Far from sealed?

Another poll hinting that the Tory deal with the electorate is far from sealed.

This morning's Indy contains the latest Comres which suggests that Mr Cameron would finish up 24 seats short of an overall majority in a hung parliament.

Perhaps more importantly than the narrowing seven point lead is the findings that

82 per cent of people want Mr Cameron to be clearer about what he would do on the economy – including 82 per cent of Tory supporters. Only 24 per cent believe the recession would have ended sooner if the Tories had been in power, while 69 per cent do not.

Cameron v Osborne over 50p tax

As Peter Hoskin points out over at Coffee house it appears that David Cameron and his sidekick are getting rather confused over the issue of the 50p tax rate.

Whilst Mr Cameron predicted that Alistair Darling's measure would not be staying in place if elected,Mr Osborne told this morning's conference that

The new 50p tax rate and associated changes to the taxation of higher earners should be kept in place for at least as long as the public sector pay freeze, in order to ensure that the richest in our society pay their fair share of the burden of tackling Labour's debt crisis."

Three reasons why the Tories haven't got it right

Jim Pickard makes a very good point over at his Westminster blog citing three reasons why the Cameron message may not have got through to the outer echolons of his party.

One has already been noted on this blog,Daniel Hannan's undefending of the NHS but Jim picks two more

1.Edward Garnier, shadow justice minister, is out and about trying to repeal the Hunting Act of 2004. Again, the Conservative leadership claim this is a one-man campaign and fox-hunting will not feature in the manifesto. Yet the issue is Old Conservative. Raising it at this point in the electoral cycle is a mistake.

2.George Osborne’s claim on Monday that the three-year pay deals for nurses, teachers and police could be re-opened. This is dangerous territory. Sure, there is public concern about the bloated state. People don’t like chief executives of local authorities making £200,000 a year, true. And there is envy about superior pensions in the public sector.

The honest Pork Pie

Earlier this week I blogged about the Tory campaign to put British food back on the agenda.

Well Recess Monkey has looked into the issue in a little more depth and has discovered that

What the Tories haven’t told the public is that the food industry - notably pork pie and pastie producers - have been funding the front bench for years - including George Osborne, Chris Grayling and Alan Duncan.
Since at least 2002, the Tories have received almost £54,000 in donations from David Samworth and his company, Samworth Brothers. Amongst these donations, were £6,000 to the Rutland and Melton Conservative Association of former Shadow Business and Enterprise Secretary Alan Duncan.
It’ll probably come as no surprise that Samworth Brothers are better known as the makers of Dickinson and Morris Melton Mowbray Pork Pies, Ginsters Pasties and ready meals for Tescos. (Interestingly, Ginsters campaign slogan is ‘REAL HONEST FOOD.‘