My Conservative Home article

Some Conservatives are taking heart from the fact that in Wakefield and Honiton  Conservatives stayed away rather than switching to Labour. It should after all be easier to persuade abstainers back than to tell switchers they have got it wrong. In Wakefield there was also an unusually high percentage voting for some of the many fringe parties and candidates that seek some attention on a by election hustings. Independent candidates  normally get less than 1% of the vote each.  One of the Independents got 7.6% of the vote, the Yorkshire party polled 4.3% and Reform and Britain First together got 3%, more than the Lib Dems scored. Many of these voters could be attracted to a stronger Conservative offer.

 

Understanding why Conservative voters abstained or voted for candidates other than the three main parties is crucial for the government to do the right thing from here. The idea of a Red Wall is unhelpful. Voters in former Labour seats voted Conservative in 2019 because they wanted something different to the Labour offer of a bigger public sector, a preoccupation with political correctness and higher taxes, not because they wanted a Conservative version of the same.

 

 They wanted more than Brexit in name only. They wanted a proud UK to use her newly won freedoms to promote prosperity for the many and to place the UK back on the global stage without instruction or limitation from Brussels. They had concluded that sending more money to the local Council, spending more on new public buildings and looking for the civil service to make everyone better off was not going to work. They disliked the EU model of closing down much productive capacity in the UK to import from the continent.  They wanted a more enterprising freer UK where government helped people get on in the world. They wanted home ownership for the many, more opportunity to work for yourself, to set up a small business, to gain shares and bonuses by working for a good private sector firm, to receive the education  and training needed to get promoted. Labour’s collective and state organised ideas often stifled individuals and families making a success of their own plans for ownership, self improvement and better paid employment. 

 

They expected Conservatives to lower taxes on work and enterprise, to promote more employment and to back business. They assumed that whilst there would be more money for schools and hospitals Conservative Ministers would be careful to control overall spending and would not allow an unwieldy bureaucracy to grow and grow without restraint. They did not want more quangos lecturing us on what we were allowed to say ,on  how we should lead our lives and why we must buy a heat pump.  They looked forward to ending the large payments to the EU and wanted overseas aid removed from countries with nuclear weapons or space programmes. Many people refused a free smart meter and opposed more surveillance as examples of  creeping government control. 

 

So why do so many of them  now feel they have not got what they asked for? They did not expect a Conservative Chancellor to authorise huge extra quantities of money printing last year in a way that was bound to lead to more inflation. They did not ask  him to underwrite with their money another £150bn of bond buying by the Bank of England, paying very high prices for the bonds. They certainly did not vote for a hike in National Insurance, a tax rise expressly ruled out in the Conservative Manifesto. They did not want IR35 strengthened further to put off people working for themselves. They hoped that VAT would come down or be taken off things like domestic heating once we were free of the EU and able to set our own tax rates. When the Ukraine war added a further nasty twist to the inflationary spiral they expected the Chancellor to cut the VAT rates on electricity, gas, diesel and petrol, not to use it as an opportunity to tax us more on these necessities. 

 

So what should the government do  now to prove it has understood the message of the voters in recent elections? The main changes have to come from the Treasury. It is bad economic policy that is doing the damage. The hit to real incomes is too hard, taxes are too high, and current policy threatens us with a recession. The government needs a convincing growth strategy. That requires immediate action to cut VAT on fuels to ease the squeeze and cut the prices. It means binning the planned 31% increase in the rate of Corporation tax on businesses and stopping the attack on home produced energy through the supplementary profits or windfall tax they are planning. The Chancellor rightly wants an investment led recovery with more capacity being put into the UK. He will not get that if he serves up higher business taxes and a recession. 

 

The government should go all out to create the best environment for business investment and growth in the advanced world. Strong businesses will bring more jobs, better paid jobs and more capacity. The UK as a result of years in the single market depends far too much on imports for everything from temperate food to energy, from steel to  cars which it can produce for itself. If we matched the Irish corporation tax rate we could add to our capacity much more quickly and collect more in total business tax revenue. If the Treasury beefed up the freedoms in the Freeports that could help us grow new industries. 

 

There are some signs that the Business department does want us to produce more of our own gas at a time of global shortage. The new oil and gas fields including Jackdaw, Cambo and Rosebank should be brought into use. That will cut our CO2 compared to importing LNG, create more better paid jobs and give the Treasury another tax windfall. There is some work now on a domestic food strategy. We could grow so much more for ourselves at a time of Russian induced shortage. Instead of EU grants to pull the trees out of our orchards we need Uk help to replant. The UK with access to more gas could rebuild some of its lost chemicals and fertilizer industry. 

 

This cannot await a late autumn budget. Every day we send out a high tax anti business message more investment will be delayed or diverted. All the time we continue with current policy a sharp slowdown or a complete stop to growth is inevitable. The Uk deserves better and can do better. Now is the time to set out a bold strategy for freedom and growth. If we do this the voters will return. We need a new Conservative way forward.

138 Comments

  1. formula57
    June 28, 2022

    Exactly so. Well said!

    But the question“So what should the government do now to prove it has understood the message of the voters in recent elections?” is a trick of a kind is it not, for the government does not understand?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      June 28, 2022

      When anti-democrats feel power slipping from their grip there is a time-honoured technique that they use to cling on.

      It is to divide the country against itself to prevent it from uniting against them.

      The Right here used brexit. In the US they have now just used the terrible dilemma that women face over termination. In Russia Putin has started an utterly unwarranted and criminal war of aggression.

      In each case the morally degenerate are turned against the enlightened, and the despots proclaim to align themselves with the vicious intentions of the first.

      1. Peter2
        June 28, 2022

        How can a national referendum voted in by the biggest number of people in election history of the UK be some right wing anti democracy conspiracy?
        And the rest of your ranting post NHL, you need to just calm down.

      2. No Longer Anonymous
        June 28, 2022

        Brexit was most unexpected. The EU was used to destroy the Tory Party ‘fringe’ but backfired. Turned out not to be a fringe but mainstream opinion.

