Monty Stuck In His Loop

[Update at end of post]

Anyone wanting to see what happens when you only interact with those of like mind, and listen only to those who tell you what you want to know, should look no further than the mindset of ConservativeHome main man Tim Montgomerie, who has yet again been given a platform from which to air his delusional claptrap by the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre.

Monty won’t listen to anyone even remotely connected to the Labour Party, or equally any hacks or pundits that don’t provide the message he wants to hear. So his remedy for what he believes are Young Dave’s problems comes solely from reliably Conservative circles, and it is in solution of a problem which he imagines is real and likely to up-end Cameron in the very near future.

And, like the rest of the all-too-susceptible right, Monty has got it into his head that the man posing the greatest threat to Young Dave, rather than just posing, is occasional Mayor of London Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. After all, Bozza polled ahead of his party in London. But what Montgomerie conveniently forgets is that Cameron also polls ahead of his party. It’s why he leads it.

Monty asserts that Bozza is “the most popular politician in the country”, but “the country” extends beyond right wing talking shops that encompass those bloggers, think tanks, PR players and other lobbyists and hangers-on. If Bozza got off the train in Crewe, and wasn’t genned up about parking charges at Leighton Hospital, the link road, or all those new housing developments, saying “crikey chaps” wouldn’t cut it.

Monty says there need to be cuts, but here he is making the same mistake as the Maily Telegraph’s Benedict Brogan, and projecting his wish-list on to Bozza: Johnson has wasted tens of millions in London, and when it comes to reining in the Met’s budget, he tends to be absent elsewhere. Johnson, in seeking to extend the influence of TfL, is growing, not shrinking, his part of the state.

Montgomerie talks of other countries “investing in fast railways”, yet he inevitably sides with the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), who are in steadfast opposition to HS2. He wants action on the EU, but Bozza’s record here is somewhere adjacent to zero. He wants to pursue Bozza’s pipe-dream Thames estuary airport idea, but like all on the right believes the money will somehow emerge from the private sector.

Monty believes tax simplification is a major and immediate challenge, because he listens to the TPA. It isn’t for anyone else. He gets the EU out of all proportion. He believes that people want more regulation against strike action. All of this goes only to show that he doesn’t listen to, or even interact with, ordinary people. And Bozza in 10 Downing Street wouldn’t help on any of this.

Remember the old Ford Fiesta advert strapline, Monty: Get Out More!


[UPDATE 5 August 1830 hours: to underline that Monty needs to broaden his outlook just a little, Bozza's (unofficial) biographer Sonia Purnell has contributed a piece for Comment Is Free which goes into the shortcomings of Candidate Boris in the kind of detail which, one suspects, Bozza will not read with any satisfaction.

She notes that London's occasional Mayor is particularly bad at such basic social skills as one-on-one conversations - which puts him somewhere behind Pa Broon, then - and that he does not appear to have many real friends. Johnson is good at speaking, but not listening, which anyone who has attended Mayor's Question Time at City Hall will recognise immediately.

Bozza is very good at promoting Brand Bozza, and projecting an image of fun, but not at much else, and that is not a particularly good recommendation for someone wanting to become Prime Minister. Nor do Tim Montgomerie, or any of the other Bozza cheerleaders, appear to appreciate these shortcomings, far less give any thought to them]