Conservative briefers are saying the party needs to be united to win the election. I have good news for them. Parties with plenty of internal rows  and disagreements always win, as the two main parties who usually win always  have MPs who disagree with the leadership. Today’s Labour party is badly split over Israel and the Middle East , over a faster move to net zero and over Rachel Reeves OBR austerity  economics but that has not stopped them doing well in opinion polls.
In the  last 50 years there have been two leaders who have won three elections in a row, a remarkable achievement. Margaret Thatcher did so despite facing continuous opposition from a significant group of MPs called the Wets. They regularly briefed disobliging comments about her personally as well as attacking her policies. They rebelled in Parliament on various measures. They put up a stalking horse candidate against her for leadership. They backed Heseltine as a replacement.He resigned from government to promote himself. She kept winning because she set out and enacted a clear vision of UK revival, economic growth and wider ownership.
Tony Blair kept winning despite facing many media stories of  his Chancellor’s disagreements and briefings from pro Brown people that wanted the  Chancellor to take over. He had to deal with a left wing group of MPs who thought he was not nearly  socialist enough. He persevered with the low tax rates the Conservatives left him and avoided recession . Eventually he was persuaded out before his Chancellor’s policies put us into a banking crash and deep recession.
If an election were a contest of who is the more united party Labour would be discovered as very split. The truth is millions of former Conservative voters are  undecided or currently saying they may stay at home or spoil their ballot paper or vote for someone who cannot win. They do not want a Labour government and see that Labour government would double up on those  very policies of this government that they do not like.
To win the Conservative leadership needs to do more things this group likes and voted for. Start with getting migration well down as now promised and cut back the woke state  to free money for more tax cuts. Let people make more of their own choices. Champion the big Conservative success of halving unemployment  and allowing so much job growth.
March 23, 2024
Good morning.
This is of no ones concern and will not influence people’s decision when it comes to voting.
Both Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair came into office on the back of of governments that were in total disarray. They both had a slice of luck in that, the opposition looked worse and was totally unelectable.
Today I see parallels between 1979 and 1997.
March 23, 2024
At least with Thatcher and Bliar they were credible candidates. The choice between red tories and liebour offers no choice.
Another win for the eco fascists, train making at Derby finishes after 150 years. Never mind Alston cab move the equipment to France and manufacture there.
Reform offers the only credible choice as neither you or Starmergeddon have any answers or will to get anything done besides tax and waste.
March 23, 2024
JR, is this the best you can do? No success stories asked on your successive manifestos after 14 years, but lies to get in office. Tell us about your partyâs betrayal stories ie balanced structural deficit by 2015 abandoned, highest taxation since war- always lying about low tax, sort out civil service x3- never done, stop EU interfering in UK law- Sunak just implemented more EU equality law instead of scrapping 4,000 laws, set a bonfire to get rid of quangos instead of implementing EU regs and rules, give away fishing waters, give away N.Ireland and use it to force lock step to EU against public mandate to leave, public services dire- all about themselves work from home woke rot etc etc. Destroy manufacturing and move jobs through nut stupid to China, India (while agreeing to mass immigration and give them both foreign aid!) against national security to retain high skilled employees, immigration to rid us of our nation state, way of life and culture forcing white British people to be last in every queue.
Uni party Consocialists used to EU ruling and their job to mange what they are told to do hiding behind quangos to deflect true responsibility of governing.
Just get your party out JR. You might have promised to support your party but the country should come first and the endless breaches of promises your party and govt have made should have absolved you from any promise to your party! Get real.
March 23, 2024
Brilliant summary.
I believe most people are naturally conservative, meaning they know it is necessary to live within your means, take care of family, provide education and security, all on a budget. politeness, respect and concern for others are what knits a society together. when the Big State start moving into these areas and tries to run/control it all for us, at a price, we know the inevitable outcome is socialism failure. We no longer have a middle-right Conservative Party, the present PCP is left of where Bliar was! There is no party other than Reform for the natural conservative voter.
March 23, 2024
I’m still waiting for the brexit benefit ….when are we going to leave the EU
March 23, 2024
True – but I thought we voted for Conservative policies?
extract from ‘I am waiting ‘ Rolling Stones 1966
Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere
See it come along and
Don’t know where it’s from
Oh, yes you will find out
Well, it happens all the time
It’s censored from our minds
You’ll find out
Slow or fast, slow or fast
Oh yeah, oh yeah
End at last, end at last
Oh yeah, oh yeah
Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere
Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere
Stand up coming years
And escalation fears
Oh, yes we will find out
Well, like a withered stone
Fears will pierce your bones
You’ll find out
Oh we’re waiting, oh we’re waiting
Oh yeah, oh yeah
March 23, 2024
We seem to be moving surreptitiously in the other direction, Glen.
