A series of anxious shadow ministers have warned the Tory leadership in private that David Cameron's central general election message – devolving power to create a "big society" – is crashing on the doorstep as candidates struggle to explain the idea to voters, writes Nicholas Watt in the Guardian.
It's all about me, me, me
Criticism is focusing on Steve Hilton, the director of strategy, and Oliver Letwin, the shadow cabinet policy co-ordinator, who were the main brains behind last week's Tory manifesto. "Oliver Letwin had this great 'big society' idea, though it might have been an idea to share it with the rest of us," one normally loyal shadow minister said. "People don't really follow Oliver's philosophical discourse." Another shadow minister echoed this criticism. "The 'big society' needs to be turned into more practical, voter-friendly language. We need to turn Oliver Letwin's Hegelian dialectic into voter friendly stuff."
"The 'big society' is bollocks," said a third Tory source. "It is boiled vegetables that have been cooked for three minutes too long. It tastes of nothing. What is it?"
Tories are agreed that it would be wrong for Cameron to embark on the sort of lurch to the right that destroyed William Hague's leadership. They say that the 'big society' strategy is right but needs to be illustrated with specific policy proposals. The leadership appeared to respond to these criticisms by unveiling a hardline poster featuring the party's policies to crack down on benefit cheats. "Let's cut benefits for those who refuse to work," the poster says next to a picture of Cameron. Tim Montgomerie, the founder of the ConservativeHome wesbite, wrote: "It's good to see the party getting specific about what 'change' means."
One senior figure said: "The project is all about Dave. So if he succeeds it is about him. But if he fails it is about him." The source was clear about what would happen if Labour and the Lib Dems formed a coalition in a hung parliament to push through electoral reform. "By then we would have murdered our leader and his head would be on a stake. The last week shows how thin our support was. There is no great enthusiasm for Cameron."
