DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Get in tune with this conservative nation

By DAILY MAIL COMMENT

Published: | Updated:

The Conservative Party has six weeks left to connect with its voters

The Conservative Party has six weeks left to connect with its voters

On any reading of today's British Social Attitudes Report, the 32nd in an annual series, the UK is an overwhelmingly small-c conservative country.

Despite the constant shroud-waving of the BBC and the Left, a resounding 73 per cent support the Tories' welfare cap, while only a tenth oppose limits on state handouts to migrants.

Meanwhile, substantial majorities of young and old alike approve of tuition fees for those who can afford them, while 62 per cent believe Britain should either leave the EU or reduce its powers.

Even on the NHS, supposedly Labour's strongest card, 65 per cent say they are satisfied with the service – up five points on 2013.

As for taxes, more than six in ten are against increasing them to pay for more public spending. Oh, and a mere 29 per cent say they prefer coalition to single party government – the lowest proportion for 30 years.

Which brings us to a great puzzle: why, in this conservative country, is the Conservative Party limping along at 35 per cent in the polls, neck-and-neck with a Labour Opposition espousing policies the public categorically rejects?

Indeed, given the Tories' astonishing success in converting a basket-case economy into the fastest growing in the developed world, the mystery grows even deeper.

Doesn't it all come down to a question of trust – a feeling that the Tory hierarchy, like all the political class, has come adrift from the public it claims to represent?

The party has six weeks from today to reconnect. Over to you, Prime Minister.

 

First for the bonfire

In a serious abuse of its duty to keep out of the political fray, a publicly-funded quango wades into the election debate, singing the praises of Labour's Human Rights Act and tearing into Tory plans to replace it.

Leave aside that the Equalities and Human Rights Commission has its facts wrong, falsely claiming that UK courts don't have to follow Strasbourg judgments, when our case law makes clear that they do.

As a quango receiving £19million a year from taxpayers, it has no business to interfere so close to polling day over an issue that sharply divides the parties.

This disgraceful intervention should redouble the Tories' determination to get rid of the HRA, which has been repeatedly used by foreign criminals and terrorists to avoid deportation.

It should also inspire them to revive their still unfulfilled pledge to make a 'bonfire of the quangos' – with the commission first into the flames.

 
  • More than 25 years ago, under the headline 'End this cruel procrastination', this column demanded urgent support for 5,000 patients across the UK who had contracted Aids or Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood. But it was not until yesterday that the Government formally apologised for the 'worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS', setting aside £25million for an improved compensation scheme. For the 2,000 victims who have died, it comes too late. For those who still suffer, 'sorry' has seldom seemed a more inadequate word.
It was not until yesterday that the Government formally apologised for the 'worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS', where 5,000 patients across the UK contracted Aids or Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood

It was not until yesterday that the Government formally apologised for the 'worst treatment disaster in the history of the NHS', where 5,000 patients across the UK contracted Aids or Hepatitis C after being given contaminated blood

 
  • Yes, it's all very endearing to see Ed Miliband and David Cameron parading their children before the cameras in the run-up to the election. But what's the betting that as soon as May 7 is behind us, the media will receive the familiar letters from the proud fathers, warning us to publish no more photographs of their young? Wouldn't it be more dignified if they followed the example of Gordon Brown, who never exploited his children for votes?

 

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