It's round and it rolls, stupid!

When I went to school - more years ago than I care to remember - I recall our history teacher explaining to us what the purpose was of studying history. "It is" he said "to prevent each generation having to re-invent the wheel". In other words, you build on what others have done, and avoid the mistakes others have made. And yet it's amazing how often this lesson is ignored. I was reminded of this the other day when listening to the speech of one of the candidates for the leadership of the Conservative party. Essentially his message was "I want us to stop apologising for being Conservatives" which to me, at least, appeared to be a coded way of saying "Vote for me for more of the same". The fact that "the same" had resulted in three straight big election defeats just didn't seem to register. The most cursory examination of elections since the war demonstrates that they are won from the centre ground. I am no fan of Tony Blair, but give him credit for understanding that the Labour party would never win an election from way out on the left, and for dragging them kicking and screaming into the centre. Of course the Conservatives then made their fundamental mistake. Instead of fighting for the centre ground, they adopted the "clear blue water" policy which resulted in them moving further and further to the right and becoming, in their turn, unelectable. So they now face the same problem that Labour did in the 80's - stay where they are and become the "sadly-misunderstood party" permanently in opposition, or move back into the centre. I've seen governments come and go over many years and developed a somewhat cynical attitude to politics and politicians, but it is important for the political process to have a strong opposition - something we haven't had for the last eight years - so the outcome of the Conservative leadership contest does concern me, and the fact that the party are even willing to listen to candidates who simply promise "more of the same" worries me.