Tories ready to rule, say voters

According to recent opinion polls, the British public think that the Tories - under David Cameron - are ready to rule, but admit that they are unsure what they stand for. It's the ultimate example of style over substance.

Cameron has played the media game perfectly, proving himself to be wonderfully photogenic, without ever actually stating what his party would offer or do.

And Gordon Brown must accept some responsibility that such cosmetic sorcery is even possible, as he has been at pains since his election to never actually state who or what the Labour Party represents.

A majority of people (53 per cent) think the Tories are ready to govern after the next election, while 37 per cent disagree. Almost one in four Labour voters (23 per cent) agrees. The findings increase the pressure on Gordon Brown as he tries to head off moves by his own party to force him to stand down.

Although senior Labour figures rallied behind the beleaguered Prime Minister yesterday, his critics warned that they would move against him in early September in an attempt to deny him the chance to fight back at the party's annual conference starting on 20 September.

One said: "This poll reinforces what a lot of Labour MPs think – that Tory support is soft and we could fight back and win under another leader.

"Gordon does not have the public's permission to expose the Tories on policy because people have given up on him."

The press love to play this game of "change the leader" because it allows them to fill pages and pages with who is up and who is down.

The UK would be a much healthier democracy if we stopped this nonsense and simply had both parties state what they believe in.

Instead, we have two parties fighting for the same "middle ground" and espousing essentially the same policies, which reduces the entire political process to nothing more than a beauty pageant, and one which Gordon is destined to lose as he comes across as gruff.

At least in the US they have differences over whether or not to introduce a national health service and whether or not to stay in the Iraq war.

Here in the UK both parties are essentially in agreement on all the main issues and avoid any subjects in which we might actually be able to detect conflict. It really is a bastardisation of democracy.

It's hard to get excited over which party is elected next when they are both offering us varying degrees of right wing junk. And that is why the public are saying that Cameron is ready to lead. Because Gordon is offering no clear alternative on policy.

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Tags: Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Labour, Conservatives, UK politics, opinion polls