In Disco 2000 Hopi warns:-

The next General Election will be a replay of the 2000 US presidential election.

Like the US Republicans eight years ago Britain has a right wing party, bitter and angry at having been excluded from power, convinced that the last leader of the government was a fraud and a flim flam artist who survived only by political charm and that the current leader is, if anything, worse.

Like the Republicans, the Tories face one major problem- and it’s a biggie. Conservative policy ideas are unpopular. With a decent economy and strong employment, people don’t see the need for tax cuts to kick start the economy, especially when they suspect the tax cuts will go to the rich and hurt services they care about. They distrust free market nostrums and want to see more support for public services.

The US Republicans responded to this dilemma by doing three things- blurring the language of policy to make right wing ideas sound progressive and moderate; using personal attacks from licensed “free thinkers” to attack their new opponent; and being outright deceptive about who their plans would benefit, while relying on supporters from carefully crafted right wing groups to legitimise their case.

Hopi goes on to analyse how this model could transfer to UK politics - and the extent to which it is already happening. Read the whole post - it's time for the Labour party to reflect on what is happening, and start to think through how we respond.

I think Hopi is spot on. The focus on personality; the use of broadly-sounding compassionate themes with no real policy substance; the growing evidence then when detailed policies actually come forward (Inheritance Tax, tax breaks for married couples), there is a huge gap between the way they are presented as benefitting the many when detailed analysis shows that they actually benefit much smaller numbers of better-off people.

And there is an increasing role being played by right wing so-called think tanks that largely function as pressure and lobbying groups, with the ability to get consistent media coverage for conservative themes without their arguments being subject to any serious critical analysis - the Tax Payers Alliance being perhaps the most obvious example.

Another sign that this is a deliberate strategy is Iain Dale's report that the Tories have appointed Cameron's former press officer George Eustice to a role specifically to build links between the Tory party and this 'wider conservative movement' - again built on a direct Republican party model. 

We need a wider debate within the party and beyond about the emerging Tory strategy, and the best way to counter it. We need to start to challenge it through the press and encourage journalists to become much more critical in looking for the policy behind Cameron's speeches. And we need to rebuild Labour's skills at rapid response and rebuttal, to step up the pressure and challenge the presentation of policies that are frequently very different from the headlines applied to them.