In marketing, one of the keys to success is brand ‘differentiation’. The same applies to political parties.
I see no value in the Conservative Party becoming Ukip-lite. Lurching to the right will alienate the party’s moderates, and render a Commons majority impossible. Instead, the Tories must push ahead with a pragmatic, forward-looking manifesto, and stop dancing to Ukip’s destructive tune.
Sir John Major, in a speech in Berlin earlier this month, set out the need for EU reform, particularly with regard to free movement. Sir John’s words were not an attempt to appease Ukip’s isolationist vision. Rather, the call to qualify free movement was based on pragmatism: that people in many parts of the UK feel that their communities are unable to absorb migrants at the current rate.
Ukip are suspicious of the outside world, want to isolate Britain from our neighbours, and spend their time looking back, rather than to the future. The Conservatives should focus on a positive, optimistic message, built on the solid foundation that the last four and a half years of economic prudence has provided.
Given the general antipathy toward the three main parties, it’s in the end not so much of a surprise that the Ukip protest vote saw Mark Reckless under his new brand get over the line in Rochester & Strood. And yet, during that campaign, the Conservatives did themselves few favours by piling into the immigration/Europe cul-de-sac.
The British people want to know how our small island is going to meet the challenges of the modern age, and the Conservatives have policies to address this. The danger is in failing to get them across to the electorate.
You cannot out-Ukip Ukip. So don’t bother trying.