blue

so david cameron’s conservative party are going through a bit of a wobble at the moment.
they must have expected a gordon brown “bounce” in the polls, and they must have thought they could weather the honeymoon period. like the rest of us they didn’t expect the succession of troubles that have afflicted the first weeks of brown’s premiership. nor could they have expected brown’s solid, capable performance. brown’s grace under pressure allied to his slow but sure distancing of himself from the blair years has meant that gordon brown is sitting pretty in the polls.

the tories on the other hand just seem to have the jitters at the moment. donors are complaining, activists are whinging and mythical middle england is moaning. if it isn’t grammar schools, it is the trip to rwanda that is getting them all worked up. what got david cameron positive press months ago is now seen as being just self-puffery and image spin.

so how do they combat it? more reports from their policy groups (solve all problems by making people marry, make druggies go cold turkey, more money to the armed forces and er.. that’s is)? nope that is not the way.

no the tories have gone straight the heart of the matter and they are going to bring their lost voters back into the fold by, sometimes, changing their green tree logo to a blue tree logo.
hey blue trees work for me and you have to wonder what it was dave was (not) smoking at eton.
they can do this because their tree logo is about strength and flexibility. it seems it is also about just making a change to appeal to the tory heartland, it is a symbolic shout out that says “we still believe the same things you do. honest.”
you have to wonder, is that all it is going to take for the tories to rally behind cameron? perhaps deep down they don’t mind it all being about image as long as that image cleaves close to the one that allows them all to claim to be thatcherites at heart.

new tory! old story!