'Tories have £15m debt'

[Silent Hunter]

From yesterday's Times:

December 06, 2004

Tories plunge £15m into red as polls point to loss of faith
By Andrew Pierce
 
 
 
 
 
THE Conservative Party has plunged £15 million into debt only six months before a likely general election as the party’s own private polls indicate another catastrophic defeat.

The unpublished polling suggests that Michael Howard’s party will struggle to match even the result of 2001, one of the worst in the party’s history.

The new data flies in the face of statistics compiled by Lord Saatchi, the joint chairman of the Conservative Party, which points to a hung parliament after the next election.

The dire position of the Tories in the opinion polls has had a serious effect on fundraising, with debts now standing at £15 million, compared with a small surplus at the same date in the last Parliament.

The party requires £1 million a month to meet its running costs, but the £1.5 million move from Conservative Central Office in Smith Square to rented offices in Westminster has exceeded its budget.

The party’s overdraft at the Royal Bank of Scotland is £2 million. A further £9 million is owed in loans from benefactors such as Johann Eliasch, the sports tycoon whose wealth is estimated at £345 million. A further £4 million is owed in loans from Conservative associations.

A Tory source said: “The £15 million debt has already been spent; it’s already committed. The party needs to raise £21 million in the next six months, but these private polls show that there’s no reason to be optimistic on any level. Our election prospects are dire.”

Lord Hesketh, the chief fundraiser who is the head of the foundation set up by Michael Howard to raise money, has been moved aside. Lord Hesketh, who is rarely seen at party headquarters, is concentrating on raising money from legacies. The largest burden of fundraising has now fallen on Jonathan Marland, an increasingly influential figure within the treasurer’s department.

Mr Howard increasingly listens to Lynton Crosby, the Australian who masterminded John Howard’s four consec- utive election victories in Australia.

The Tory source said: “It’s going to be hard to generate income unless there is a sharp turnaround in the polls. We are not expecting anyone to call in the loans, but it’s hard to find donors who believe that we can win. There is no petty cash lying around. We’re six months away from the election and we’ve got nothing.”

Before the last election the late Paul Getty gave £5 million, and the betting tycoon Stuart Wheeler a further £5 million. Mr Wheeler, who resumed financial support for the Tories after Iain Duncan Smith was ousted, has given about £500,000 in this Parliament.

The Tories are increasingly reliant on Irvine Laidlaw, a Scottish businessman. He has given £2.5 million since the 2001 election and was one of five Tories who received a peerage last summer.



Under a Conservative government every child would be offered two hours of free coaching at sports clubs each week to encourage exercise and tackle obesity. David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the scheme would make up to £250 million a year available to clubs to deliver after-school sport.
 
 

[patrick1]

The Tories are in some serious trouble and they need to do something fast.  It is a dying party and needs to evolve.  When I was in the UK I met many people, who had they been born in the U.S., would probably be Republicans.  However, due to the class  they were born in, ethnicity etc. they were Lib Dems or Labourites.  As an outside observor, it seems to me that the Toires have pidgeonholed themselves into a minority party and they better start coming up with some ideas to differentiate themselves or they will remain a minority party.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The Tories used to win a third of the working class vote and held seats in Sunderland (you're eyesite is fine), Liverpool (they actually had a majority of L'pool seats until 1964), the northern (ie: working class) end of Manchester... etc, etc.
They held Hartlepool until 1964 and it was marginal for years afterwards (in the recent by-election there, they came FOURTH).

The collapse of working class Toryism is one of the most unreported trends of the last 30 odd years.

[patrick1]

The collapse of working class Toryism is one of the most unreported trends of the last 30 odd years.

It seems to me that the Tories and Repubs are on opposite tracks.  Whereas, the Tories are losing favo(u)r with the working class, the Republcans have been picking up a sizeable portion of it.  The Tories need to find a wedge issue;)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The collapse of working class Toryism is one of the most unreported trends of the last 30 odd years.

It seems to me that the Tories and Repubs are on opposite tracks.  Whereas, the Tories are losing favo(u)r with the working class, the Republcans have been picking up a sizeable portion of it.  The Tories need to find a wedge issue;)

The wedge issue trick probably won't work as well here because there's only one office voted for in general elections (M.P's).

A predominantly working class area in the U.S where wedge issues (in this case abortion) have worked well for Republican Presidential candidates is SW Pennsylvania, where they've slowly made large inroads since the late '80's.
But this hasn't rubbed off down ticket... the area still sends Democrats to Harrisburg by lopsided margins and would do the same at Congressional level if the districts weren't so gerrymandered.

[Storebought]

It couldn't have happened to a finer party...

The UK Conservatives truly have earned J S Mill's epithet "The Stupid Party." Especially since they elected Michael Howard as shadow pm, they've adopted all the parochial nanny-state collectivism of the Labourites at the same time crybaby-bitching about the War on Terror.

They are true reactionaries--whatever Tony Blair advocates, the Tories reflexively say the opposite (except when it comes to the trivial politically-correct government busybodying; there the Tories can't 'me-too' fast enough).

To hell with the Tory Party. The sooner those geriatrics kick the bucket, the sooner a new conservative party can take their place.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Keeping in mind that my perceptions of the UK may be clouded since it has been over 20 years since I was last on your side of the pond, but as far I can tell, the problem for the Tories is that while both they and the GOP can be called conservative in the sense that they both broadly favor traditional values, traditional political values are not the same in the US and the UK.  In the US, traditional values emphasize opportunity and individual responsibility.  In the UK, traditional values emphsize class and individual privledge.  If I lived in the UK I would be a swing voter between Labour, the LibDems (depending upon what policies the LibDems were promoting that month),  and for local elections, the Resident’s Party.

[Tory]

It doesn't surprise me in the least. We had such a bright future when Howard took the leadership, and he really screwed up.

They have lost me as a voter for the next general election.

[Silent Hunter]

This might show the extent of the Tories collapse:

The 1992 London Results


1997:



2001:

[Storebought]

Interesting that the Tories still represent the two rich downtown neighborhoods (Kensington and the City). In the US, those would be the most uppity of Democrat districts--think Henry Waxman's Westwood or Carolyn Maloney's Upper East Side.

And why does Southwark, a 'slum' since Chaucer's day, have a Lib Dem MP? I thought it would be a Labour stronghold.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Interesting that the Tories still represent the two rich downtown neighborhoods (Kensington and the City). In the US, those would be the most uppity of Democrat districts--think Henry Waxman's Westwood or Carolyn Maloney's Upper East Side.

Cities of London & Westminister (or is it the other way round?) possibly (although the more politically "downtown" seat is Regents Park & North Kensington, a safe Labour seat nowadays), but not Kensignton & Chelsea (you don't really get anywhere like it in the U.S nowadays...)

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North Southwark & Bermondsey (then called Bermondsey) was a Labour stronghold until a vicious by-election in the '80's when Simon Hughes (Lib) won it... he's made it his personal fiefdom and wins on the back of a huge personal vote (although he nearly went down in '97)

[The Man From G.O.P.]

A thought: gid rid of howard, NOW

Another thought: with the eu's and gen. european allowance for human cloning, its time to dig W.Churchill up and clone him, then we wait for lady thatcher to kick the bucket too and do the same.

Unforunatley thats the only way I see the tories surviving for long

This is certainly a disaster but the labours cant take there eye off the ball yet, if they continue to over-support this eu constitution nonsense things could go badly for them

.... and those maps from '92 on make me sick

and yeah... theres no problem with a "new" conservative party