      3. Mickey Taking
        June 28, 2022

        Or is it a case of the people being badly let down once, twice and and now three times! Even the Party elected members seem to have resigned themselves to sitting on hands until being trurfed out just over 18 months from now. It is not about technique at all it is simply the Party reaching the bottom residue of a stinking barrel.
        Flush it out – good and proper.

    2. Hope
      June 28, 2022

      JR, I think the bit you missed out was the left wing dictators Trudeau and Johnson speaking out against Roe and Wade ruling, claiming women should have autonomy over their bodies etc (sic) but happy to force women to have unproven dangerous covid vaccines. Javid happy to announce people, ie women, would lose their NHS and care home jobs unless jabbed! Where was Johnson in promoting womens right of autonomy over their bodies? Be Jabbed or lose your job and go hungry! Trudeau denies women travelling unless jabbed, feed truckers on protest and freeze their bank accounts!. How does this fit with their left wing authoritarian view over women?

      Johnson is a chaotic misfit unfit to hold any public office. Being able to recite a bit of Ancient Greek is of no use to the country.

      1. Everhopeful
        June 28, 2022

        +many
        Oh yes! Hear!Hear!

  2. mickc
    June 28, 2022

    Too late…even the useless Starmer will win against the present not conservative Tory party.

    1. Lifelogic
      June 28, 2022

      I suspect the Tories will win the next election as no one sensible (certainly in England) wants Labour/SNP/Libdim/Green/Plaid do they.

      Boris does however need to ditch net zero, cut taxes hugely, cut red tape and cut the vast government waste… he alas shows little sign of doing this. Then he needs to get some public services to actually work and increase fair competition in health care, energy, transport, housing, education…

      1. Richard1
        June 28, 2022

        Opinion polls suggest otherwise. It is highly likely thatcher would have lost in ‘92 had she stayed. Labour might be unlikely to win outright, but a leftist coalition could be the worst possible outcome.

        1. Peter
          June 28, 2022

          Richard1,

          Agreed opinion polls do suggest otherwise. I am not sure a different government is a worse prospect than the current one, as Lifelogic suggests. I suspect many others will no longer vote based on fear of the alternative now.

          As for Boris Johnson, he may have private goals to ensure a comfortable life after politics. I suspect Tony Blair would be his role model and Nick Clegg the bare minimum he would find acceptable. The danger is if he leaves as a complete failure there will be no comfortable life. He will left to his own devices like David Cameron and having to rely on promoting dodgy companies to make a living.

      2. Lifelogic
        June 28, 2022

        Alas so little sign he will do any of this he prefers posing on the international stage in what I fear will be another losing war. This as one side is clearly fighting with one hand behind its back and the other can and will just keep coming back for another bite. This especially if the west continues with its insane net zero lunacy.

        Interesting to hear Boris and other leaders joking about the size of their private jets. So is Boris really so dim he has fallen for the net zero religion, is he just appeasing Carrie or is he just a blatant liar and a complete hypocrite in the Prince Charles, William & Emma Thompson types?

        1. Mickey Taking
          June 28, 2022

          ‘ he prefers posing on the international stage ‘.
          Exactly what US Presidents have done time and time again.

          1. glen cullen
            June 28, 2022

            He certainly likes the limelight and the international press

      3. No Longer Anonymous
        June 28, 2022

        Lifelogic

        I no longer CARE that Labour gets in. That’s a vital difference to how I felt when I voted in the last general election.

        Other Tories should take not of that difference. “Labour would be worse” is no longer motivational. Boris and Sunak have managed to burn that ace in the pack.

        I now despise Boris Johnson and it has nothing to do with Partygate. He is a Leftist and he lied to us about it. His self aggrandising position on Ukraine has made me and my countrymen the #1 targets of Russia for no good reason.

        In the public mind I believe he has gone from being funny and inspirational to there being something being a bit icky, shifty and unclean about him. He is no longer the electoral asset that the Tories seem to think he is (I definitely saw Macron’s flesh creep when Boris hugged him the other day.) He’s definitely lost his mojo and uses the power of delusion instead.

        1. No Longer Anonymous
          June 28, 2022

          I understand why this my wait in moderation but it doesn’t alter the fact that Johnson is now damaged goods.

      4. Julian Flood
        June 28, 2022

        So after your list of parties the electorate doesn’t want you then list all the policies the Conservative is pursuing that no-one wants, which seems to be most of them.

        Maybe time for a rethink by the entire political class.

        JF

      5. Hope
        June 28, 2022

        LL,
        I have gone beyond caring about who would be the least worse. When you consider as a matter of record and fact Johnson has wasted far more of our taxes than Corbyn promoted and taxed us much higher than any Labour Govt. While having the worst deficit, debt, inflation and cost of living standards! They would have to go some way to be worse than Johnson’s record! And in record time of two years in office, worse than Brown after ten years in office!

        1. Lifelogic
          June 28, 2022

          Much truth in this! But we would likely enter the EU again by the back door and it might break up the Union. Likely they would fix the voting system with younger voting and similar ruses so it would be socialist remainers in charge for many terms!

          1. Hope
            June 29, 2022

            LL,
            We have not left the EU as one country! Still subject to ECJ, ECHR, pay billions to EU, no control over borders, level playing fields in a host of areas, regulatory orbit, border down Irish Sea, EU checks goods from one part of our country to another, N.Ireland still in single market. We have not left, just in name only! He is able to read and knew what he agreed, which is totally different from what he said and says now.

            Please tell us you are not stupid enough to fall for Johnson’s lies? Today he is wittering Putin would not have invaded Ukraine if he were a woman! He has gone nuts!

        2. Mickey Taking
          June 28, 2022

          choosing the least worse is a cowardly way to elect a government.
          If they don’t do as promised BOOT ‘EM OUT.

