Pragmatism vs idealism

Larry Elliot, always good value, raised some interesting questions.

Now, he says "They want a bigger state when it suits, and a smaller state when it doesn't. They want to both concentrate power and devolve it. This is not a policy;"

But if the Tories took the opposite path, to be ideologically wedded to e.g. spending cuts and were willing to sacrifice all to do that, would he criticise them for being too dogmatic?
I mean, can politicians win? They can be dogmatic, or they can be a collection of hotchpotch policies decided by 'focus group' or some simular criticism. But can they ever be right? Can they ever win?