As they sat opposite each other this morning on Andrew Marr’s BBC Politics’ Show, I wonder if David Cameron was canny enough to invite Jane Horrocks along to the Conservative Party conference. He did, after all, invite fellow guest Glenys Kinncock who had to head off to Brussels instead.
It’s the kind of move I suspect he might make, and if he could win her over, it would be a tremendous achievement.
For in real life Jane, like thousands of others, is turned off by politics to such an extent that she did not vote in the last two 
general elections. She is exactly the kind of voter Cameron needs to win over.
She described how she closely identifies with her heroic role as Mrs Pritchard, the people’s champion politician due to be screened starting Tuesday. In fact, she said the “words leapt off the page” at her.
The drama portrays her anger at the state of politics, her mistrust of the politicians on offer. Supermarket manager Mrs Pritchard stands on an Independent ticket at the General Election, determined to make a point.
And what starts as a bit of a joke gathers momentum with a couple of heavyweight politicians defecting to Mrs Pritchard’s side. She’s a breath of fresh air; she speaks the language people have wanted to hear for so very long.
The country’s voters, previously apathetic at the options available, turn out in their millions and elect Mrs Pritchard in on a landslide.
I’m sure many politicians start off along the same lines, sharing her idealistic views, but then find themselves sucked into endless tiers of bureaucracy and waste.
That’s why I was delighted this morning to hear Cameron outline his plans for more openness and transparency, not allowing MPs to vote on their pay, limiting cash donations to the party. This is an excellent start.
I hope Jane Horrocks will at least have an open mind and see how Cameron is changing the party to work for the people of this country. I hope she pops along to Bournemouth and spends some time listening and learning from those around her.
And btw, she was quite wrong when she said it would be “arrogant” for herself to have political opinions, that just didn’t make sense after the way she spoke about her role, that’s surely not in the Pritchard spirit. Even if she feels apathetic, she should feel able to express those views and the reasons why, that’s what democracy is all about, it’s why the party is evolving.
So Jane, please feel free to say exactly what you think. You will be heard, along with others who feel they have good reason not to vote, and hopefully next time round you will mark your X on the ballot paper.
I perceived the purpose of Jane Horrocks’ appearance on Marr’s programme this morning as being twofold – firstly, in their usual manner, to give the Beeb’s forthcoming series a good puff and secondly to achieve the normal minimum 2:1 Labour bias always evident on this programme.
I’m not sure it achieved either; Ms Horrocks refused to disclose her political leanings and, I’m afraid, came across as being rather dull and unconvincing and although it’s been done previously by a grocer’s daughter, she certainly didn’t encourage me to watch her unlikely elevation to Downing Street.
Peter, I feel Jane missed her moment, there was so much more she could have said to have inspired the electorate. After all, apathy is boring, particularly when it is experiencing such a transforamation at the moment.
Well, I don’t know about winning Jane H over. I am not a Tory – not anything for any length of time as I can never agree with any one party for long enough – but watching from abroad, I can see why Cameron appeals to young people and why he comes over as “a man of his time” as one newspaper put it. If he can excite enough people to solve this terrible problm of voter apathy in Britain, then he’ll have done a great thing. I’m sorry it’ll be a while before I can see “Mrs Pritchard” in Italy!
Good grief. How much are they plugging this?
What next? Are we going to have Bernard Hill on to comment on the unemployment figures or Parminder Nagra on Match of the Day?
We, at the Conservative Campaign for Compassion, against Corruption, truly believe David Cameron when he ways he wants to break with the tragic elements of the Conservative Party’s past, and re-introduce responsibility and compassion to British society.
But, we want his actions to match his words.
It is for that reason that we have addressed an open letter to David Cameron, inviting him to take responsibility for the past Conservative Arms Corruption, and to have the courage to break with that past, by annulling those of his recent appointments which would revive Tory Arms Corruption upon the election of a new Conservative Government.
Here is that letter:
“Dear David,
I write as an expatriate, but as one who spent some ten years working with the Conservative Party, at the highest level, and as one who still regards himself as a Tory loyalist.
I believe you when you say you wish truly to modernise the Party; but I also believe that you can only offer the Party as the future when you have first taken care of the past.
I attach a copy of my book, Dead Men Don’t Eat Lunch ( http://www.lulu.com/content/384105 ). You can find a summary of its findings at: http://www.conservativecampaign.com/tory_arms_corruption.php
I invite you to address the following three challenges at this week’s Party Conference:-
1. Come clean about the allegations in the book. Namely that the Conservative Governments of 1979-1997 instituted a systemic regime of arms corruption in Whitehall and Westminster, that has had an ongoing and distorting influence upon its successor New Labour administration, and upon the internal workings of the Conservative Party itself.
2. Agree to do the right thing by the families of Hugh John Simmonds, CBE (former Wessex Area Treasurer) and Dr. David Kelly, CB. In their different ways, they were both servants of their respective Governments, who died as a consequence of knowing too much about arms corruption. Their families deserve better. At the very least, they deserve to know the truth. Call for the re-opening of their respective Coroners’ Inquiries.
3. Dismantle the apparatus that you have already put in place, which, whether you know it or not, has the fullest intention of reviving Tory arms corruption when the Conservatives return to power. As a first step, immediately annul the appointments of Michael Ashcroft, Alan Duncan, Julian Lewis and Gerald Howarth to their respective Party and Front Bench positions.
David, you have a wonderful opportunity to show that you are, indeed, a different sort of politician. One who truly stands shoulder to shoulder with ordinary people, against forces that would wantonly distort their everyday lives. Break the mould, David.
You are the same age now that Hugh Simmonds was when he died so unnecessarily in 1988. Show the world that you have the mettle to stand up to the corrupting influences in the British body politic.
Help those families who have no reason to hurt, but who hurt nonetheless, because of the callous actions of those corrupting influences. Show your country that you stand at the head of a Party, which not only talks the talk, but walks the walk, when it comes to conservative compassion.
Take a stand, David. Modernise all of the Conservative Party. Take it away from its dishonourable past, and into a future of genuine honesty and compassion.�
If there is nothing to hide, then David Cameron will not hide. Clever side-stepping, from an accomplished PR man, will be hiding.
P. Geoffrey Gilson/Conservative Campaign Against Corruption
Geoffrey, David Cameron can obviously not undo the injustices and corruption of the past, merely look ahead. I take it you haven’t had a reply yet, perhaps you don’t expect one if it is an open letter. I also think that Cameron is genuine when he says that he wants Conservatives to be an honest and comparssionate party.