U.K. Conservatives Hope To Surmount Voters' Doubts (support for far-right party)

[pampango]

Source: NPR

David Cameron, the head of Britain's opposition Conservative Party, is trying to transform his party from one viewed by the electorate as "the Nasty Party" to one that is more electable in the general election expected within the next few months. He has tried to do to his party, which has lost the past three general elections, what former British Prime Minister Tony Blair did when he moved the Labour Party from the left of British politics to the center.

Questions About Cameron's Class

But however much the conservatives under Cameron modernize and move to the center, one thing always comes back to haunt the Tory leader: class. There are plenty of people who think Cameron — educated at Eton and Oxford — is simply too posh to represent them.

"They certainly still think of David Cameron as a toffee-nosed, conceited, silver-spoon-in-the-mouth man. Certainly," said Phil Atherton, 41, who sat at the bar of the working men's club in the northeastern town of Consett. "There is no more support for the Conservative Party than ever. The main thing to talk about is the marked antipathy or disillusionment with the Labour Party."

Support For Far-Right Party

Atherton says many people feel betrayed by Labour, which has not delivered the jobs it promised. But perhaps most worrying for Cameron is the threat from the right wing as he has moved to the center. The far-right British National Party opposes immigration, a popular stance among white working-class Britons such as Steven Douglas and David Smith. "I would vote BNP, British National Party," Douglas said. "End of day it's England, so why not English people getting jobs because of foreigners?" Smith agreed. "Not Conservative, and I won't vote Labour, either. I probably would vote BNP. I do think they are a bit too extreme, but I think Labor and Conservative both need a shock."

Read more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=125206328

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"The Nasty Party" - the Conservative Party in the UK may be running away from that label, while our republican party seems to be accelerating towards that label at breakneck speed. :)

It will be interesting to see how much support the BNP takes away from the Conservatives.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. I hope the BNP support won't be concentrated enough anywhere for them to possibly win a seat

though in one or two spots (Barking, where their fuhrerleader is standing, and Burnley) they've had a nasty amount of success.

If anyone's interested, there's a blog that keeps up with all the opinion polls (at least one a day being done now): http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/ written by a professional pollster (he is personally a Tory, but he's even-handed in his analysis).

Their latest projection shows Tories at 286 seats, Labour at 285, Lib Dems at 48, Northern Irish parties at 18 (that's guaranteed, of course) and others (eg Scottish or Welsh nationalist) at 14.

http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/ukpr-projection-2

1 seat difference between the 2 largest parties has got to be the closest election prediction I've even seen.

[pampango]

3. Thanks for the info. Sounds like it will be a close one. n/t

[and-justice-for-all]

2. Wouldn't you like to be a fascist to?

The repuke party is nothing more than a cancer on America.