It is often said the Conservative Party is a ‘broad church’ and not just a party of free marketeers. This was certainly true back when Margert Thatcher was party leader, given she had to endure the likes of Michael Heseltine et al.
But the de facto coup d’état by ‘Wets’ (better described these days as ‘Blue Blairites’) has left Elizabeth Truss as Prime Minister in name only. She has proven to be weak, a lady very much for turning; unable to even reduce the top tax rate to where it was for 12 years under the last Labour government. And plans to cancel an increase in corporation tax during a recession have also been stymied. So, safe to say the Tory Party is not sufficiently broad church to include actual small-c conservatives, because anyone suggesting a lower tax future is not going to be allowed to run the show no matter what. The Tory WANCs (Tories Who Are Not Conservatives) have demonstrated they are very much in control.
In the recent internal election, the party membership rejected Rishi Sunak, the policy continuity candidate most of the Parliamentary party wanted, instead choosing Truss, who wanted to try something different. But the Blue Blairites would have none of it. If the party members were unwilling to vote the way they were told to, the grandees would just strongarm Truss’ chancellor of choice out of office and replace him with Jeremy Hunt, an unrepentant Remainer, Sinophile, and distilled essence of Blue Blairite Blob.
So please, do not ever say the Tory Party is a broad church because it is not. And if you say it to my face, I will do my best to defenestrate you. A few weeks ago, I was certain to vote Tory again. Now, not only will I not, I will vote against them as the party deserves to not just defeat but to be crushed. The aftermath will be grim given the alternatives, but not only it is inevitable, it is probably necessary. The absurdly named Conservative Party as currently understood need to burn so there is at least a possibility something better can take its place.
Here in the United States, the Republican Party has similar problems; there are too many big government Republicans. Liz Cheney’s defeat is a good step, but there are quite a few others who need to follow her. But I have to say that the Democrats here seem to be even more deserving of total destruction, leaving a void for some new party to step into.
I will continue to vote Conservative because a Labour government would be a lot worse.
How?
The tax take is higher than under Labour, the national debt is higher than under Labour, twelve years of Toryism has led to lockdowns, stagflation and (quite possibly) energy blackouts. I accept that Blair and Brown did much harm to this country, but I’m struggling to see where the Tories fixed any of that rot.
It sounds like the British version of the RINO (Republican In Name Only) and the Big Tent.
Honestly, if you look at their policies, it’s clear that the only genuinely worked-out alternative is the SDP. Yes, you heard it right. Otherwise it’s LibDems all the way down. . . .
Progressives shouldn’t be in the Conservative party full stop. A conservative cannot support globalisation or mass immigration. Starkey said there has been no abolition of the supreme Court. The CP simple isn’t conservative.
100%, Perry. 100%.
I am slowly coming around to Perry’s considered position. WANCs are in charge and it’s horrifying.
Meanwhile, elsewhere there are a few signs of hope. Sweden maybe, the Netherlands in due course?
The coming red wave in the US may help but the UK looks like an omnishambles.
My views on strategy have got a lot closer to Perry’s after i saw the anti-Trump attitudes of McCain and Romney, when Trump proposed perfectly sensible policies which (as i pointed out before) are widely adopted in Europe* and have the only drawback of beind unpopular with the American political, administrative, and media classes.
* by saying ‘Europe’ i implicitly exclude the UK.
Nonetheless, a sensible strategy should take into account the way in which the leader of the Conservative Party is chosen. As we have seen recently, it is necessary for the Tory WANCs to be in a minority within the Parliamentary party, for a true conservative to have a chance with the Tory voters. Therefore, at the next election it will be necessary not only to vote against the WANCs but also to support the true Tories.
Looking at UK politics, i can see why it is good to have primaries. But a multi-party system is another possibility. The divide that seems to emerge in the EU is between countries in which an anti-EU, anti-immigration party has been in government, and countries where that has not happened.
Elements of the right have long talked a good game about abandoning the Tories, but have always been very poor at creating alternates outside of what were largely single issue parties to do with hostility to the European Union (Referendum Party, UKIP, Brexit Party).
In countries like France, Italy, Brazil, and Poland, the hard right has eclipsed the squishier centre-right, and the hard right have serious parties, some of which are or have been in government or at least compete well in elections. I don’t think we have anything like that in Britain. It is true the electoral system in Britain works against alternatives to the Tories and Labour. However, in France the electoral system works against the National Rally, but despite that the National Rally have still came 2nd in two consecutive presidential elections and carved a respectable block in legislative elections. So it’s not necessarily insurmountable.
Anyway, if a British National Rally, Fidesz, or Lega comes into being as a serious contender, then wonderful. Until then, I am left as having to vote conservative reluctantly to try to keep out the other parties who want drag queens in school and other horrors.