March 23, 2024
Hope, +++++++++
March 23, 2024
+1 they haven’t failed. They blatantly lied to get elected on 3 occasions and then imposed the Junta which has no mandate for “the Plan” Sunak keeps wittering-on about.
You can only disrespect and blatantly betray your core electorate so many times and get away with it. When the trust is gone it won’t be coming back any time soon.
March 23, 2024
+1
March 23, 2024
+1
March 23, 2024
@Ian wragg – that Conservative policy offshore all manufacturing, supported by always give taxpayer money to those that play away
March 23, 2024
IW, Why should Alstom not leave Derby? Why such a surprise? A reduced HS2 might not need so many new trains. And after all Alstom is a French company.,
Funny that people opposed to HS2 cannot see the link.
March 24, 2024
Are there no trains in other parts of the world?
Or can Alstom uk only compete in rigged markets?
Either way questions to be asked.
March 23, 2024
It might make some Labour voters from a particular minority switch to supporting Galloway’s latest Party.
March 23, 2024
Sir John,
I agree that there is always debate within parties about policies and goals. That has got to be healthy for a party.
All parties want similar things and, in reality, it’s the way those goals are achieved that illustrates the normal way the differing parties operate. For example, normally socialists want to take from the rich and give that money to the poorer in society whereas, Conservatives prefer people earn their own money and keep more of it in order to make their own decisions.
What I as a lifelong Conservative object to, is the so called Conservative Party of today is presiding over the highest levels of taxation ever, and seem to be allowing fundamentally socialist ideology to rule the major decisions the government make.
We as a nation had a great opportunity to go our own way and sadly, we blew it.
What really seals our nation’s fate is that we’ve allowed the so called woke agenda to dominate our education system, or our indoctrination system as I prefer to call it. Our young are being educated to be good little woke socialists and that is being reinforced by our woke media.
March 23, 2024
I agree except it wasn’t us who blew the opportunity to go our own way. The Treacherous Tories did it.
March 23, 2024
Ditch net zero, get immigration down to the tens of thousands, take advantage of Brexit freedoms, cut government waste, halve the size of government, stop saying you have cut taxes when they are still going up, apologise to the house for lying that âthe Covid vaccines are safeâ, allow Lea Anderson & Andrew Bridgen back in to the party (he was just telling the obvious truth) but probably does. ot want to come back anyway, cut all the woke, diversity and green crap expenditure and waste, change the NHS to a sensible system, stop paying people to encourage them not to work, go for easy hire and fire, change deluded head boy Sunak for a proper and honest leader, ditch the Windsor Accord, stop blocking the roads and mugging motorists, stop Goveâs moronic war on Landlords, cut and simplify taxes hugely, make work pay⊠In short full U-turns on every policy.
March 23, 2024
The Blair Brown Era was an appalling disaster pointless wars on lies, the devolution disaster, the one way US extradition act, the climate change act⊠nothing positive at all.
Even Thatcher, the best PM in my lifetime, fell for climate alarmism, buried us further into the dire EU, killed many good grammar schools, failed to cut the state back sufficiently, failed to change the absurd NHS stuctures, appointed the foolish John Major and even let him join the ERMâŠ
March 23, 2024
LL,
Devolution It was for the EU to regionalise/Balkanise our country into regions to divide and rule easier. Hence HS2, quangos, why Tories currently still imposing mayors and regional agenda. Since Major the EU infrastructure plan of inter dependence continues to become one EU state divided into regions.
JR, good a person as he might be, has allowed it. Putting party before country. JR and chums has allowed the destruction of our country to happen with inside knowledge and chose his lying left party to deceive the public. We are now in a worse state in every regard 14 years after his party came to office. The public cannot tolerate any more lies, failure and deceit.
Reply I did not put party before country and have been critical of the party when needed. I was right to stay with the Conservatives to secure a referendum and Brexit. UKIP could not win. I promised my electors in 2019 I would be a Conservative MP if elected. I keep my word.
March 23, 2024
reply to reply… well you might feel like a Conservative MP, but ‘we the people’ look and can’t find many on those green benches. You sound like the only one bailing from a flooded sinking boat with 50 heavy men in it.
March 23, 2024
To reply I agree. But what a depressing mess the Consocialists have given us now.
