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Lessons From Conservative Defeats in France and the UK

By: Ashbrook (Diary)  |  May 6th, 2012 at 06:58 PM  | 

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This week end saw British and French conservative candidates go down to embarrassing defeats. In both instances, if the main parties had held on to conservative base voters they would have won by comfortable margins. Smaller, more ideological parties siphoned crucial votes away from Cameron and Sarkozy. In the weeks, before the run-off vote Sarkozy desperately tried to win back conservative voters he had ignored during his term in office. This last ditch effort came up short.

In England, the Tories lost local elections throughout the country including in a slew of  traditional Conservative constituencies. The only significant Tory victory came in London’s race for Mayor. The incumbent, Boris Johnson beat the far left former Mayor Ken Livingstone. Commenting on his victory Johnson said he had survived even though he had received the endorsement of Prime Minister Cameron.  This slap in the face was not appreciated in Number 10 Downing Street.

In the response to this debacle, Conservative ministers called for a return to conservative principles.

One might say that these votes were a classic throw out the bums reaction, but the London Mayoralty did show an incumbent can win in tough economic times.

A more important lesson to be learned is that conservative voters can not be taken for granted. Turn your back on them enough times and they will abandon you on Election Day.

 

COMMENTS

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  • commonsenseobserver

    To focus on crime and labour reform. I’m unsure if gay marriage and Lords’ reform will still be in, but they will be significantly watered down.

  • izoneguy

    Watch Germany quit the EU before the end of May.

  • commonsenseobserver

    There are conservative governments in Sweden, Germany, the UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy and the Netherlands.

  • snowshooze

    But I still could never see surrendering my Sovereign rights as a country by accepting some universal currency…
    Too bad I didn’t play with them euro’s, they did well for a while before the crash… now though, it is all uphill to the bottom…
    And nobody will want to get caught holding the bag.

  • mikeymike143

    if germany leaves, england will soon follow and the EU will be no more.

  • demsaresatanic

    Greece is only the beginning.

  • checkmate2012

    but your point on losing the votes due to not professing conservative values is well taken.

    To me in the U.S. it’s a matter of educating the masses who have been indoctrinated in the Left’s blather. Since they have the mic, they seem to win the argument, flawed as it is.

    On a side note, I hope the Euro is near the end as it’s impossible to get that many countries to agree on fiscal policy…and austerity.

  • http://travismonitor.blogspot.com Freedoms Truth

    Sarkozy is stuck governing a socialist country and so offered a-little-less-socialism but sill socialism. With a helping of ‘austerity’ to ‘pay’ for it. The austerity prescription is one any decent conservative will reject – TAX INCREASES. As Newt Gingrich put it, “tax collectors for the welfare state”. It’s never popular. Sarkozy proposed higher taxes. Hollande said tax the rich. Well, if you are going to tax someone …

    In the end, if ‘austerity’ is rejected, conservatives should cheer, because really ‘austerity’ is about raping the taxpayer to bailout the banks who signed up to underwrite socialist welfare experiements that were destined to fail. Now who REALLY should be getting the bill for this?
    Hint: taxpayers should not be on the list.

    I will at least give Helicopter Ben credit for having a less-bad policy than the “Apply the Leeches!” policy of the IMF and their ilk. “Kick the can” and ZIRP is the worst policy, except all the rest, to paraphrase Churchill

    So the silver lining is Hollande will have to figure out how to get his ideas paid for, a socialist actually having to pay his way, at a time when ‘other peoples money’ is scarce. He will square the circle by breaking impossible promises.

    The other silver lining is that this an anti-incumbent vote. Et tu Obama? As Romney puts it: “Obama isn’t working.” (and please please please have a snarky ad that has O playing golf and jetsetting while the downbeat news on economy continues.)

    The last silver lining: Boris rises, the kind of charming iconoclastic politician the conservatives need on their team, and Cameron, who has trashed the conservative brand by being a NOT-conservative PM, falls. maybe the UK Conservatives can get back to being, you know, *conservative* again.

    Note this: “In the response to this debacle, Conservative ministers called for a return to conservative principles.”

    That would be a novel idea!!!

  • izoneguy

    try to make France the 58th state???

    It fits so well into the Obama narrative about fairness…..

    Maybe Julia can move to France and pursue her web design
    career making websites for the new Socialists?