          1. Shirley M
            June 29, 2022

            +1000 – of you tolerate rubbish parties and rubbish PM’s, then the political parties need offer you nothing more than rubbish. Keep kicking the rubbish out (at high speed) until they get the message that we will NOT tolerate rubbish, and Boris is the stinkiest rubbish ever to dwell in No 10. I also no longer just dislike Boris, I fear him, for what he is doing to our once great country. The western world seems to have lost it’s mind or is being manipulated democratically to elect PM’s/Presidents who have a collective and damaging agenda.

        3. Zorro
          June 28, 2022

          Yes Boris Brown aka Gordon Johnson, what a repugnant sight that was with his shirt out of his trousers and no tie with the other ‘leaders’….

          Zorro

          1. Hope
            June 29, 2022

            Obese Johnson telling us what we can eat and taxing us to force our hands! Clink, cheers from No.10.
            The man incapable of walking past a piece of cheese or wine!

  3. Mark B
    June 28, 2022

    Good morning.

    And we can stop giving our money away. How many billions is it now ?

    1. Lifelogic
      June 28, 2022

      Plus the vast costs (and risks/dangers) of open door illegal immigration and of net zero.

    2. Hope
      June 28, 2022

      Good try JR, 12 years of deafness and lying by your party and govt can be evidenced by record and fact not some aspirational that your party retains a little bit of conservatism. The only thing left is your party’s false name and blue rosette. All policies and cultural direction are socialist greenies.

      There is no way your party and govt represent the points you make nor have tried to do so. As Osborne pointed out about immigration no one was serious in private! It epitomises the dishonest party you belong to.

  4. Gary Megson
    June 28, 2022

    Well, what an angry rant! You’ve got your Brexit, YOU WON! But you will never be happy, will you. These voters who you say “wanted a proud UK to use her newly won freedoms to promote prosperity for the many and to place the UK back on the global stage” have been disappointed because Brexit means the exact opposite of this. These “newly won freedoms” are invisible (apart from blue passports – woo!), but the Brexit red tape, Brexit blockages at our ports and Brexit staff shortages are very visible. As for “the global stage”, come off it, you voted yesterday to break international law – they will be cheering that in Moscow but the US, the EU and the rest of Western democracy increasingly sees the UK as an unreliable rogue state with no commitment to the rule of law. How has the party of Macmillan, Churchill and Thatcher become a beacon of lawlessness?

    1. Shirley M
      June 28, 2022

      Bitter somewhat? It appears you have joined the EU in saying ‘do as I say, not as I do’. The EU have done, or have, all the things you moan about!

      1. Gary Megson
        June 28, 2022

        No Shirley, the EU has got rid of barriers to trade, it has no blockages at its ports and plenty of labour to go round. That is the beauty of its single market. Mrs Thatcher inspired it. And you Brexiters have shut us out of it

        1. Original Richard
          June 28, 2022

          Gary :

          The problem with the EU’s singe market for us was that we had a £100bn/YEAR trading deficit with the EU which was unsustainable and necessitated our leaving.

          There are barriers to trade, non-tariff barriers, which other countries know better than we do how to use to their advantage.

          1. Gary Megson
            June 29, 2022

            Richard, you do not understand what a trade deficit is. It simply means we were importing more than we were exporting. But that is not a bad thing, it is a good thing, imports keep prices down and improve consumer choice. Trade makes both sides better off – economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo explained that hundreds of years ago. This is why you won’t find one single reputable economist who was in favour of Brexit. That is also why Brexit has been such an economic calamity, because it has reduced both our imports and our exports. We are much worse off, for no gain whatsoever

        2. Peter2
          June 29, 2022

          Another post by Gary who has plainly never worked in a business that has imported or exported.
          The “paperwork” to comply with the rules, regulations, directives and laws that had to be scrupulously followed to deal with the EU were in my experience worse than trading with many other major nations.

    2. Bloke
      June 28, 2022

      Gary:
      SJR’s Conservative Home article presents facts with evidence.
      Conservative voters support the proposed solutions.
      There was no ‘rant’ until your response
      ‘But you will never be happy’
      Will you?

    3. Lifelogic
      June 28, 2022

      No I will not be happy until we get a low tax and a real Conservative government, no control from the ECHR or the ECJ, a full Brexit and we take full advantage of this Brexit. Plus the scrapping of the net zero lunacy. So quite some way to go.

      The last thing we need is a new remoaner/Theresa May type of leader like Jeremy Hunt!

      1. Peter Parsons
        June 28, 2022

        So you want the UK government to rip up the Good Friday Agreement. I’m sure that will go down well.

    4. Original Richard
      June 28, 2022

      Gary :

      The Biden US is in a democratic and economic mess, but fortunately this will end in November.

      The EU is undemocratic – who elected EdL? The Italians even have an appointed leader rather than one who was democratically elected.

      The UK is no longer a democracy as evidenced by Parliament unable to govern, having given all its powers over to unelected institutions, and quangos. Net zero, uncontrolled immigration (legal and illegal) and inability to deport serious criminals are the result.

      It is undemocratic for “here today gone tomorrow” politicians to sign their country up to long-lasting international treaties without a referendum, and in some cases, as Mrs. May’s signing of the UN Global Compact on Migration, without even a vote in Parliament.

      Brexit was the only real democratic decision we have taken in decades.

      Western democracy is crumbling from the fifth column communists gaining control of our institutions and attacking democracy and the country from within.

      1. Jason
        June 29, 2022

        Yes Original Richard and we have a whole house full of unelected Lords topped off by a Royal Family completely unelected not to mention civil servants galore and advisors aplenty so grow up

    5. oldwulf
      June 28, 2022

      @GM
      “Brexit” is a political construct which was designed to obfuscate, probably the intention of the “Remain” establishment.
      In 2016 “Brexit” was not on the ballot paper.
      In 2016 the majority of the electorate voted “Leave”.
      The concept of “Leave” is easier to understand.
      In its simplest form “Leave” would mean a return to the relationship between the UK and the EU which existed before the UK joined.
      So when Mr Johnson says that he got “Brexit” done, it seems that “Leave” voters are not particularly enamoured with his version of “Brexit”. Mr Johnson just might survive if he tweaks his version of “Brexit” to get a bit closer to “Leave”.
      However, rectifying the financial and fiscal incompetence may be beyond him ?

