Are our leaders too soft ?

[modeller]

We needed 3 strong leaders to choose from . We got 3 social workers .
Were they right to adopt the softly softly approach . ?

[Gromit]

Softly softly approach to what?

What are you on about?

[anotheoldgit]

The Tories made their mistake moving to the middle ground.

If they had been brave enough to take on board, some of the less racist ideas of the far right parties, they would have taken the votes of some of the fringe parties and won overwhelmingly.

[Gromit]

Hague and Howerd had already tried that and failed miserably.

They needed to take more votes off Labour and the Lib/dems, so if anything they should have gone even further to the middle. Nowhere did the BNP and UKiP vote have any influence on the Conservatives coming second, so it is stupid to chase those votes.

[modeller]

aog and Gromit The problem is we have lost our old philosophies . The middle ground is so crowded the electorate had little to choose from. The difference between the parties has been getting narrower for years. Blair dropped most of the old socialist doctrines and kept the Tory regulations on the trade unions. He and Brown did nothing to curb the bank and building societies, so for years we were all able to live on credit. That was the situation during the last two elections so the electorate had little reason to change the government. Therefore Hague and Howard's warnings had little appeal. I wonder if Hague had been Tory leader this time if his message would have been listened to. The old Tory tough approach , on crime, the EU, and immigration were played down in favour of the middle ground . So what was the point of voting for them. I didn't .

[mike11111]

If everyone who voted UKIP had voted Tory (not to mention the BNP) then we would have had a Tory majority on the spot, so it is nonsense to suggest that that Tories should not be chasing those votes.