The new Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has some interesting business connections with Red China, as per this video segment from the Lotus Eaters.
Very few questions are being asked about the Chancellor and the alleged disappearance of £4,000,000 or so of liabilities from a company that he runs with his wife, who is a British citizen but hailed from the Middle Kingdom. This lack of questions is good, since it would be awful if people made any wild assumptions.
Good comment in today’s Powerline:
“I suppose we Republicans can take a certain solace in not being the world’s stupidest conservative party.”
Martin (& Everyone Else):
I looked up emigration FROM the UK.
I don’t know if the number is as high as the headline writers say it is. I don’t trust headline writers and corporate Mission Statements anyway, about anything.
The gist is that the outward migration (a la Ireland before the Celtic Tiger Era?) was because of Brexit and to better jobs and Standards of Living. Personally, I think that there’s a kind of politics involved, a “voting with their feet”.
Can you migrate? Would the sacrifice of assets that cannot be transferred or transported be too great in your eyes?
Where would you go?
As a New Yorker, I can honestly say what I would take away with me could fit into a small u-haul trailer. The only reason I can see for not buying new bookshelves in the next city is that mine fold up.
I’d look for a long growing season. Not only do I like growing my own vegetables, growing them makes a lot of sense considering the kind of hell this country is going towards in a broken down hand basket.
The first-past-the-post voting system effectively rewards large ‘broad church’ parties who can keep a lid on their internal divisions, which under some form of proportional representation would split more honestly into smaller, separate parties. The argument that first-past-the-post at least results in a stable government rather than rocky coalitions is rather less tenable in the light of the last few weeks in UK politics.
The Conservative Party contains at least three distinct and potentially separate parties which are less than fond of each other. We may loosely characterize these as (a) the Old School Tie Patrician We Know What’s Best For You Party (right now very much in the driving seat after the ascent-without-trace of serial-vote-loser Jeremy Hunt), (b) the Libertarian Party, and (c) the English National Party.
If anyone can point to any common ground that unites Rory Stewart (OSTPWKWBFYP) and John Redwood (Libertarian) to the extent that they could believably be members of the same party, I’d be surprised.
Stewart actually resigned from the Conservative party prior to the 2019 election, and stood down as MP at the time too.
Robert Halfon MP said that people who wanted to roll back the tax increases of Mr Sunak were “Jihadis” – he has been to Israel and is a senior figure in the Conservative Friends of Israel, he knows about the murders committed by the jihadis – he has seen the same memorials I have.
It was not a flippant comment, or a comment made in a fit of rage – his comments were made in a newspaper article that Mr Halfon wrote – and which he then proudly repeated on social media. Mr Halfon believes that people who want a slightly smaller government are terrorists (jihadis), he believes we are evil murderers who should be crushed, as we oppose Collectivist “Social Justice” (the doctrine that all income and wealth belongs to the collective and should be “distributed”) which he openly supports.
Mr Michael Portillo, on GB News television, declared that the system for electing Conservative Party leader was “absurd” – not because it only gives the members a choice between two candidates, but because (in the mind of Mr Portello) members should have no-choice-at-all. A leader of the party, a supporter of the “international community” (European Union, United Nations Agenda 21 and Agenda 2030, WEF and all) should be imposed on the “unrepresentative” membership – who should still work to get MPs elected in sham General Elections – sham elections, as whatever party people vote for, they would still get “liberalism” of the modern Collectivist “international community” sort.
The hatred and contempt that Mr Portillo has for ordinary Conservatives dripped from his words (the conservative mask fell from the man – and the world got to see his true face) – the same people he relied on to campaign for him over many years, were just objects of scorn to him. I suspect that Mr Portillo did not tell the men and women who campaigned for him (who worked so hard for him) how much he hated them and despised everything they believed in – everything from the independence of the nation to traditional social values.
A week or so ago Mr Potillo was full of praise for the Collectivist writer Hillary Mantel – someone who wanted Margaret Thatcher tortured to death, and presented Thomas Cromwell (who destroyed so much that had been central to English life for centuries – and killed anyone who objected) as a great hero. A great hero because he wanted to set up departments of government to provide for and control every aspect of life – something that was not done for centuries after his death, if only the “Master of Wolf Hall” had lived (according to Hillary Mantell) if he had – then the modern state would have been created centuries before it was. I was baffled as to why Mr Portillo would praise Hillary Mantell (an evil person had died – the decent thing would be to have been silent, not to praise her) – now it is only too obvious why Mr Portello praised Hillary Mantel – he shares her love for the modern state which spends about half the entire economy, and controls the rest of life with endless regulations. In short the real Michael Portello is the opposite of the image he cultivated when a Conservative Minister.