    6. Narrow Shoulders
      June 28, 2022

      The Benn Act!

    7. MFD
      June 28, 2022

      Precisely what we want, take so called world law and burn it down. We will be really happy to see the Global ship sink , fire the torpedos now.
      Britain first, last and always!

  5. DOM
    June 28, 2022

    The party and its MPs have reluctantly and in some cases enthusiastically embraced for whatever reason progressive authoritarianism and all of its cancerous ideologies that have dragged without our permission the civil world in the political arena of race, gender, religion and sexuality.

    Neo-Marxist Critical Theory ideology is destroying this nation and its people but then that is its purposes.

    The Tories should have the decency to openly admit their new allegiance to Labour’s and the SNP’s religion

    1. Everhopeful
      June 28, 2022

      +agree
      And WHY? That’s what puzzles me. Some deep, dark and unpleasant force?
      Yesterday apparently 6 Tory MPs were considering/negotiating a move to Labour.
      Returning to the fold? Job done?
      ( I don’t know if they are red wallers or infiltrators).

      1. Sea_Warrior
        June 28, 2022

        I looked at the Wiki bio of one name mentioned. The MP had been elected at an early age, having achieved little in life. CCHQ needs to improve its candidate-selection.

        1. Everhopeful
          June 28, 2022

          +1

      2. Mickey Taking
        June 28, 2022

        perhaps they finally realised what the sort of people who choose potential MPs and thus Leaders are like.
        Jump the sinking ship.

    2. Sharon
      June 28, 2022

      Dom it does rather seem that way. Whenever a new idea/measure is brought in, check abroad; invariably (not always) those same measures are being brought in there too. eg Two hours using as little electricity as possible during the hours of six till eight, Australia now, us in our winter.

      The government are still following the global agenda in a lot of areas. Not all, because we are starting to see there are changes being made …but the socialist/remainer views are still dominant. Those who liked the EU idea, like the one world government idea. In the minds of some, we are already a one world government…. that’s my opinion.

      1. Mitchel
        June 28, 2022

        Pithy tweet from The Sirius Report this morning:

        “Appears westerners still haven’t grasped that those nations with natural resources and their trusted partners are the future whilst those trading worthless bits of paper in fictitious markets are being consigned to the dustbin of history.”

        Spot on!

        1. Lifelogic
          June 28, 2022

          Much truth in this.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      June 28, 2022

      I no longer care that Labour get in.

      The people of Tiverton, Wakefield and Honiton have said the same.

  6. Old Albion
    June 28, 2022

    A serious question Sir JR. Have you ever explained this directly to the PM?

    1. Everhopeful
      June 28, 2022

      When I first came to this diary I thought that an MP would bump into the PM every day and have informal chats.
      I now suspect it isn’t, unfortunately, a bit like that.
      More like even Ministers can scarcely be arsed to answer written questions.
      Except of course for lovely JRM.

      1. Hoof Hearted
        June 28, 2022

        Plus one, Chris H-H. He’s never failed to answer a letter or email.

        1. Everhopeful
          June 28, 2022

          ++
          Gosh you’re lucky!
          Ours (Tory) just NEVER replies to anything.

      2. Mickey Taking
        June 28, 2022

        wet behind the ears, naive and brain damaged by our education system, the SPADs are relied on- not the electorate.

    2. SM
      June 28, 2022

      It would be a complete waste of our host’s time, even assuming he were ever to be given the opportunity to do so.

  7. Fedupsoutherner
    June 28, 2022

    Great post John. We also want a government to take control of illegal immigration and one that stops vaccination becoming compulsory.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 28, 2022

      +1
      JR almost said it…
      “The New Conservative Party”!

      1. Mary M.
        June 28, 2022

        Everhopeful, there’s a new Conservative Party waiting in the wings. It’s called Reform UK.

        Reform UK upholds genuine conservative values, and offers:

        Cheaper energy
        Lower taxes
        Secure borders
        Honesty & integrity.

      2. APL
        June 28, 2022

        Everhopeful: “JR almost said it… “The New Conservative Party”!”

        How about ‘The Real Conservative party’ ?

    2. glen cullen
      June 28, 2022

      The BBC reporting today on the red button that we can’t deport the ‘Rochdale grooming gangs as it ‘would interfere with their human rights’

      1. Fedupsoutherner
        June 28, 2022

        Glen. I see ‘The Master’ of one of these disgusting gangs has been allowed to stay in the UK and was given thousands of taxpayers money to fight his case using legal aid. I am appalled to think my taxes are being used this way. Deport them. We don’t need people like this amongst us. Two more men who were involved are also trying to get their deportation stopped.

      2. Mickey Taking
        June 28, 2022

        In a sane country they would have lost their ‘rights’.

  8. Sea_Warrior
    June 28, 2022

    This conservative has abstained – by spoiling my ballot-paper or voting for an Independent – at the last two local elections. It’s not a given that my too-far-to-the-left-on-social-issues MP will get my vote at the next general election. Cameron, May and Johnson have left me stranded – a political refugee in my own country. New leadership is needed – and PDQ.

    1. Sir Joe Soap
      June 28, 2022

      The answer is to vote for an Independent as you say.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        June 28, 2022

        I can see why Independents do well at the local level but voting for them at GEs is a more complex calculation.

        1. Mickey Taking
          June 28, 2022

          not complex it is simply being responsible . Re-elect cheating liars or give a person a chance instead of a political machine. Is that so difficult for you?

        2. glen cullen
          June 28, 2022

          Independent candidates has to find ten local people to sign and support him/her and fund (£500) the attempt themselves, and actually live in the constituency ….Main Party candidates have it easy with party agents doing it all for them

          Reply You do not have to live in the constituency. I collect my own signatures.