March 23, 2024
Depressing indeed and Mr Moore’s article of 07 Feb (DT) highlights the perhaps depressing fact that the NHS became the first health system to embed net zero into legislation through the Health and Care Act 2022. As he points out too, an example given by a front line hospital doctor having to deal with being bombarded with endless emails – diversity, LGBTQ+ network / month identity spam but that being nothing compared with the mountain of material about decarbonisation flowing from hospital trusts, royal colleges and NHS leaders. Madness.
March 23, 2024
Diane.
Madness indeed, the deluded move to electric ambulances by X date will cost millions more to buy and far more run and will kill thousands of patients too.
March 24, 2024
Diane, the NHS does not have the power to pass laws. That was the Tories woke agenda again. They could stop all this if they wanted to and kick out the people responsible, but they are fully signed up to Woke, Nut Zero and all the other socialist ills we face.
March 23, 2024
You would remain a Conservative MP in the Reform Party
March 23, 2024
SirJ, you’re a million miles away from Sunak & Hunt …and a million miles better MP
March 23, 2024
Reply to reply, Brexit referendum was secured before May election in 2017 we had two more elections since then plus a couple of unelected.
As above any promise absolved by May and Sunakâs deliberate failure to deliver Brexit. Perhaps you forget the rogue parliament under May, or the betrayal under Sunak.
Sunak claimed he would implement the 2019 manifesto. Tell us his conservative successes? Then tell us about his betrayal of Brexit, betrayal on mass immigration, taxation, debt, debt interest? What promise were you mirroring Sunak from the manifesto? Your party and govt are neither conservative or unionists.
March 23, 2024
Every vote was critical in getting a fair referendum (there were victories like no yes/no question) and even more critical to stave off the horrors of Theresa Mayâs proposals.
Nobody in UKIP could contribute.
March 24, 2024
Like Brown May slid off at night to do he dirty dealing with the EU. If it was not for Farage, EU voting and local elections Treacherous May would still be in office with a minority fringe carping about he rotten deal! May could not beat Corbyn and used DUP to gain office only to backstab them! Sunak finished off her treacherous behaviour by his EU sell out where we were told by Tories no British PM would put a border down the sea or allow goods to be checked from one part of our country to another! Sun through Heaton-Harris, cut the pay of DUP MPs and used ever trick to coerce bribe and threaten them to accept EU rule- the Tories have the effing cheek to talk about Russia and Ukraine, of no strategic use or purpose to our country whatsoever, but happy to sell our country out as a vassal state without a cross word! Did they forget the threat to cut off electric, stop PPE coming here, stop gene therapy jabs coming here from hostile EU?
March 23, 2024
I like reading the comments on here. But, boy, do you never take a day off from cutting and pasting stuff you have said, quite literally, a thousand times before. I read the first couple of lines of your comments and think âblah, blahâ and skip to the next one. Are you a bot?
March 23, 2024
Another one for you. The number of long term sick has risen from 2.1m to 2.8m. This seeming to time with the âsafe and effectiveâ Covid Vaccines roll out. Perhaps just another a coincidence but unlikely? Andrew Bridgen pointed this out in the house and got a rather pathetic answer from the Minister. Who surely must know the truth of the position either that or (negligently) he has not bothered to find out? Very easy for the ONS and NHS to get to the facts but clearly more interested in burying this it seems. What % of these extra people were vaccinated? This would be a good starting point.
See the latest Dr John Campbell video.
March 23, 2024
Maybe this is the reason unemployment has gone down. So many people are on long-term sick. One of the problems with furlough and working from home is it has made people lazy and entitled. The benefit system is far too generous. So many people are working part-time. I know many youngsters who choose to work fewer hours. If people work longer hours and retire later they are penalised by high taxes, care home fees and inheritance tax. This government has removed the incentive to work hard and save.
March 23, 2024
+1
March 23, 2024
+2
March 23, 2024
Well it is all true.
March 23, 2024
But donât you ever get fed up of listing the same stuff, day after day, sometimes 5 times a day. What on earth do you get out of it?
March 23, 2024
He has to keep saying the same things just like Sir John does as nobody seems to be doing anything to fix the glaring problems this government is inflicting on the British people.
March 23, 2024
Christine, ++++ quite right, and keep plugging away, LL, so many obvious points you make and the Government seems unaware of any of them, and, oh, I do look forward to its demise, regardless of what follows, and I have lived through many of the aberrations.
March 24, 2024
They are aware but do not care because Labour will continue in exactly the same way to act in lock step to EU keep tying UK to EU so it cannot diverge, be more competitive, or diverge in any meaningful way. Different cheeks of the same arse.
