Both James and Tim Montgomerie felt that William Hague must be more prominent during this campaign and Cameron has reached the same conclusion. Hague opened the spring confernece with a stark, bleak message:
“And I say it is that most crucial election because I believe the choice for Britain is as stark as this: it is change or ruin.”
He then detailed the easiest illustration of Brown’s appalling economic stweardship: a 13 year statistical progress of regression for which Brown, and Brown alone, is responsible.
‘When Gordon Brown took over, this, our great country, was the 4th largest economy in the world. Now it is falling behind and forecast within 5 years to be the 11th, behind not just growing giants like China, but behind our neighbours France and Italy. We were ranked 7th in the world for the competitiveness of our economy. Now we are 13th. We were 4th in the world for our tax and regulation. Now we are 84th and 86th. We are the last G20 country to emerge from recession. We are borrowing almost as much of our income as Greece, but the Greeks have more plans than Gordon Brown, like everyone else in the world, to do something about it.’
The Tories must repeat this again and again. Brown’s road was the road to ruin, and we are nearing its terminus.
Such a message requires the Tories to be decisive on the economy and free themselves from Brown’s economic rhetoric, reject his dishonest paradigm that spending always equals good. Be radical and prove that they are the route to salvation. The Tories’ resurgence will depend on the quality of George Osborne’s speech.
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