The Toriblogs 27 July 2007

Reports of the death of the Conservative party have been grossly exaggerated over the past few days. But all is not well at CCHQ - they have rarely looked much worse in fact - and the next couple months will be a critical time for Cameron and his team to regroup and hit the ground running in October. The health of the party may well be at its lowest ebb, but they say a week is a long time in politics - a few months is an age.

Here is a round up of the best in the blogosphere's reaction to the Yougov poll today and the calls for Cameron's head.

Also, click here for my take on the situation...

Portillo: Tories may never win a general election again

On last night's This Week on BBC1, Andrew Neil asked Michael Portillo if it is possible that the Conservatives will never win a general election again. Portillo's answer was "yes".

That is interesting and perhaps reflects Portillo's rather semi-detached relationship with the Tories at the moment. Even Diane Abbott disagreed with him.

Liberal Burblings

Is 32 per cent the bottom?

So it’s back to where we were, that is if you believe tomorrow’s YouGov poll in the Daily Telegraph. It puts Labour on 41 per cent, nine points ahead of the Conservatives on 32 per cent. That last figure may seem familiar, as it is roughly the falt-lining figure which the Tories bobbed under William Hague, IDS and Michael Howard. And it is just about where David Cameron started from way back in December 2005

Ben Brogan

We need to stop an autumn election - we don't need to change our leader

Fraser Nelson authors an article in this week's Spectator (not yet online) that speculates about the possibility of a fourth Tory defeat and who might then succeed a defeated David Cameron. His hook for the article is the string of recent bad news stories for the party and Trevor Kavanagh's widely-reported prediction that 'Brown will win, and win big.'

Conservative Home

Is an early election the cautious approach?

Whenever the subject of an early election, perhaps as soon as October, is mentioned people dismiss the idea because of Gordon’s character. The man, they argue, is not a risk taker and why should he chance everything on an early poll.

Political Betting

Mail Staff to Rebel Against Pro-Brown Stance?

There is a growing sense of concern among some Daily Mail writers and editorial executives about their newspaper's devotion to Gordon Brown. "Some of us are starting to feel we're writing for a Labour paper like the Mirror," says one. "The Mail's coverage of David Cameron's trip to Rwanda was mad. There was no attempt to give him any benefit of the doubt. The attacks were amazingly skewed."

Iain Dale

It's time for hardball against Brown on security

One of the most interesting findings in the YouGov survey for today's Daily Telegraph (its headline 9% Labour lead was reported here last night) is overwhelming public support for extra detention powers for the police. 74% favoured "detaining terrorist suspects without charge for as long as the police need to carry out their enquiries, provided adequate judicial safeguards are in place." 17% did not favour such powers and 9% didn't know. Tory MPs are overwhelmingly opposed to these extra powers.

Conservative Home

A few bright spots for the Tories

As Matt suggested, I’m getting some stick from Tories here in the Commons – mainly ones who have just seen today’s Spectator cover (Peter Brooke’s brilliant cartoon of Cameron about to be run over a bus) and asking if I’ve gone all Brutus. Quite the reverse. I merely sought to dangle regicidal Tories over the precipice and ask them to look down. Yes, things are grim. The Thames is still rising, the Daily Telegraph has a horrible poll tomorrow and the markets are crashing. But there are a few reasons for Tories to be cheerful:-

Coffee House

Unprincipled Brown plays leapfrog

Et tu, Brute? The knives are out for David Cameron like never before. Attacked from within the Conservative party, attacked by the Labour contingent in the House, attacked by the Lib Dems, attacked by commenters on news sites and blogs, some of whom take their lead from the dead tree press, attacked by that frustrated band of ever opportunist UKIPpers who always portray themselves as new Tory defectors - despite UKIP's membership and vote size never seeming to increase and remaining negligible.

The Waendel Journal

Time for opposition

With Brown's Labour Party soaring in the polls – enjoying a nine point lead over David Cameron's Conservative Party – even the staunchest of the Cameroons can no longer deny that "project Dave" is veering off the rails.

This is no mere "Brown bounce", but a decisive rejection of Cameron, who attracts a mere 27 percent approval rating as Conservative leader, compared with 43 percent in February.

EU Referendum