Norman Tebbit said that it was not the homosexuality of Mr Portillo that was the problem – the problem was that Mr Portillo would look you in the eye and then just blatantly lie to you, that his real agenda was never what he claimed it was. It was his dishonestly, not his sexuality, that was, and is, the problem with Michael Portillo – and so many of the rest of the “senior” people in public life.
Yes, I did type that Hillary Mantell wanted Margaret Thatcher tortured to death – and Mr Portillo knows that very well.
These pro “international community” types (with their “Stakeholder Capitalism”) want us all dead (or in the gutter begging) – and now they are so confident of their power that they do not bother to hide their intentions.
The future is to be a boot stamping down on the faces of human beings – for ever. That is what they want.
The European Union was only part of the design – a symptom or off growth of the attitude, not its cause.
@Paul Marks I didn’t know that Hilary Mantel wanted Margaret Thatcher tortured to death. How do you know this? How does Michael Portillo know this? Is it widely known in the circles thsat Portillo moves in, circles that I myself do not move in. Is it in her writings, or a speech or an interview? Can you give us a link?
Was she being literal or was she using some sort of literary or rhetorical device?
You typed it twice; from that I assume you did not do so in a hot-headed moment, you did it after due consideration, and that you have good reason to believe it.
I don’t think I will re-evaluate her writings; I think that the product of a creative artist is independent of the artist. But that is another discussion.
Paul,
“The future is to be a boot stamping down on the faces of human beings – for ever.”
I realize that this Orwell, but is also hyperbole. The totalitarian state is a zombie, it exists, yet it achieves nothing. And then it dies. The middle classes, the bourgeoisie, to all intents and purposes are civilization, without them it is the dark ages. It doesn’t matter how many times this drama is played out The Collective never learns.
As per James Strong, Paul Marks needs to cite a source. If true, it is powerful evidence of something, but dropping that into an online discussion without a cite doesn’t help one bit.
I don’t know Hillary Mantell. But you google her name and Margaret Thatcher and you find a book written by her. Title : the assassination of Margareth Thatcher. She wrote I detest her ..
Clase closed
In mid-2016, many people thought we’d lost – and then we thought we’d won. Then it steadily became plain that controlling forces in the Tory party, with many allies outside it, intended to act as if we had lost.
In late 2019, we wrote comments on Perry’s new blog The Great Realignment. Then those who ‘knew’ we should lose felt so sure we had, they stopped preventing an election – after which we thought we’d won. Then various things happened.
Late in 2022 – well, I wonder how I would complete this paragraph if writing it a few years hence. Churchill missed the BBC’s end-of-9’0’clock news brief report of an attack on Pearl Harbour, because he was sitting with his head in his hands, deeply worried about imminent dangers he foresaw. He had to ask those in the room with him what that last news item was.
FWLIW, I stick with my opinion that currently the state of UK politics is febrile – along with the state of the world and the leadership of the Tory party. It will be very depressing if this rebellion of the elitists against the Tory country party is taken lying down – is simply successful longer-term – but with so much in the world seemingly so capable of dropping surprises in rulers’ laps (and ours!), I hardly know whether we are more likely to escape that or soon to wish it were all we had suffered.
Steve baker M.P. and Jacob Rees-Mogg M.P. are over on social media, boasting about more money for “new roads”, energy subsidies (rather than repealing the “Green” taxes and regulations that have helped make energy so expensive) and subsidies for offshore wind turbines.
There are two groups of voters in relation to the above. Those voters who are in support of such an agenda, such people would NEVER vote Conservative. And there are those voters who are passionately against such an agenda – who are now (now there is plenty of money for HS2 and wind turbines – but no money to reverse Mr Sunak’s tax increases) likely to stay home and not vote at all.
How can Mr Baker and Mr Rees-Mogg, both highly intelligent men, not know this?
Going left does not get you any leftist votes – it just means “your own” voters (who do not belong to you – voters are not property) will stay home.
The answer is obvious, to those of us who distinguish between stupidity (low IQ) and delusional insanity.
Take Bobby Fischer. Nobody* can say that he was stupid. And yet, most people would agree that he was delusionally insane.
* nobody except the delusionally insane.
In my opinion, the only way Britain can be saved is by imposing heavy taxes on seed oils and refined sugars.
There are other problematic foods, but just taxing those 2 out of everyday life should suffice to return the British to the acceptable levels of insanity of a century ago.
I knew Mantel disliked Mrs T but I wasn’t aware she held such views. I enjoyed her Cromwell trilogy: I can separate the writer from her non-fiction views.
The late Ms Mantel appears to have had the default leftist views of much of literary England. As predictable as a batting collapse by the England cricket team.