If a tired Labour government, 12 years in, struggles to develop a credible vision to sell to the voters, the Conservatives seem to have hit on a rich and popular idea that I am sure we will hear more of as the election edges near, an idea I shall crudely summarise as 'Save our local everything!’
Currently, the Tory party are running several campaigns, complete with cleverly designed homey logos, that suggest only a Conservative Party will, in no particular order: save the great British pub, support our small shops, save our local papers, save your local GP and keep our post offices open.
Think of each of these mini slogans with a suitable clutch of exclamation marks after them and you get the flavour of this nostalgic/outraged campaign against an encroaching/bumbling central state in the form of Commissar Brown. You would never think that such campaigns come from the party traditionally and proudly associated with corporate power and privatisation.
Yet there's some sense as well as sentiment in some of these campaigns. The government has clearly not yet sold the idea of polyclinics to many who retain affection for the idea of continuity in medical care – although many of us no longer have a family doctor in any real sense of the word. More broadly, the idea of strong institutions in our local communities is rightly a source of pride and strength for many, in cities, towns and villages.
But save our local pub? The main thrust of this, apart from a call to cut taxes on lower alcohol drinks, is the fact that nearly six pubs are closing every day at the moment. Might the recession not be in part to blame for that, rather than government? As for ‘keep our post office open, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has graciously or very quietly ( take your pick) backed down on post office privatisation. And with Tory plans to allow parents to abandon struggling local schools in favour of their more successful neighbours, ‘save our local school’ could become a rallying cry of opponents to any future Tory government.
But there's no doubt that the localist emphasis to current Tory policy will strike a chord with a wide range of voters, whether it be nostalgic nationalists or those keen for more local accountability. I predict it's a tool in Tory campaigning armoury, complete with retro art work, that we will hear a great deal more of as the election approaches.
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