          1. glen cullen
            June 28, 2022

            I would never impugn your honour SirJ

          2. Mickey Taking
            June 29, 2022

            you don’t have to knock on many doors to get your 10…Wokingham has appreciated your tenure, and still will should you strike out as a lone voice.

    2. Shirley M
      June 28, 2022

      I would be interested in knowing the criteria for selecting ‘conservative’ candidates. There are far too many pro-EU, pro-socialist, pro-green, pro-eco-loon, pro-immigration candidates/MP’s and very few conservative ones. Is the party so desperate to recruit that they take 5th columnists, or is it some cunning plan? A name change for the party may be in order, else you may breach the Trade Descriptions Act like the LibDems.

      1. IanT
        June 28, 2022

        I’m sure the young lady who was put up in Honiton & Tiverton was very nice but she was clearly very much out of her depth, being a complete novice to the role. Perhaps no one else was willing to stand but the C&U Party didn’t look very serious about winning there quite frankly.

      2. forthurst
        June 28, 2022

        The candidates are selected by the foreign bankers that fund the Tory party. I know of a very good candidate,
        working class background but with a successful career involving good presentation skills who has never got on a short list with a cat in hells chance of victory despite loyally and actively supporting the party for many years. He campaigned for leaving the EU.

        1. Shirley M
          June 28, 2022

          “He campaigned for leaving the EU.”

          That’s probably where he went wrong. Wakefield had a CONS candidate who bragged about voting remain, and made disparaging remarks about Brexit … in Wakefield, a Leave voting area!

          The CONS continue with their stupidity and put some right idiots forward, don’t they!! They didn’t deserve to win!

      3. Everhopeful
        June 28, 2022

        +1
        I think it was to do with Cameron and his “Turnip Taliban” ( very rude) purge.
        It meant that local conservative committees ( or whatever) could not choose their candidate ie the more conservative decent candidates were screened out.
        Wokery took over the Tory party.

      4. Mark B
        June 28, 2022

        Well one criteria, at least from now on, is that you have to be a woman.

        1. Hope
          June 29, 2022

          Mark,
          Real or self declare will do?

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      June 28, 2022

      Sea Warrior. I suggest Andrew Bridgen. A true Brexiteer and a direct person full of common sense like our host.

  9. Pat
    June 28, 2022

    Good morning,

    A specific example of your point:

    Why is a grass roots industry, UK holiday lets, under constant and explicit attack by a Conservative government? The timing could not be worse considering the difficulty and covid risk of transiting through airports for foreign holidays.

    Making reasonable cost holiday accommodation in the UK available is to the benefit of both holidaymakers and local businesses, as well as providing it’s legion of small investors with income independent of the state, as long as they are willing to put in the work.

    Considering the Conservative party’s enthusiasm for ever increasing taxation to feed it’s Client State, and constant attacks on small business, a more honest slogan would be “Pulling up the Drawbrige”, rather than “Levelling Up”.

  10. Everhopeful
    June 28, 2022

    Lovely article!
    Exactly what one would wish to say to Johnson.
    Would the Telegraph run similar I wonder?
    That would be good.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 28, 2022

      I think it was extremely stupid of the Tories to obliterate the Right Wing.
      Thus adopting the dreadful quasi morality of the Left and making it very difficult to implement sensible policies.
      And to a point where the democracy they love to boast of is under threat.
      Political parties harassed by the police…we know where that comes from and where it leads.
      We see the main opposition party banned in Ukraine and presumably the govt. is uber comfortable with that?

      1. Mitchel
        June 28, 2022

        And the media in Ukraine is entirely a tool of government.Zelensky seems to spend all his time “doing media”;but what else is a puppet supposed to do?

        1. Everhopeful
          June 28, 2022

          +agree
          And wait until its strings are pulled!

        2. Mickey Taking
          June 28, 2022

          how else to rely on nations’ support? Would you rely on France in your time of need?

          1. Mitchel
            June 29, 2022

            This has been going on since before the war started.In whose interests is Zelensky working?

  11. Geoffrey Berg
    June 28, 2022

    John Redwood here sets out the ideological Agenda of what he wants and in general what I want and would do a lot of economic good and a little political good. However John was an Oxford University ‘don’ and I am a Cambridge University graduate and a very political one at that. Most voters in the streets, even ‘Blue Wall’ Conservative voters, probably just preferred Boris Johnson to Jeremy Corbyn personally. Additionally Brexit was the main issue though Jeremy Corbyn’s policies didn’t seem economically affordable nor credible to most.
    Unfortunately now the natural ‘man in the street’s’ reaction is to think living standards are falling and so they think they might as well spin the political roulette wheel and give the Opposition a chance. Changing the Conservative Leader will not change that dynamic.
    The only viable answer I can see is to show Labour and others are not just wrong but political lunatics, the Loony Left, not to be trusted, starting with some of their social policies.

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 28, 2022

      so the current social policies are fine with you Mr Cambridge graduate?. Hell ! whatever next.

      1. Geoffrey Berg
        June 28, 2022

        I would disagree (often as a matter of degree more than principle) with some current social policies but they and Conservative social policies are not lunatic whereas some of Labour’s policies lie beyond the realms of reason (e.g. immigration, curbs on free speech and transgenderism) and most people can readily understand that whereas most people find it much harder to understand the follies within leftwing economic policies.

  12. Brian Tomkinson
    June 28, 2022

    JR: “So what should the government do now to prove it has understood the message of the voters in recent elections? ”
    This government won’t do anything. They are the worst set of ministers in my lifetime. Conservative MPs had a chance to oust Johnson and fluffed it. The differences between parties in Westminster is only one of which is more left wing. We are disenfranchised. Mps know it and most don’t care. What purports to be our democracy is in the process of demolition.

    1. Shirley M
      June 28, 2022

      + many, Brian.

    2. Hope
      June 28, 2022

      12 years shows they have not listened but lie to get in office.

