1 A party which appears disunited, quarrelsome and, frankly, unpleasant, will never win an election. This applies not just to backbenchers openly rebelling in votes and speeches, but also to the grandees of the party.

It applies to former leaders attacking their successors, and it certainly applies to Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members quietly disassociating themselves from decisions which have been taken.

"Another great triumph" was
the sardonic comment of one of Major's Ministers when a policy hit the buffers.

It was a pound to a penny that this Minister would repeat those words when lunching on the restaurant circuit, sponsored by the political correspondents and commentators.

Politicians should remember that the good food and wine is provided not for the pleasure of their company, but for what they will reveal – secrets.

2 Politicians must tell the truth. I do not subscribe to the theory that political standards are at an all-time low. You only have to read accounts of how, at the beginning of the 1950s, the Labour Government exiled Secretse Khama from his native Bechuanaland (now Botswana), once he had taken a white bride, in order to appease the South African government, which was just starting its immoral policy of apartheid – and government Ministers lied to the Commons to avoid criticism.

Or take the Suez crisis a few years later, when Conservative Ministers sought to cover up the direct collusion between Britain, France and Israel to justify the disastrous attempt to prevent Egypt's President Nasser from nationalising the Suez Canal.

When I look back on the 1990s, I cringe when I remember that it was a Conservative, Alan Clark, who admitted that he had been "economical with the actualite", an economy which just happened to have the effect of putting three men on trial at the Old Bailey.

3 A wise party does not become financially obligated to any individual or group. Such an arrangement may get the party out of an immediate financial hole, but it will end in tears.

Most big contributors want something. It may be influence over the direction the party is taking; it may be a particular policy; it may be an honour.

All have clear dangers for a political party. Raising money at the local level should be encouraged, but the big contributors – those whose donations run into hundreds of thousands of pounds – should be stood down. It gives them disproportionate power.

4 The importance of Parliament and Cabinet government must be re-established. The public interest would be better served if governments were better held to account. It is a scandal that major parts of bills which will become the law of the country can be guillotined through the House of Commons without any consideration whatsoever.

Proper consideration by Cabinet and properly constituted Cabinet committees should take the place of informal "sofa" government or diktat from Number 10. It may take longer, but error and harm are most likely to result when the full issues are not exposed for collective discussion.

5 Do not slavishly woo the media. Surely, you might say, that must be wrong? Well, consider the evidence. Special relationships do not last. The Sun backed Margaret Thatcher but advised its readers to vote Labour in the last three general elections. In the end, it also turned against Tony Blair.

Everybody is much more comfortable at arm's length. More than that, the public are looking for a leader who puts some distance between himself and the media. The public interest is not served by cosy relationships between politicians and the media – the private dinners for proprietors at Chequers or No 10; the attempts to gain political or commercial influence.

Nor is it served by the tactics of spin, designed to avoid proper questioning – the "exclusive" stories offered by Ministers in exchange for support of their policies; the government statement of policy not made in Parliament but leaked deliberately
in advance to gain a more
favourable press.

6 Never exploit the personal. It may be tempting for a politician to do so.

There is a constant appetite for personal scandal. So you may win some headlines but, as several politicians have discovered to their cost, it could be your turn next. And even if it is not, it leaves a nasty taste in the mouth. It is not what politics should be about. Reveal the corrupt, but leave the personal affairs to
the media.

7 The party must have the courage to raise issues which are important but will not bring automatic headlines
of praise.

In the political debate of the last five years, there is one issue that dwarfs all else: Iraq. The time has surely come to seek answers to the many questions that surround the invasion of Iraq by setting up an independent inquiry, as was done after the Falklands – and was done at the height of the First World War after the Dardanelles disaster.

If the Government has not conceded an inquiry by the next election, it should be a manifesto pledge. Discovering the truth is never a worthless thing – discovering the truth is the very least we can do for the thousands who have been killed, injured and displaced.

8 The party must find a way of working together on Europe. If hard-line Eurosceptic policies were election winners, then the party would already be back in power.

The opportunity for the Conservative Party is to set out a new approach. The aim should be to become the reforming party of Europe. We need to continue the fight on the indefensible Common Agricultural Policy and make the single market truly one without protective competition barriers.

Our options remain open on the single currency and we remain in favour of a Europe of nation states, not some centralised superstate. But we should go one step further. We should press for the European Union to have more influence in world affairs – and more influence than Britain can have alone.

9 The party should stay on the centre ground and should avoid propounding policies which simply appeal to paid-up members. We would do much better concentrating on local communities than emphasising our misgivings about the European Union.

The Conservatives now control councils throughout the country. Serving the public locally can point the way to serving nationally. Our aim should be to meet the public concerns – north and south – for better education, for more effective action against crime, and for a better living environment.

We need to demonstrate once and for all that we have retrieved the
"One Nation" banner borrowed by Tony Blair.


To order a copy of A Political Suicide: The Conservatives' voyage into the wilderness from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232 or go online at www.yorkshirepostbookshop.co.uk. Postage and packing is £2.75.


Lord Fowler was a member of Margaret Thatcher's Cabinet from 1981-90. This is an edited extract from his book, A Political Suicide: The Conservatives' voyage into the wilderness, published by Politico's, price £14.99.