Conservative Values 2024 (Part 2)

As part of our membership-wide survey on Conservative values, we invited members to reflect on the extent to which they thought each of various stakeholders are involved in the process of making and presenting the Party’s values and policies.

Intriguingly, most groups completing this exercise in the past, using the same 0-10 scale, have suggested that many of the stakeholders in the list have very low influence on either making and/or presenting policy, assigning scores of 0-2 for those they consider to be least influential. This time, the average scores were almost all in the 5-10 range. In order to reveal the perceived relative influences more clearly, I have rescaled the results to the wider 0-10 scale, preserving the relative positions.

Unsurprisingly, the figure perceived to be most influential in both making and presenting policy is the Prime Minister, followed by members of the Cabinet. Some way behind these, elected Parliamentarians come next, along with parliamentary candidates, for whom we should perhaps have invited members to choose a separate score.

After these elected groups, the stakeholder perceived to be the most influential in making policy is the media, which clearly reflects the extent to which the media is seen to shape public opinion and, often, to ensure that a particular issue or campaign is taken up (or ignored) by politicians.

Among the non-elected stakeholders, the groups perceived to be most influential in presenting policy are ministers' special advisors (the SpAds) and members of the Party's Research Department (CRD). Presumably, in both cases, this is not because they are seen to present policy themselves (they are generally unseen and seek to stay out of the public eye) but because they are responsible for briefing the elected Parliamentarians on what they should say.

The relatively high levels of influence attributed to voters, in particular, suggests that the whole policy-making process is not especially well understood. Yet, in fairness, attempts to describe it do not come easily. Consider, for instance, the following quotation:

“Policy decisions are seldom taken by political office-holders in a vacuum: analysis and proposals are generally prepared in great detail by official advisers (civil servants), sometimes working with ministers’ appointed political advisers (in the UK properly called special advisers), and the advice and eventual decisions are both shaped by the influence and advocacy of a wide range of interest groups in business and civil society, opinion formers in the media, allies and opponents in parliament and the political parties at large, and academic experts. There are thus many potential points of access to influence and inform decisions, but many are quite indirect in effect and their efficacy difficult to assess. Subordinate decisions about the detailed (sic) and implementation of policy decisions and the application of policy to specific cases will often be taken by officials without reference to ministers unless the issue is potentially politically contentious or has wider policy implications.” (Understanding the policy process, University of Oxford)

That being said, we asked members three questions linking values with the Party's role in policy-making. The following quotations are representative of the most common responses:

In what ways do you think the Party could improve how it develops and applies the Party’s values and policy?

• “Listen to members.”

• “Genuine conversation to find new ideas and solutions.”

• “Fully check any new proposals against the fundamental values of the Party.”

• “We need a compelling, overarching vision statement.”

In what ways do you think the CPF could improve how we identify, refine and promote Conservative policy ideas?

• “Have weekly surveys on the burning topics.”

• “Regular policy meetings between CPF members and cabinet ministers.”

• “More open questions and topics, including sensitive and ‘politically incorrect’ ones.”

How might all these values be better embedded in all aspects of the Party and its activities?

• “Place the values in the Party’s constitution.”

• “Repeatedly communicate the list to all the Party until they are embedded.”

• “Base MP candidate selection on closeness to these values.”

• “Redesign the Party’s website around our values and principles.”

(Report continues with Part 3 of the Conservative Party Members' Values Survey Results.)