  13. Nigl
    June 28, 2022

    Get rid of a one man economy wrecker, Gove and Johnson, who is now toxic but in relation to your article has a chaotic work style, always ‘campaigning’ never following up to ensure things actually get done plus the poorest cabinet in decades all more worried about their jobs or future prime ministerial ambitions.

    Only his cloth eared acolytes bunkered down in SW1 believe any of his BS.

    We read Gove was blindsided by some green quango that has kibboshed billions of pounds worth of building schemes. ‘You’ really are useless.

    1. ukretired123
      June 28, 2022

      Yes Gove needs grilling on his business experience as he has blocked many key ideas to grow the and this needs urgently addressing Sir John.

      1. ukretired123
        June 28, 2022

        Grow the economy

  14. Iain Gill
    June 28, 2022

    misses the immigration issue, which is really a big deal.
    other than that well said.

    1. R.Grange
      June 28, 2022

      And the disastrous sanctions policy driving us into a recession was also missed. As long as Johnson’s critics don’t want to admit that, we won’t get out of this crisis.

    2. beresford
      June 28, 2022

      It makes you wonder if JR is like the rest of the political elite, who support mass immigration as long as it isn’t into an area near them, and who only suggest any restraint in order to head off any rebellion from the hoi polloi and gain votes at election time. Remember that it isn’t just the 100 000 illegals they are bringing in this year, there will be 400 000 legal immigrants and wheezes to encourage more. Even if this Rwanda scheme ‘took off’ only a small number of migrants would be removed.

    3. MWB
      June 28, 2022

      We can’t speak about immigration in England. Oh no.

    4. Nottingham Lad Himself
      June 28, 2022

      Capitalism wants cheap labour.

      This is the capitalists’ Very Own Party.

      Labour from Tajikistan and from Bangladesh is rather cheaper than that from the European union too, and less exigent as to conditions.

      1. Peter2
        June 28, 2022

        It was your beloved Labour Party that had an open door policy from 1997 onwards.
        They are the ones who love cheap labour.

        1. hefner
          June 30, 2022

          OK, fair enough, Labour opened the gates to immigration in 1997. Now tell me what has ‘your beloved Conservative Party’ been doing these last 12 years?
          You as a voter might or might not like immigration but tell me: who do you think is employing all the immigrants who have arrived in the UK since May 2010? Or are you going to provide a reference showing that all these people are in the shadow economy or are depending on benefits?
          How are you going to prove me that the successive Coalition and Conservative Governments do not ‘love cheap labour’, eh?

          1. Peter2
            June 30, 2022

            Linked as we were by Labour to the EU and ECJ and ECHR the ability to make real change in numbers who come here was greatly restricted since 1997 to 2020
            I am not against immigration as you so vaguely claim heffy with your traditional lefty reposte.
            Just a managed level where those that come here have somewhere to live, have a job to come to, have a doctor, dentist, a school for their children and an ability to become valuable UK citizens.
            And dont jump the queue.

    5. forthurst
      June 28, 2022

      The Tory Party is not concerned about immigration at all. It is only concerned about the Channel invasion because it demonstrates that the laws for which they are responsible prevent them from lawfully protecting our borders. Have you noticed that the Cabinet essentially represents a foreign occupation government?

      1. MWB
        June 28, 2022

        I for one have certainly noticed. Hardly an English person to be seen.

  15. Richard1
    June 28, 2022

    Fully agreed we do indeed need a new Conservative way forward. Sir John knows Boris Johnson personally, as other MPs do and most of the rest of us don’t. Based on what we see it’s most unlikely we will get a new way forward without a change at the top. It seems unlikely the conservatives will win the next election with this leftist policy drift and this leadership. You may as well make a change and at least try proper Conservative policies for a couple of years. At this point there’s nothing much to lose.

  16. The Prangwizard
    June 28, 2022

    Yawn, yawn. Nothing will change with dangerous Boris and his hangers on until near the date he decides the next GE will be held or when he feels under threat again. In the meantime his madness and arrogance will continue.

    While our nation continues on its route to ruin he can rely on loyalty no matter how the country collapes.

    During this time plans for us to rejoin the EU will be worked on by the party and maybe even himself. But tories who believe in brexit will stay with him and the party which is more important than our sovereigny, security and survival, particularly that of England which will be the nation sacrificed.

  17. a-tracy
    June 28, 2022

    Conservative MPs can have a vote on Boris’ leadership do you have a vote on Rishi Sunak and his policies?

    Your government needs to be honest if you have agreed with the UN, ECHR, EU etc that we will take x number of immigrants then tell people that rather than trying to sneak people in and allow them to stay even when their applications have failed. Just how many people in the UK process asylum seeker applications, and how many applicants are processed per day? Could we offshore them on one of these retired cruise boats whilst we process them? They could be allocated duties on the boat to keep the cost of living down such as cleaning, cooking, marshalling, and maintenance. When they learn sufficient skills they could become attractive to cruise and shipping companies for jobs, or get cooking, cleaning and caring vocational qualifications if they have none to use in other worthwhile occupations such as nursing onboard. Something has to be done because you are not building enough houses and apartments for everyone.

  18. Keith from Leeds
    June 28, 2022

    Hello Sir John,
    Your article today perfectly sums up the problem we all face. We voted for a conservative government which would cut taxes & control spending. Why then do we have a PM & Chancellor who seem to have no understanding of this?
    If you can articulate it so clearly, & most of the comments agree with you, why are you not in No 10 & No 11 thumping the table to get the message through?
    If you can’t do that what chance do we have?

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 28, 2022

      The majority of Tory MPs don’t see a cause for action.

  19. Mike Stallard
    June 28, 2022

    I have only just discovered that this (excellent) blog is still on the air. I read it is a comment in Conservative Home. Now back on my favourites list.

  20. Dave Andrews
    June 28, 2022

    What’s needed isn’t a change in direction by the present government; it’s a change of government, including the PM.
    The fact they have embarked on this high-tax, big state socialist path means they just aren’t adequate for the task.

  21. turboterrier
    June 28, 2022

    Feedback Sir John

    The layout to today’s post being in bold type I find brilliant. Put it down to my age but it was so easy to concentrate on the finer points being made.

