DEMOS

This pamphlet - an open letter to the new leader of the Conservative Party - sets out how the Conservatives could combine the short term opportunity created by the leader’s election with a longer term strategy designed to win power and shape Britain’s political agenda.

It highlights the importance of the generation born between the mid 1960s and the mid 1970s. Electorally significant and increasingly influential in public life, ‘Generation Gap’ dress conservative, but they do not - and will not - vote Conservative. Even the very youngest voters are more likely to vote Conservative than Generation Gap. Winning the votes of this demographic group is a precondition to retaking power.

True Blue: How Fair Conservatism can win the next election sets out a radical agenda to win over Generation Gap by resolving to ‘Make Britain Fairer’ and to reform the public sector without leaving the poorest behind.

It proposes a number of measures to implement this agenda: a ‘Fair Tax’ so that the poor pay radically less tax; a ‘Fair Chance’ so that more government money is spent on educating the least fortunate as choice is re-introduced into the system; creating a ‘Fair Deal’ on crime so that the communities that suffer from crime seize back control from an insipid and timid bureaucracy; and creating a ‘Fair Britain’ with radical encouragement of enterprise in the least prosperous areas.

True Blue also outlines the practical steps party activists must continue taking on the ground to help the Conservatives win the next election.

The author concludes by arguing forcefully that with the right culture, language and priorities – and with a growing army of local councillors and activists with improving campaigning skills - there is no empirical reason why the Conservatives cannot win the next election.

Nicholas Boys Smith is a professional strategist and former special advisor to the Conservative frontbench in Government and in Opposition. He is currently secretary to The Tax Reform Commission set up by the Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer.