left were.

Consider for a moment that if the Left/Right thinking was abolished then maybe it could all make some sense. Today we are all equal when it comes to voting so this Left/Right may make newspaper headlines but what really matters are the policies that are on offer and if Cameron can come up with policies which are to the benefit of us all the that's really what matters. Nobody "owns" the centre-ground it's totally meaningless.

As they say these days "Try thinking outside of the box" Nick and stop using these old labels which are totally pointless.

I entirely agree with Bernard of Horsham. I am not interested in policies, or 'ground-breaking initiatives' introduced to fanfares of PR trumpets and quietly forgotten.

Take, for example, Mr Blair's Rispek agenda: how many yobs have I seen marched to cash-points to pay instant fines for their misdemeanours; how many noisy and disruptive neighbours have I seen with their furniture piled in the streets after being evicted; how many anti-social neighbours will have their housing benefit cut under the latest phase? We all know the answer.

I am not interested in rafts of meretricious policies designed to make Britain a better place in which to live. I quite like Britain as it is, and has been for the last two decades or so - since, in fact, the trade union tyrants were overthrown by Margaret Thatcher. What I want is competent and thrifty administration, sadly missing after nine years of New Labour mismanagement. Mr Cameron's Tories can hardly do worse.

The situation is reminiscent of Argentina. In that country the public sector reached a critical size at which it became politically impossible to advocate reducing public sector employment. David Cameron is acting as though he thinks we may already be in the same position. Of course we are completely different from Argentina which enjoyed one of the highest per capita GDPs pre war and then embarked on a steady downward spiral.

Stealing the Tories' clothes worked for Tony, so why shouldn't stealing Labour's clothes work for Dave? Our political life is now a never-ending binge in a political fancy dress shop.

It is all very well for David Cameron to say that the Tories must stop making ‘knee-jerk’ attacks on public service workers. But when the public hears the latest incompetence from Lin Homer, Immigration and Nationality Directorate chief, does the public not expect the opposition to hold the Government and civil service to account? Thou I imagine the heavily paid managerial consultants are telling Cameron to court the public sector workers as they have been expanded so much by Gordon Brown.

As the Guardian often comments much of Cameron’s strategy has been taken out of Philip Gould’s ‘Unfinished Revolution’. The Tories will no doubt promise to stick to Labour’s spending plans to show they can be trusted on the economy in the same way New Labour did.

The interesting thing for me will be when the Tory party announce their policies in 12 months time.