I don’t normally blog on matters as trivial as George Osborne’s dinner. But burgergate has presented an opportunity for me to make a point about Tory strategy more generally. In particular, I want to follow this point made by Iain Martin yesterday:
‘Some leading politicians are struggling with the concept of how to communicate the idea that they are normal, even if they are normal. Authenticity is the new spin and they are so now obsessed with the idea that they must have their team orchestrate faked examples of their authenticity that it risks driving them to the outer reaches of insanity. It is a maze of madness. Far better for them to fall back on old-fashioned notions of dignity of office, go easy on Twitter and leave a little mystery’.
I hope burgergate isn’t a sign of a more general Tory strategy that goes something like this. In order to appeal to working class voters, Cameron and Osborne must pretend to be people they’re not. Instead of making the real changes that are needed in the Conservative Party, top Tories only need to do superficial things like change their accents or eat burgers to convince working class people they’re one of them.
Burgergate shows that this strategy will never work. It’s just absurd to expect people from privileged backgrounds to convincingly pretend to be working class people, just as it would be ridiculous for me to pretend to be a trendy upper middle class liberal.
If the Tories really want to connect with working class people they have to do two things. Firstly, display genuine empathy with working people’s daily concerns and struggles.
Secondly, they must involve more people from aspirational backgrounds in the party and in the key strategic decisions. As I’ve never lived in a trendy affluent area, I admit there are probably better people around to ask on how to appeal to people in these areas. That should be understandable. So there shouldn’t be any shame in members of the top Tory team asking for the help from working class people to appeal to this group. In fact, it is vital that they do this. Moreover, by making the Conservative Party more visibly representative, it will reassure ordinary voters at the same time.
As I’ve said in a previous blog the Tories have a choice. They can either carry on as usual, fail to make any real changes to the party, and just pull a few superficial stunts in the hope this will be just enough to attract ordinary voters. Or they can make some real changes and ensure that the party reflects the country. The Byron burger incident should have put the last nail in the coffin of the former option.
Image may be NSFW.
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Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
