Sunday 6 September 2009

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

A very sensible fellow over at ConservativeHome posted this comment with regards to 2/3 of the pollees in the most resent ConservativeHome poll would vote for UKIP in Buckinghamshire instead of Bercow who would be representing the Tories.
Peter Buss said...

I like ConHome Surrey bill but I would be vey cautious in believing that it is representative of the Tory Party as a whole. It cetainly stands for a particluar agenda and that agenda is held by a significant part of the Party but by no means exclusively so.
If of course what you have said comes to pass then there will be many of us Tory supporters who will never ever forgive these people for destroying our term in Govtand frankly making us unelectable fo about as long as you care to imagine. Its these very same people who made us unelectable for years and only Cameron has saved us from basically being just a southern rural Party.

Opinicus said in reply to Peter Buss... (this is the sensible comment).

The problem with your argument is that it contains the fallacy "Post hoc ergo propter hoc".
Electing Dave was the answer to the problems of 2005 (and 2001 - there was no answer to the problems of 1997 after Portillo ignored Redwood's advice in 1995 "no change, no chance")
However, increasingly there is reason to believe that Dave is temperamentally and ideologically unsuited to answering the problems of 2010. The only people he ever gets mad about are on his own side. Since 2005 he has signed up as part of the problem, not as part of the solution. He is frightened of saying anything that could be used against him. The irony is that in the current climate with voters looking for hope and a Plan B this is actually counting against him. It is the reason he is failing to seal the deal.

I understand you don't get it but what the Farage vote shows is that a very substantial majority of the Party are getting so worried about how far we are getting into a United Europe that breaking Party loyalty is looking a less and less unacceptable option. Little opinion polls like this are irrelevant except as straws in the wind. UKIP coming second in the EU election is a stronger pointer.

Cameron is going to get the Garter and his place in the history books. His Cabinet are going to get peerages and lucrative directorships. His party workers are doing this only for love but not love of the EU. Unless Cameron shows that that love is not unrequited, he will have trouble.

Just so you do not have to look it up, 'Post hoc ergo propter hoc' in Latin means "after this, therefore because (on account) of this".

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