Lord Saatchi has today warned that "nicey-nicey" politics will not win us the next general election urging David Cameron to reach out to voters on the economy instead of focusing on branding. He said all of Mr Cameron’s efforts so far had been "to no avail".
"Not a single poll in a single month in the past 15 years has given the Conservative Party a sufficient lead to win a general election," he wrote in the Evening Standard. Lord Saatchi argued that voters were put off by the two main parties fighting for the centre-ground, saying that David Cameron needs to find "an expression of true Conservative ideology".
Lord Saatchi said the grammar schools row showed an inconsistency in the Conservative approach leading voters to think: "He’s only saying that. He doesn’t mean it."
He also said that Tony Blair’s party reforms in the mid 1990s had won Labour a reputation for economic competence."The earth shook," Lord Saatchi said. "When the Conservative Party moves along the dimension from nasty to nice, nothing happens. It follows that nothing will happen until the Conservative Party has something compelling to say about the subject that matters – economics."