Vulpes Vulpes' fat, smug face gazes out of a Times article suggesting the Conservative candidate list will be opened to "independent" candidates, going beyond the approved lists and welcome to anyone who is interested in public service. "Jumping the shark" refers to a series which, like when Happy Days showed an episode that featured The Fonz jumping over a shark, is widely held to have run out of serious, coherent ideas and is twisting in the wind after elusive excitement. Has David Cameron finally found a gimmick that can't save his foxy little hide from mounting wisteria-clearance bills?
Since the Tories have made it clear they have about as much time for ordinary public servants as they do for bubonic plague, that should send a steady stream of people in to local Conservative associations - or not, as the case may be. This sounds good, but it's just another gimmick from someone whose idea of government and whose conception of what the public purse should be used for.
I'm not a fan of public primaries for the reason they are open merely to more self-selecting activists than genuine local people, and self-selecting activists from other parties as well as your own. This to me suggests that Foxy has no confidence in the massed ranks of the Conservative Party, and will probably upset people who have worked hard in the party grassroots and thus earned the right to stand for parliament in a safe seat. They are suddenly bypassed by someone who has no party experience, no previous interest in politics, no understanding of the system but is "untainted" by political activism. (Cue no doubt lots of overtures to various celebrities who have been making a nuisance of themselves for the past few weeks.)
It is not the candidates' list who are tainted by sleaze, Foxy-friend.
Anyway, reading for this as this takes us into uncharted territory - forget the allegations still pouring out of Telegraph towers, this is where things get interesting for reform and/or the future anarchy which is scheduled for round-a-bout now.
Situation - The Fool, reversed
There is the need to make more and more striking pronouncements in order to trump the last one - never mind whether they are workable, sane, or even going to be popular with the people who have worked hard for Foxy over the last few years. This shakes the situation up again, and puts not only the party in danger of being used as a testing ground for a mad sorceror's apprentice, but also makes the long-term stability of politics at risk from someone whose mind doesn't stay made up for more than about two months. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Appearance to public - Ace of Cups
It does hand Foxy a means of making overtures to people he otherwise wouldn't get on side. It allows him to stay ahead of the agenda, despite his own mea culpa. It also offers people some semblance of policy and action to replace the lack of solid coherence to his plans for government, which he will need fairly soon if he wants a snap election. It's a start, but is it solid enough for people to actually know who or what they are voting for.
Appearance to press - Death
It is a point at which the Fokssss does jump the shark, and although it moves the story on, it moves it on in a way which is dangerous for the situation and likely to inflame opinion rather than quench the current thirst for vengeance against a rotten system of which Cameron is a part. It doesn't give them what they want - it just gives us a new breed of politician when we need more character and backbone. Not a good omen for someone needing consistency, constancy and upwards motion - the end is not needed now, but in a year's time when I still expect an election to be held.
Reasons for this move - Cameron - V Swords, reversed
Cameron needs to find a silver bullet to destroy Labour and give him the ability to serve himself from the real public pie, government. He is trying harder and harder to show that he is trying to kickstart a revolution - or coup - in his favour. He is still searching within himself to come up with something solid and appealing to the general public, and he knows he is running out of time to do so. It appears over to him, and he is throwing the dice trying to come up with something solid which avoids actual policies.
Responses internally - the Conservative Party - III Cups
There is a kind of internal support for this move, the effervescence and excitement in this card may well prove the idea to have some currency within; it is, on the face of it, a reasonable idea to stimulate their membership and interest in politics from quarters in which there is little attachment to the system. It increases the party's pulling power and may well be welcomed (all the deposed MPs still sound like self-critical victims of Stalinist show-trials...when that starts to change it will get dangerous) but in the euphoria of the current situation still lies a deadly public reaction that puts the Tories - and anyone standing under their name - still in the line of fire.
Roots of the idea - VII Cups, reversed
Illusions as to what the public really want and mean and illusory ideas to try and grab hold of the reins of power. This deepening of the upright card suggests that these illusions are beginning to be dangerous fantasies - the Conservative Party is tainted too by the scandal, and can we really trust poachers to make up laws on gamekeeping?
Seeds of the idea - The World, reversed
It won't work and may well drag Foxy down - the upright World means success, glory and apostheosis; the reverse suggests a stagnation and delay in this process, or a corruption of the necessary catalyst for monumental, wholescale reform and an evaporation of momentum towards this end. The Tories hope the mood can be channelled into a self-serving end - but they will not be able to do this while their party leader still has outstanding unethical claims. It also suggests here that apostheosis goes against them, not towards them as they hope.
