Former Times journalist Nick Wood was a media adviser to Conservative leaders William Hague and Iain Duncan Smith. He now runs Media Intelligence Partners. Politicians face two key imperatives – to be right and to be popular. David Cameron’s biggest mistake has been to elevate popularity over being right. He has become a political fashion […]
Ruth Lea is Director of the Centre for Policy Studies and Director of Global Vision. She writes the sixth contribution to ConservativeHome’s What David Cameron Should Do Next series. In one of his leadership campaign speeches David Cameron said: “Britain will do best if we apply our trusted Conservative principles of limited government, personal responsibility, […]
Danny Finkelstein is Comment Editor of The Times and edits the Comment Central blog. Before joining the paper in 2001, he was adviser to both Prime Minister John Major and Conservative leader William Hague. 1. Keep calm. For two reasons. First, because all new Prime Ministers have a honeymoon, there’s nothing you can do about […]
Alexander Deane is a Barrister. A former chief of staff to David Cameron MP in the UK, he currently works for the Liberal Party in Australia. The Conservative Party has been riven for two generations by a single issue – Europe. Whilst in the current climate it may seem to have dropped from the forefront […]
James Forsyth is the online editor of The Spectator and The Business. He blogs regularly for the Spectator’s Coffee House blog as well as writing for both magazines. This is the fourth contribution to ConservativeHome’s What David Cameron Should Do Next series. David Cameron needs to move from persuading people to listen to the Conservatives, […]
Fiona Melville is a political consultant at Apex Communications. She worked for the Conservative Party for four years, in the Political Unit for the 2005 General Election, on David Cameron’s leadership campaign and as Head of External Relations. She is part of the team behind Platform 10. If he hasn’t yet, David Cameron and his […]
Janet Daley was raised in New York and was an academic before becoming a conservative commentator. Former Moral Maze panelist she is The Daily Telegraph’s principal Monday columnist. Click here to scroll through all of today’s contributions to the What David Cameron Should Do Next series. The most debilitating mistake that the Tories have made […]
Matthew Parris, a columnist for The Times and winner of last year’s ConservativeHome award for best British writer, begins today’s series on ‘What David Cameron Should Do Next’. DC should not be spooked by talk of an early general election. However strongly Brown might enter such a contest, elections have lives of their own and […]
Former Special Adviser to Margaret Thatcher, John is now Editor-in-Chief of the international affairs magazine, The National Interest, Editor-at-Large of the magazine the National Review, and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. The first step is to face reality. Gordon Brown will probably win the next election and, if he does not, the likely […]