SPL : Built to Last approved by one in four Tories
It has somehow slipped through the media without much fuss, but the result from Cameron's Built to Last document (reviewed here) has been announced (see BBC and ePolitix). The headline is that 92.7% of votes were in favour of the document - an impressive figure, no doubt. The subtext is that a puny 27% of members bothered to vote. These people are members of a potlical party; "apathy" is not an excuse, because apathy, by definition, should not apply.
There are two reasons for the appallingly low turnout. One is that the number of Tory members is exaggerated by central office (the exact figures aren't published). The most compelling reason is that Tory members generally do not agree with the sentiments of Built to Last, but, rather than humiliate their party by voting "no", the vast majority of members chose to abstain.
Cameron put Built to Last to the party's membership in order to manufacture a mandate for change (optimism, and hope). One in four (24.75%) party members voted positively for the document. This is not a mandate.
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5 Comments:
It hardly follows that not approving the document constitutes rejection of it. it's more plausible that people can't find anything to diasgree with, it's nothing that hasn't been said already- it's been accepted really, if in an unofficial sense
And again, surely it just shows a sense of complacency among the members- there's no great need to rally around party when labour are doing so poorly.
How can we know it been accepted "unofficially"? By whom? This referendum was the means by which we were to discover whether Tory members approved Built to Last. Manifestly, they have not.
The main point is not that Tory members have rejected Built to Last per se. More pertinent is the fact that with this referendum Cameron sought a mandate. He has failed to get that mandate. Labour's malaise may mean that this story won't get much coverage in the press, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Cameron has failed to mobilise his most loyal supporters.
And the "complacency" argument doesn't stick. These members have already taken the pro-active step of joining a party; they are, as I said in my post, political animals by definition.
As I predicted, the print media have failed to pick up on the Built to Last farce. As reported here on ConservativeHome, the Telegraph did not report the result of the referendum at all.
A good day to bury Built to Last indeed.
I completely agree with this post.
I think you are right. The tory membership do not support the new policies. I don't even think Young Master David esq agrees with them. They are just a means to an end.
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