Advice to Cameron - The Star, reversed
Ever hopeful of saying something that I might just like, Foxy proposes this at a time where the problem lies not with the candidates to Parliament but with the people within Parliament. Although Cameron evidently expects a mass cull, he is purely interested in establishing his own power base rather than the good of the country, and this reversed Star suggests to me he is walking down a dangerous road - he is seen as an arch-politician, not a good governor of the country. He is running out of time to restore genuine hope and balance to politics, and these quick fixes might work at the time, but will not be enough to give genuine assistance to his party at the election.
Advice to Tories - The Magician
The party itself needs to be more imaginative in itself, and not rely on dumping a long list of good and bad MPs (Owlperson knows where Michael Howard's body is buried, for example) for new converts to the Cameroon Tories who owe nothing to any sense of commitment to the party as a whole. The party needs to be lighter on its feet and more responsive to public opinion, which in my experience is lukewarm at best towards Cameron rather than the Conservative Party. It needs to defenestrate everyone who has made an unethical claim - and its leader is among that category. It needs to strike with the agility and public backing that Cameron has assumed he's had over the past few weeks and tell him what people really think about him.
Warning to Cameron - VI Pentacles, reversed
This move brings no substance, merely changes in personnel, and as such does not make many moves towards a genuine programme of political reform. He needs to put those principles forward, and bring substance to the situation, or risk this not being enough to convince people that politicians really have the answers that a good, old-fashioned military coup would not solve. The situation is close to that of Latin America in the 1970s, and although there is no obvious mover who would be able to take power, public thirst will not be quenched with mere window-dressing like this. We need policy, not politics, and a defined reformist agenda. In seeking to cut corners, solid goodwill is leaking away.
Warning to Tories - The Lovers
There is a decision the party needs to make to put it back where, arguably, it believes it belongs - in power. It needs to realise that its own robustness is an asset, not a curse - and it needs to assert itself and hold Cameron to account for what he is doing in parliament. I am no supporter of Mackay or Viggers or Hogg or those who have been made to step down. But it needs to assess this with a power to make its own mind up or have Cameron foist more time-servers in his own image upon them and not actually get to grips with the core problem - the long-term view of politics and politicians. It needs to step back from Cameron and make its own decision on this, like it rejected Howard's plans to curtail the leadership vote. At least Howard consulted the party, is all I can say to this.
Direction for Cameron - VIII Cups
Cameron needs now to see that the cup of goodwill towards politicians in general is running dry and he needs to move on onto something that will genuinely capture the popular imagination in terms of what is going to happen after he takes office, rather than trying to milk an increasingly febrile public mood in the hopes of a huge landslide, so he can milk the proceeds of government as well. He needs to realise that this is mere spin - what will count now more than ever before is substance.
Direction for Tories - King of Wands, reversed
The King of Wands is now Cameron, making decisions on the hoof and taking praise for them on the ad hoc in which he has run the party for the last three and a half years. He needs to calm down or these emergency measures will force a backlash in a party which is being taken for granted to ensure that one man profits from this. Michael Gove and Alan Duncan have dipped into the public purse for more than just moats or duck islands, and they need to go - the party needs to force him to wipe the slate genuinely clean, not to reward his friends and sack inconvenient bedblockers. The party becomes a bucking bronco, throwing off its wastrel Shadow Cabinet, who currently believe they are immune to public wrath. Wrong on all counts.
Solution for Cameron - The Chariot, reversed
Cameron becomes shriller and shriller and is going so fast he may come off the rails when it is obvious he can do nothing to solve or soothe public anger. He has solved nothing, and is too big on the spin ideas rather than the policy substance that would restore confidence in both parties. Labour are apparently doomed, but the devil in the detail means that blundering forward and working largely off-the-cuff may destabilise things more rather than increase the possibilities of Cameron taking office as PM.
Solution for Tories - Ace of Wands
A strike at the heart of power here for the Tories - a decision which will decide things once and for all. This is a significant improvement on the Three and Two of Wands - which symbolise activity, but not a decisive action - which have been coming up of late. The definite blow is struck here which will bring things to a head, and either destroy them or reignite momentum which has been lacking as a result of this crisis and even beforehand.
Outcome - VII Wands, reversed
The trend here is now towards sinking rather than swimming. A need for definite purpose is answered with gimmickry and flimsy, silly ideas that do not address the problems. The answer is always "not today, sorry" - but can't be for too long before it turns ugly.
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