CAMERON "OUT OF TOUCH" WARNS SENIOR TORY

27-04-2007

The former Mayor of Sandwell Bill Archer, one of the most senior Conservatives in the West Midlands, has launched a stinging attack on David Cameron’s “hug a hoodie” style of leadership, saying that the party needs to return to a no-nonsense law and order approach.

Archer, who’s 80, is a councillor for Wednesbury North, and still goes out on the stump at local election time. He says that the feedback he’s getting on the doorstep tells him that crime is residents’ priority - and that he’s concerned that the message coming from Cameron just isn’t strong enough.

“He’s just totally out of touch with the law and order issue” said Archer. “It’s the number one concern. People want to see the punishment fit the crime. We don’t exploit that,” he said.

“We had the Shadow Attorney General Dominic Grieve down the other week, and he said that if we get back into power we’ll build more prisons.

"I told that we wouldn’t need more prisons if the conditions were so harsh people didn’t want to go there in the first place.”

Archer’s old-style views on crime - and immigration too - hark back to the kind of traditional right-wing Tory party the current leadership is attempting to distanceitself from, but they are fashioned by years of experience.

In Sandwell, especially, the Conservatives just as much as Labour are coming under pressure from the BNP whose hardline law and order policies have some appeal, especially in rundown, high crime areas.

When it comes down to substance, of course, Cameronwould not doubt argue that he too is tough on crime, but style is important too - and a Conservative party tailored to the touch-feely tastes of the Metropolitan elite ain’t necessarily doing any favours to likes of Bill Archer in some of themeaner streets of the Black Country.