Eric Pickles and the same old Tories

By Ben Cobley

In my professional training to become a qualified journalist the phrase “fair and balanced” came up – admittedly as more a legal requirement than an overriding objective. The urge to be fair has always been a motivating force for me personally though and is something I always try and stick to.

So in looking at our present government I have often been prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, despite and sometimes maybe even because some of the deeply-held prejudices I hold about Conservatives and their ideologies.

Examples of my indulgence towards them include being sympathetic to concepts of the “big society”, recognising that state bureaucracies do waste much time and money (and spirit) pushing paper around, requiring people to fill in inane questionnaires that I doubt anyone reads and would not wish on anyone to do so. And, yes, there is a rather large deficit that we should really try to pay off.

I also have some residual sympathy for the government for just being in government, and therefore becoming overnight a favoured repository for much of the anger and bile of people who simply want someone to blame for whatever ills they think they are experiencing on a given day.

In many respects opposition is a much easier ride. Notice the way most Labour politicians now get a round of applause on Question Time just for turning up and opening their mouths – that didn’t happen much over 13 years of Labour government, and the change occurred almost overnight on May 6th 2010.

However, and I must confess there is some vicarious enjoyment to be had in this, more and more of what this government is getting up to is now making me angry. Indeed what made me sit down and write this was the home page of the Daily Telegraph this morning with its picture of Eric Pickles and a lead story telling of how council staff on £58,000 or above are “to be named in war on waste”.

Now, up until recently, Eric Pickles has been one of the few members of the Tory high command for whom I have had a little time. He is not your typical Tory toff from the Home Counties. He has a Northern accent (wow). Like Alan Johnson he speaks what is known as “human”. He seems to have some self-awareness and a decent down-to-earth sense of humour. This is no George Osborne-type creature that makes you want to vomit. Until now.

This is because the proposal on council pay is nothing short of mean-spirited; especially coming at around the same time as Osborne and Cameron have dropped plans to name bankers who earn over a million pounds in bonuses. Just like the plans to slash school funding (except to free schools) and to axe the Forestry Commission, the UK Film Council and the meaningful role of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), it is pure anti-state antagonism.

It shows that, despite some signs that they had indeed “decontaminated the brand”, these are the same old Tories. The rhetoric may have changed, but the reality remains the same – though perhaps with a greater level of steely deception cloaking it after 13 years out of power.

Ordinary people suffer cuts while the rich and the global super-rich get along just fine, as the luxury brand retailers Mulberry and Burberry have been showing lately.

So, yes, same old Tories, and it’s about time I stopped giving them the benefit of the doubt…