  22. glen cullen
    June 28, 2022

    I can only add a couple of items that where excluded from todays diary
    *Initiate shale gas fracking immediately
    *Withdrawal from the Council of Europe ECHR immediately

    1. Mickey Taking
      June 28, 2022

      and the UN, and WHO.

  23. Donna
    June 28, 2022

    The Westminster Parties are so indistinguishable from each other that, allegedly, up to 6 “Conservative” MPs are in the process of defecting to the Labour Party.

    What we actually have is a Westminster Uni-Party, where the main policies are to all-intents and purposes identical. So (with a few exceptions, Sir John included) whether a candidate gets elected largely depends on the personality of the Party Leader. Those “Conservative” MPs have concluded that Starmer’s personality is going to be preferable to Johnson’s.

    Sir John is right: a Conservative offer is needed to recover lost votes, but I doubt if they would believe a more conservative offer made by Johnson. He’s a liar; he broken manifesto commitments and has demonstrated he’s not to be trusted.

    1. glen cullen
      June 28, 2022

      If 6 Tory MPs are Labour than the other 352 must be LibDem

  24. Christine
    June 28, 2022

    All good and sensible points you are making Sir John but you are missing the main one which is immigration and controlling our borders which are totally out of control. I did warn you that the lax way the points system was being implemented would lead to a huge influx of immigrants at the expense of our own people. Why train our own when businesses can import those already trained?

  25. Bryan Harris
    June 28, 2022

    The UK deserves better and can do better.

    Yes OH Yes

    Give us a real Conservative PM and we might again vote Tory — People with high calibre, morals and a passion for this country, like John Redwood, Steve Baker, Lord Frost ….

  26. Atlas
    June 28, 2022

    What you say is too true Sir John.

    Net Zero fanaticism is at the heart of many of our woes.
    Johnson says he wants to reign for ever and ever. I groaned when I heard that…

  27. acorn
    June 28, 2022

    The above was a party pollical broadcast on behalf of the Conservative Way Forward (CWF) rebel caucus within the Conservative party. Are there any right-wing outfits in the Conservative party, that are not chaired or founded by Steve Baker?

    I take it all the usual suspects will be there from the ERG; CRG; Constitutional Research Council; Conservatives for Britain; Global Warming Policy Foundation; Net Zero Watch; The Cobden Centre (Hayek/ Mises/ Thatcherism, known as Neoliberalism).

  28. turboterrier
    June 28, 2022

    This is why we are failing as a country. Courtesy of the Stop these things Web Site, I would suggest a must-read on a daily basis of all fellow politicians

    India and China Coal Production Surging By 700M Tons Per Year: That’s Greater Than All U.S. Coal Output
    Real Clear Energy
    Robert Bryce
    3 June 2022

    If you think the world is moving beyond coal, think again. The post-Covid economic rebound and surging electricity demand have resulted in big increases in coal prices and coal demand. Since January, the Newcastle benchmark price for coal has doubled. And over the past few weeks, China and India have announced plans to increase their domestic coal production by a combined total of 700 million tons per year. For perspective, US coal production this year will total about 600 million tons.

    The surge in coal demand in China and India – as well as in the U.S., where coal use jumped by 17% last year – demonstrates two things: that the Iron Law of Electricity has not been broken, Second, it shows that it is far easier to talk about cutting emissions than it is to achieve significant cuts.

    In April, China announced it will increase coal output by 300 million tons this year. Last month, India said it aims to increase domestic coal production by more than 400 million tons by the end of next year.

    Adding the 700 million tons of new coal that China and India will be mining to the amount they are now producing leads to some staggering numbers. By the end of next year, China will be producing about 4.4 billion tons of coal per year and India will be mining about 1.2 billion tons. Add those together and you get 5.6 billion tons of coal, which is more than 9 times the amount of coal that will be mined in the U.S. this year…………cont

    What is Boris going to give us more Turbines and Solar? Only any good when the wind blows but not too hard and the sun is shining. Complete and utter madness, You cannot make this up.

  29. APL
    June 28, 2022

    In the UK inflation has risen to 9.1%, energy prices are soaring, rumours of food shortages next year, and winter is coming, yet the UK government still refuses to by Russian oil, or fertilizer for agriculture.

    In short, the population can go cold and hungry this winter for all Johnson cares,in Boris Johnson’s opinion, ‘it is a price worth paying”. An easy decision to make, when you live in public funded accommodation and never have to look at an energy bill.

  30. Julian Flood
    June 28, 2022

    Sir John. the UK has two strategic weaknesses, food and energy. Addressing the second by fermenting wheat and maize is less than ideal. Onshore fracking will, in the end, be the solution as in an emergency all else is cast aside to keep the lights on — look at the German dash for lignite now their cosy deal with Russia has failed.
    The Hodder Bowland shle has huge quantities of a low CO2 (halfway to the hydrogen economy) which can save our industry, reduce household budgets and even power our cars, HGVs, trains and ships.
    Stop the nonsense of biofuels from food grains. Even poor quality grain can feed livestock and make UK meat competitive.
    Near here is a planned solar ‘farm’ that will cover four and a half square miles with solar panels. That land could be used for maize and, irrigated, wheat.

    Secure our food, secure our energy, then we can worry about a water grid and an extended gas grid. Build SMRs and cancel any EPRs. By 2050 we would find that we’d stumbled on a near Net Zero while we prospered along the way.

    JF

  31. DB
    June 28, 2022

    People don’t vote or not vote only for the reasons that Sir John sets out in this excellent article. They sometimes vote for moral reasons too. Friends have been saying to me for years, How could you vote for such a person as Boris Johnson? I have slowly come to see that they are right. I won’t repeat the charge sheet against him (it is a long one). But I have come to the view that it is not moral to use one’s vote in support of such a person. I won’t be voting Conservative again until he is gone. I have not felt this way, incidentally, about any previous Conservative leader, and I have been voting since 1983.

