Fiona Melville

15th Dec 2011

Last night, David Cameron’s appearance before the 1922 committee was greeted with rapturous banging on desks.

This is weird. Normal people do not do that. One of the disappointments I’ve had (it’s not a huge one in the wider scheme of things…) is that despite over 50 per cent of the House of Commons being newly elected in 2010, they still all moo at each other, wave bits of paper about, jabber and wail in PMQs and generally behave like they’re off their faces at a karaoke bar instead of supposedly running the country. It has been pointed out to me a number of times that the newly elected 2010 intake  didn’t suddenly wake up on 4 April 2010 and decide to be MPs, so something clearly attracted them before that.

I’ve argued for years that the problem the Conservatives have had (and could  have again if they don’t recognise it) is that what tickles the fancy of people who are committed enough to be members is not enough to win an election. We must offer a rounded, coherent, sensible policy programme focusing on the things that voters care about as well as the things that really get the grassroots going. I don’t – despite what some may think – believe that the Tories have particularly been banging on about Europe in the last few days; it has clearly been on the agenda, it is something that matters, and the immediate issue of the euro-zone problems needs to be sorted as well as the longer-term ones of what the EU does and doesn’t do (and how well it does them).

But believing, as some seem to, that the No to the proposals on Thursday night is THE THING that is going to win us the next election is simply untrue. Firstly, for those who are really obsessed with the EU, it will soon be realised that this No hasn’t changed anything else about our relationship with the EU, so they will soon find something else to criticise. And secondly, yes a strong leader standing up for Britain’s interest is good, but if the only thing he is seen to do is say no to the EU, then most voters will (sensibly) realise that that’s not enough. By the way, I don’t think this will happen though if some had their way it would be the only thing we ever talk about.

What Conservatives talk about and deal with and focus on and make a difference in must be the things that matter. I have no doubt that we can make a convincing case for decentralisation, communities, the Big Society, sustainable growth, our education and health policies, and all the things that I voted for.

In the same way that the 50p tax rate is a totem, the amount of time Conservatives spend talking about the EU in relation to other matters is important. The real question is, will those who are determined to go “on manouevres” understand this?