We under-estimate the current crop of Tories at our peril

One of the most fascinating political pieces I’ve read in recent weeks is the pamphlet for Policy Network by Gregg McClymott MP and Ben Jackson called Cameron’s Trap, which details how the Conservatives have framed the economic debate to the left’s detriment, not just in this slump, but in the slumps of the 1980s and 1930s. Go read it if you have a moment.

The shining lesson from their work is how politically astute the British Conservative Party is. We may love to portray them as Nice-But-Dim, or landed toffs, or the Nasty Party. It would be reassuring to think that they are all like Viscount Astor, the Prime Minister’s wife’s stepfather, who writes in the Spectator this week that the high-speed rail link between Birmingham and London ‘is supported by northern Labour MPs who relish the thought of the beauty of the Chilterns being destroyed, particularly in Conservative-held seats.’ He lives in a manor house, and is chairman of the Old Berkshire Hunt. He owes his viscount status to the elevation of the American millionaire William Astor to the aristocracy in 1917. The first viscount is famous for owning the Observer newspaper, and building the Waldorf Hotel. Like Elvis, he died on the toilet.

But we under-estimate the current crop of Tories at our peril. They are highly political, ruthless in their pursuit of power, and merciless in their treatment of enemies (such as the Liberal Democrats). An aspect of these traits is their heightened rhetoric about the trade unions. Tories are not keen on trade unions as a general rule, because they represent the collectivist ideal and restrict the functioning of a free market in wages and labour. But their attacks on trade unions, which I guarantee will intensify this year and until the election, are not based purely on anti-union prejudice; they based on political calculation.

There is a campaign plan being unfolded, based on the premise that Labour’s close association with the trade unions can be used for the Conservative Party’s electoral advantage. The first step was the establishment of the Trade Union Reform Campaign (TURC), which is chaired by Aiden Burley MP (yes that one), and is run by failed Tooting Tory candidate Mark Clarke, also a director of the Young Briton’s Foundation (the so-called ‘Tory Madrassa’), Harry Cole who now runs the viciously nihilistic Guido Fawkes website, and Andre Walker who, according to the Telegraph, resigned last year from his job at a council after a plot to smear the deputy leader. The funding sources for TURC is murky, but its creation was fulsomely welcomed by David Cameron. Of course it was.

The first target for TURC is trade union workplace reps. In concert with their Tory MP co-conspirators, a debate was held this week about the role of workplace reps and their funding by the taxpayer. This was cunning stuff, because in straightened economic times, who could argue that trade unionism is a good use of public money? Indeed the Tory proposer Jesse Norman MP (author of a book called ‘The Big Society’) fell over himself to say how much good he thought the unions did, but that they should pay for their own activities. See how they framed the debate? Not an obvious assault on the principles of trade unionism, but a plea on behalf of the hard-pressed taxpayer.

Underlying it, of course, is the coded message that ‘tax-payers’ and ‘trade unionists’ are somehow different from one another, and in competition for scant resources. It was, as Diane Abbott might have put it, a case of ‘divide and rule’. It reality, by definition trade unionists are in work, and therefore pay taxes. Trade unionists are tax-payers.

John Healey MP is rightly being praised for his speech yesterday which demolished the Tory argument, and spoke up for the legitimate role of union reps. The motion was defeated by 211 votes to 132.

But it was merely the opening salvo. We should expect legislation on this territory. The Tories and their mouthpieces will continue to link trade union sponsorship of constituency Labour Parties with the speeches and votes of individual Labour MPs. Their political objective is not merely the demonisation of the trade union movement, but to take down Ed Miliband because trade union members voted for him to be leader of the Labour Party. The plain fact is that the Conservative Party, both ideologically, and because of its links to big business, is innately opposed to trade unionism, regardless of the gloss they put on it. Read Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years to see how she calibrated the arguments and made the case in public, but never resiled from her ultimate goal.

The challenge for Labour is to make an equally compelling case for why unions should be supported, how they are relevant to a modern workforce, and why Labour should be so closely linked. If we can’t, the Tories will have led us into a trap once again.