Leaked Tory strategy document - we want to be like Mrs Thatcher

The Conservative's post-Crewe strategy document, as seen by members of the Tory Shadow Cabinet.

It's mostly a "lot done, lot left to do" message with an underlying assumption people do not think they are a government in waiting yet.

Interestingly, school reform has jumped into the big three Tory issues, alongside welfare reform and strengthening families - showing a confidence in Michael Gove.

But lots not mentioned: nothing on the environment or on taxes, but making clear they want to be "as bold as Mrs Thatcher". 

Authorship is unknown, so click on it and read for yourself. Suggestions welcome.

Comments

[jon livesey]

It reminds me of the old saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I wonder how "tough, effective laws" are going to solve the real problems. Laws are what politicians "do", but are they the real point?

Yes, we may bang up a few knife owners - there was plenty of knife crime in the past, by the way - but what will "tough" new laws do about a miserable education system, an uneducated work force, hidden unemployment and what appears to be an increasing lack of social cohesion and identity as a nation?

Maggie didn't manage the economy "better" in the eighties; she took Government out of those areas of the economy where it did not belong and let better qualified people manage it. I don't think the Tories will manage social issues "better" than Labour until they learn that part of our problem is the current obsession with managing society in great detail, down to the last wheely bin, rather than allowing adults to manage their own affairs.

I want to hear the Tories list what functions and areas of Government they are ready to abandon and hand back to the People.

[jon livesey]

It reminds me of the old saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I wonder how "tough, effective laws" are going to solve the real problems. Laws are what politicians "do", but are they the real point?

Yes, we may bang up a few knife owners - there was plenty of knife crime in the past, by the way - but what will "tough" new laws do about a miserable education system, an uneducated work force, hidden unemployment and what appears to be an increasing lack of social cohesion and identity as a nation?

Maggie didn't manage the economy "better" in the eighties; she took Government out of those areas of the economy where it did not belong and let better qualified people manage it. I don't think the Tories will manage social issues "better" than Labour until they learn that part of our problem is the current obsession with managing society in great detail, down to the last wheely bin, rather than allowing adults to manage their own affairs.

I want to hear the Tories list what functions and areas of Government they are ready to abandon and hand back to the People.

[jon livesey]

It reminds me of the old saying that when the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

I wonder how "tough, effective laws" are going to solve the real problems. Laws are what politicians "do", but are they the real point?

Yes, we may bang up a few knife owners - there was plenty of knife crime in the past, by the way - but what will "tough" new laws do about a miserable education system, an uneducated work force, hidden unemployment and what appears to be an increasing lack of social cohesion and identity as a nation?

Maggie didn't manage the economy "better" in the eighties; she took Government out of those areas of the economy where it did not belong and let better qualified people manage it. I don't think the Tories will manage social issues "better" than Labour until they learn that part of our problem is the current obsession with managing society in great detail, down to the last wheely bin, rather than allowing adults to manage their own affairs.

I want to hear the Tories list what functions and areas of Government they are ready to abandon and hand back to the People.

[mysteryjet]

Reads rather like a George Osborne article.

[Mad Max]

I was talking with a store manager the other day about things generally and he said in a very unconvincing way that he felt he had been better off under the tories.

He also said that a lot of business opportunities or niches were harder to find or seemed to have closed off. Will he vote tory I wonder?

[Ken McCormick]

Leaked strategy document? Looks more like a press release to me.
What is there here that they wouldn't want everyone to know?

[M.Hynd]

This document is not much different from the back to basics strategy of the doomed Major government. Something more original is needed! I don't think Michael Gove is the answer, he is just an old-fashioned flog-em and hang-em man. It is all very depressing.

[Tom Freeman]

A couple of these paragraphs are verbatim from Cameron's charitty speech the other day:

http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=145105&speeches=1

[John]

What a very misleading and provocative headline. I think the overall message makes sense. Get rid of the (failed) Labour philosophy that the state can manage your life from cradle to grave. The last 10 years have been Brown's personal project in achieving his idea of social utopia. He has tried, and failed, to achieve this in the way that all good Labour Chancellors do, tax and spend. This, as anybody with sense could have told him at the outset, was, like all Labour socialist projects, destined to fail.

[Gerald Corrigan]

Sounds good to me, but I was hoping for something a bit more Thatcherite after reading the headline...