  32. acorn
    June 28, 2022

    BTW. It is worth a listen to the World Service programme “The Newsroom” https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172yl7r88qmkkq On the NATO/G7 meet. About eight minutes in.

    Boris wants to stop turning food crops into fuel and keep them as food. The US and Canada replied saying not going to do that Boris. Take note of the comments of Mario Draghi. If Ukraine loses it is going to be very hard to claim that the western form of democracy is an effective form of government.

    Putin knows he can reduce Ukraine to a pile of rubble and the NATO/G7 will still be flapping about like Peacocks, to impress home voters; promising everything; with their thumbs up their arses; kicking the proverbial can down the road. Putin knows that being “held to account for war crimes”, isn’t going to happen in his lifetime.

    Think about how the balance of power would be today if Ukraine hadn’t given its nuclear weapons arsenal back to the Russians in 1996 at the insistence of western states!

    1. Mitchel
      June 29, 2022

      The western form of democracy(ie representative democracy) is not democracy,it is oligarchy.See Robert Michels’ “Iron Law Of Oligarchy” from around a century ago.

      Tsar Alexander III also pointed out the danger to the nation state of this vote buying phenomenon to an American journalist in the late 19th century.

  33. glen cullen
    June 28, 2022

    Well nothing for a few days and today my petrol station has put up E10 petrol by 2p to £1.93

    Also I’d be more convinced with the climate crusaders if they’d told me the world was cooling….its like winters day out there

  34. Pauline Baxter
    June 28, 2022

    Well Yes Sir John.
    I’ve said before, maybe writing in Conservative Home WILL get you listened to.

  35. Original Richard
    June 28, 2022

    “When the Ukraine war added a further nasty twist to the inflationary spiral they expected the Chancellor to cut the VAT rates on electricity, gas, diesel and petrol, not to use it as an opportunity to tax us more on these necessities…….We could grow so much more for ourselves at a time of Russian induced shortage.”

    We’re going lose this war against Russia if we continue to allow his fifth column to cripple our economy using net zero, re-wilding and massive legal and illegal immigration.

    If Putin sent 200 unidentified young men of fighting age across the channel in small boats each day would our civil service led government look after them in 4 star hotels, give them £40/week pocket money and the complete freedom to roam our streets until they disappear?

    1. Mitchel
      June 29, 2022

      You’ve already lost;it was game over when China and Russia got together more than a decade ago.

  36. SM
    June 28, 2022

    Sir John – I find the new style typeface and small size + bold print virtually unreadable, and there is nothing wrong with my eyesight!

    Sans serif type is fine for slogans and headings, it is not designed for lengthy reading, however much web designers may like it.

    1. Genius
      June 29, 2022

      Who’s the genius who decided that this font and size were adequate?

  37. Everhopeful
    June 28, 2022

    Can anyone move to the migrant camp planned for Linton on Ouse?
    Locals thought they had halted our Terminator government.
    No such luck.
    It’s all going ahead. Paid for by you and me the camp will be provided with full NHS services, just for the migrants you understand. Work is already underway. Ready by the end of June it is claimed.
    GPs by the dozen, those rarities called dentists, opticians. The lot!
    How very nice.

  38. mancunius
    June 28, 2022

    “Now is the time to set out a bold strategy for freedom and growth. If we do this the voters will return. We need a new Conservative way forward.”
    I honestly think it is too late for ‘strategies for freedom and growth’ – we already had them in the 2019 manifesto, and voters will not return at the mere promise that some of those undertakings will be finally, er, undertaken.
    It is clear that on every important measure – the restoration of the Act of Union in NI, fishing rights, illegal and legal immigration, taxation, government debt, control of inflation, proper Canzuk free trade agreements, defence and the courts, the PM and Cabinet have behaved as if the UK were still umbilically attached to the EU’s protectionist snailtrail. Boris has form in promising and not delivering. As with Blair, as with Cameron, it is his only mode of operation.
    As you remark, the voters stay away when disgusted. I predict the next Lab-LibDem-SNP government will be elected on a 43% turnout. That it will have no democratic legitimacy will not worry Starmer one bit.

  39. XY
    June 29, 2022

    All as sensible as the first time I heard it – sadly, too long ago.

    Glad to see the article produced in full here, since I stopped reading ConHome some time ago.

    The site seems to practice what believe is called “passive censorship” whereby posts from people whose views they don’t like are not moderated out in any obvious way, instead they appear to post ok but then the post doesn’t appear.

    The author of the post would only be aware of this if they happen to check back, or to refresh the page.

    The current editor is a dyed-in-the-wool remainer, anti-Johnson and a friend to the disgraced cabal who were ejected from the Conservative Party by Johnson afer the Benn Act debacle. He has allowed David Gauke to become a regular poster, even allowing him to post as “David Gauke MP” for months after he was ejected and failed in his re-election bid s an independent. Similarly, Lidington has posted there, wets like Mitchell and even Hanna wrote a piece saying it was time his mate “old Gaukie” was “allowed back into the fold”. Without saying how or where.

    He also puts up regular pieces in favour of net zero, house-building for no reason other than tgo increase the number of peopel incentivised to vote Conservative and tolerates lefty troll accounts who add nothing to the debate and seek to wind up the true small-c conservatives who are exasperated with… almost everything from the awful govt to the state of the ConHome site and net zero nonsense.

    Is there some way you can influence some other site or editor to become the sounding board for conservatism? This guy is trashing the brand.

    1. a-tracy
      June 29, 2022

      I agree XY, I used to like reading Paul and I was a regular contributor to ConHome years ago but it lost its way now it just talks and listens to itself rather like the cabinet.

  40. Andreas Ossiander
    June 29, 2022

    They wanted to control our borders and greatly reduce immigration.

  41. Iain
    July 1, 2022

    Worst Government for years but I don’t agree with the “No better than Labour” argument. Labour will always find a way of making things worse.

    The biggest mystery to me is how the few true conservatives we have left can remain loyal to a party in such a state.

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