Ben's Column

<table width="100%" height="100%" border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""> <tr> <td colspan="2" align="left" valign="bottom"> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary=""><tr><td background="../../graphics/180601_pages/pat.jpg"><img src="../../graphics/180601_pages/top.jpg" width="760" height="54" alt="MP for Exeter" usemap="#Map" border="0"></td></tr></table> <map name="Map"> <area shape="rect" coords="38,21,223,37" href="../../biog/" alt="Biography" title="Biography" target="_parent"> </map> </td> </tr> <tr><td align="right" valign="top"> <table summary="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td width="150" height="341" background="../../graphics/buttons/bottom.jpg" valign="top"> <table summary="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/home.gif" alt="Home" width="150" height="34" border="0"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../exeter_labour/index/" target="_parent"><img name="Image6" border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/party.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Exeter Labour Party"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img name="Image7" border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/speeches.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Speeches"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../column/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/column.gif" width="150" height="24" alt="Ben's Column"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../faqs/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/faqs.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="FAQs"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/local.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Local Information"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img border="0" src="../../graphics/buttons/newsletter.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Newsletter"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/links.gif" width="150" height="23" border="0" alt="Links"></a> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="../../contact/contact/" target="_parent"><img src="../../graphics/buttons/contact.gif" width="150" height="23" alt="Contact" border="0"></a> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> <td align="left" valign="top">  <title>Welcome to Ben Bradshaws Website</title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#cc0000" vlink="#cc0000" alink="#cc0000" leftmargin="0" topmargin="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0"><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.legendsofgaming.co.uk/" style="padding: 5px 10px;">Betting Sites Not On Gamstop Uk</a></div> <font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><b><a name="top"></a></b></font> <table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="10" summary=""> <tr> <td align="right"><a href="../../column/column/" target="_self"><img alt="Back" src="../../graphics/new_bio/back.gif" width="90" height="22" border="0"></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="-3"><font size="4" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="#CC0000">The Conservative Party — 8 October 2003</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="-6"><font size="2" face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">I do genuinely feel sorry for Ian Duncan Smith. Scouring the newspapers it is impossible to find a single article that has anything positive to say about him. Commentators in papers that support the Conservatives, like the Telegraph and Mail titles, are the most vicious. <br> <br> I feel a natural pang of human sympathy for a man being universally kicked when already down. <br> <br> The fact it is not his opponents, but members of his own party and the Tory press doing the kicking makes it even more unsightly. <br> <br> It also diverts attention from the Conservatives� policy which is a shame. The received wisdom is that the Tories have been in a mess since they dumped Mrs Thatcher because they have had a succession of hopeless leaders. John Major, William Hague and IDS were all chosen by the party faithful because they were not Michael Heseltine, Ken Clarke or Michael Portillo.<br> <br> This was no accident or a reflection of a perverse desire to lose on the part of Conservative members. It is simply that Major Hague and IDS better represented Thatcherism continued than there opponents.<br> <br> The ditching of Mrs Thatcher and Labour�s two landslides were only partly about personality. Primarily they were about policy � a rejection of Thatcherism by the voters and a desire for a centre or a centre left alternative. <br> <br> As long as most Tories still fail to recognise this they will continue to squabble about their leadership. IDS is not the problem, he is just a symptom. <br> <br> The problem is his party�s continuing failure to understand why it lost power in 1997 and what it needs to do if it is to hold any hope of gaining it again.<br> </font></td> </tr><tr> <td height="-7"><a href="#top"><img alt="Back to Top" src="../../graphics/180601_pages/back_top.gif" width="100" height="27" border="0"></a></td> </tr> </table> </body></td></tr></table>