Revealed: how Tories convince themselves they are right

Incensed by receiving an electioneering flyer from our local Tory MP and his inevitable successor [he is off to richer pastures, I gather]. Incensed but not surprised to find that it contains what purports to be a survey of voter preferences. But here is the thing - the only choices are between Tory policies!

Be ready to read that voters in Wealden think that reducing immigration is more important than capping welfare. Reasonable? Not when the choice is between "Reducing immigration" and "Cutting welfare" and not between immigration as an issue and welfare as an issue. "Building affordable housing" and "empowering women" are among choices but without any policy backing either.  It is all about which of their agendas we gullible voters support more and not about what we are most concerned by.

Similarly, how objective will the findings seem when they invite ranking of a number of possible policies when each is qualified by a positive spin? Take "Securing a cut in the EU budget" - described as "protecting British interests - but does it? How objective will the findings be when no other policies can be suggested? No mention of a Living Wage, which would increase tax take and remove welfare needs for migrant workers, for example. This might come well above some of the Tory list.

Then there is the most fatuous, disingenuous question of all: "Putting party politics aside and thinking about them as individuals, which of the main party leaders would you prefer as Prime Minister?" PUTTING PARTY POLITICS ASIDE? I do not think so. Nobody has a vote for who becomes Prime Minister - only for a local MP or councillor. So why ask the question if not for party political reasons, presumably in the erroneous belief that their relative ratings in polls will play out in where the X goes on May 7th?

I record these mild rantings today so that I can be reminded when this piece of waste paper is followed up with the next, that these finidngs will be entirely predictable because the questions are partial, misleading and fall short of any sort of validity in terms of methodology. I predict that these findings will include that: Tory policies are popular; and that no policies which attend to the economic and social miseries of millions of voters will feature. Betcha!

Tom Serpell