Tory Campaign Gimmicks Might Just Work

The Tories have announced the latest populist gimmick to latch onto the public mood, with a campaign to save our pubs. The leftish Orange Party has signed up to all of them!

'Save The Great British Pub' is part of a whole raft of campaigns tapping into public issues. Scratch away the cynicism and these campaigns are a stroke of genius.

A campaign to Save the Great British Pub is just the latest mini campaign to feature on conservatives.com now with a round-up of campaigns in a convenient portal to sign up and have a rant about saving post offices, scrapping ID cards, honest food labelling. All the old favourites are there. Indeed the portal box even has space for a couple more. 

Save the Great British Pub. What sensible person wouldn't agree with that?  But joining a campaign and feeling part of a movement is one thing. Having hard realistic policies to back up the fine words is quite another. 

Dig deeper and each campaign is linked to a reasoned background argument and more importantly with what the Tories would do about it. 

That's the really clever bit. They are drawing attention to the problems. Bringing them all together in one campaign portal is a stroke of genius. This is the key - it's part of an election manifesto and of course your email address can be used for future political marketing. Remember it's all in the database. 

There is a danger this could degenerate into a LibDem local government issues-style politics of cracked pavements and dog shit. But what and where is the alternative? 

Only the death throes of a discredited New Labour government riddled with sleaze and in-fighting in what Oborne today acidly and accuracy describes as the fag-end of a government in collapse. 

The crisis facing the British pub is indeed serious with pubs closing at a rate of knots. But the Tory campaign is dead in the water unless someone has the guts to tackle the real reason why pubs are falling by the wayside - the blanket smoking ban. Fat chance the Tories will raise their heads above the parapet on that issue so close to elections.   

What's needed is a political heavyweight to champion the cause, someone with a penchant for the occasional cigar and Real Ale. 

Whatever happened to the politically-correct misleading bleatings  about a massive increase in the pub trade as a result of the smoking ban? 

The smoking ban, supermarkets selling cheep beer and wine, high rents and price increase from suppliers, greedy shareholders in the breweries, 24 hour opening. It's all part of the pub shambles as the glorious vices of pint, a fag and packet of crisps are eroded away. 


A hell of a lot of radial policies are needed if the Tories are serious about saving pubs. 

The right way forward on any of the issues chosen by the Conservatives, from saving GPs' surgeries to pubs and Post Offices can be argued until you are blue or red in the face. 

But isn't that what politics should be all about, rather than the arrogant top down diktat imposed without a popular mandate which voters have to suffer at the moment? 

What the Tories are doing is singling out some of  the national issues that capture a public mood and at one time would be chewed over in the pub. 

How ironic then that the very place for a relaxing pint and a fag, to have a moan and put the world to right is now under threat. It's almost as if an Orwellian nanny knows best State has crept up by stealth to keep us all in our box. The Orange Party feels another issues campaign coming on. 

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Card Rethink Won't Ease Post Office Pain

A rethink over Post Office benefit payments has brought some relief to the few thousand still open for business after savage cuts. But Post Office closures have ripped the heart out of communities and the government change of heart won't ease that pain. 

Today's early announcement was unexpected but unsurprising given the firm grip deputy prime minister Lord Mandleson has on the government. 

But it's a topsy-turvy policy, closing Post Offices with one hand and awarding card contracts with the other. 

Many MPs were furious, with ministers set to hand the £1billion benefit contract to the private company PayPoint.

Coming just a year after the beginning of 2500 closures, many feared the switch would spell the death knell for the Post Offices still left struggling and cause undue hardship to pensioners who use a Post Office for benefit payments. 

It was looking like political suicide as millions signed a petition and MPs from all Parties called for the contract to stay with the Post Office. 

Current Post Office advertising centres on "The People's Post Office", with warm, friendly adverts which sticks in the throats of people who have watched the network being decimated. 

A recent carefully leaked letter to the Guardian pointed the way for a rethink, when it seemed new business secretary, Lord Mandelson, hinted the Post Office's role may be more banking focused.

The decision to close 2,500 of the country's Post Offices last year caused outrage. Some cabinet members were forced into the indignity of campaigning against Post Office closures in their constituencies, flying in the face of government closure policy. 

Many, from all shades of political opinion, have championed the cause of the cherished Post Office. 

Today's announcement brings some relief to the few thousand left open which were doomed without the benefit contract. 

But it brings little relief to the people who have seen the heart ripped out of their local communities when the government embarked on its shameful desecration of this vital public service which has traditionally played such an important part in our lives. 

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Where's A Post Office When You Need One?

Savers were scouring the country today, looking for an elusive Post Office to fully guarantee their nest egg. But with the government bent on closing them down, they're a bit thin on the ground. 

Save our Post Office has become save at our Post Office with savers switching to the Post Office, which is run by the Bank of Ireland, after the government there guaranteed 100 percent of their savings would be safe. 

Here, only nationalised banks Northern Rock and National Savings offers the same protection. But now Brown's BBC reports Northern Rock has cut its savings deals to new customers to stop any competitive advantage.

What spoil sports. First the government closes Post Offices, ripping the heart out of local communities, then they force savers to use only the banks run by their greedy pals in the City. 

Around 1.2m people have more than £35,000 in savings and around half more than £50,000.

The government argues that it won't raise its current guarantee ceiling of £35,000 (up to £50,000 in a couple of months time) as that would result in unfair competition. Since when has this government been bothered about fairness? 

What was fair about closing the Post Offices? What was fair about letting the banks get away blue murder for all those years, duping the public to get deeper in debt?

And, if you've saved up a few bob or had a bit left from Aunt Maude, you'd put your money where it's the most safe.

Spread the risk says the government. But who wants to give their hard-earned cash to the greedy bastards who caused the financial mess in the first place. 

Savers are thankful some of the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on them. 

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