Don’t fire all your ammunition at once
A couple of years ago Donal Blaney ran a weekly column on ConservativeHome entitled “The Laws of the Public Policy Process”. These 45 rules were devised by Morton Blackwell – the Godfather of the American conservative movement – and they come from his decades of experience in the policy process. Every Saturday YBF will discuss one of these laws in the context of some current political news.
Law No. 2: Don’t fire all your ammunition at once.
This is sound advice to the Tory Party, and is worth pointing out to all those that call for the Conservatives to outline their full manifesto immediately. Just ask yourself this: if you were an embattled, unpopular and stale government, what would you do if the Opposition announced an extremely popular policy? Ignore it on the grounds that they got there first? No. You’d do exactly what the Government have been doing since last Party Conference – you’d pinch the idea and call it your own. (Does inheritance tax ring a bell?).
The point is that the Conservatives need to ‘striptease’ policies between now and the next election. They need to reveal just enough to keep people interested, but not so much that they have nothing new to say during the election campaign. The same principle applies in any electoral battle – whether it’s in a student union, for a local authority or at a national election. Keep a few tasty policies/revelations under your belt, ready to whip out and wow people with just before they vote.