March 23, 2024
Repetition is an inherent problem with a daily blog on politics, as it is for those who comment daily.
I try to avoid repetition except on the topic ‘Sunak must be replaced’ which I find multiple different reasons for advocating. In respect of this blog I rather disagree with Sir John Redwood. Though Starmer is an obstacle very many 2019 Conservative voters will switch to Labour if Sunak is still Leader. Most voters don’t see things in the highly ideological way Sir John, most M.P.s and indeed I see politics. They don’t really understand the shortcomings of Socialism, let alone the strengths of Capitalism. They look at the record and policies of the major parties but they also look at, as one would in a job interview, the qualities of the two main Party Leaders.
Starmer is not attractive to most voters but Sunak is worse, neither charismatic nor credible, which is absolutely why Sunak must be replaced. Although practically anybody would be better than Sunak, the problem Mordaunt (or Liam Fox who would be better) would have is they are not forceful enough to avoid being dragged down considerably by the record of the Conservative Party. Of current Conservative M.P.s so far as I can see only Suella Braverman is forceful and different enough to avoid that and make the overriding issue not the Conservative Party but her and her beliefs which is now the only sort of election the Conservative Party has much chance of winning.
March 23, 2024
GB, +++, and nicely put, thank you. Courage, clarity and brevity from Suella would help enormously, but, alas, I have no faith at all in the body of MPs who would require to accept and follow her leadership.
March 23, 2024
Agree 100%
With special emphasis on wokery in the workplace.
All that utter nonsense makes the working day undoable.
And many, at the first opportunity, fled from their personal Hell.
They had us so much under the thumb that they made us wear masks!!
Wonder is they didn’t hobble us too.
March 23, 2024
To cut down the woke jobs, you need to rewrite the Equality Act. Remove the vicarious liability aspect and introduce a fee for employment tribunals. Look at the cases the tribunals deal with, the judges spend all day every day dismissing nonsense from chancers. There is major nuisance to employers behind all this.
March 23, 2024
Sunak just implemented ECJ ruling on equality through EU legislation into domestic legislation against the pledge to scrap 4,000 EU laws. Quangos in place to ensure EU compliance to rules and regs.
March 23, 2024
Best wished to Kate at least she will get prompt and the best treatments. We should use this time to sort out the appalling NHS treatment which has failry dire cancer outcomes and large delays. See Dr Karol Sicora’s sensible suggestions.
Lots of indications the Covid vaccines have caused extra heart and indeed additional cancer treatment demands.
March 23, 2024
You have been a victim of your success on the jobs issue. However, many of the jobs created are low-paying and need better employment conditions. They are unattractive to the locals but generous enough to attract people from other countries. Starting new employment or working as a self-employed person involves much bureaucracy. Moving around the country to take up a new position is taxed and costly.
The result is the pressures of population growth, with no benefits from lower welfare costs.
MPs like the low-cost labour model, which restricts your ability to address this problem.
We agree that attempts to address this have been half-hearted. However, restricting immigration is only half of the solution. How will you deal with the resulting demand for low-skilled workers and get people already living here into employment?
March 23, 2024
On the other hand there is some idea that immigration is more to do with the strange concept of âlow fertilityâ.
Falling birth rates totally caused by govt.s since the 1950s. How sensible to tell folk to limit their families just after two world wars!! Plus other social engineering.
So now the idiots think they need a new breeding strain.
Replacements.
Apparently. Allegedly.
March 23, 2024
For a higher birth rate we need to be importing young women, not young men.
March 23, 2024
We shouldn’t manage the size of the population …our state needs to stop acting like god, fixing the climate, fuxing the population, fixing how we travel etc etc
March 23, 2024
GC, +++++ so right, and what a clever typo !!
March 23, 2024
They will arrive in due time, mark my words.
March 23, 2024
Just repeating a theory Iâve read.
Maybe itâs cheap workers? Some areas in the U.K. about 25% economically inactive and on benefits.
HMRC doing NOTHING to get people back into work.
Maybe a compliant fighting force?
Maybe simply taking in those who CAN escape from a war torn or poor place?
Maybe to dilute and destroy our lives and culture?
Maybe the rubbish we have signed up to?
The only two certainties are that we no longer have a functioning country and that nobody is going to tell us the truth about what the powers that be are up to!
March 23, 2024
Once the men have their asylum claims granted they can bring in their families free of charge (see gov.uk). They are given priority on the housing lists and can claim benefits straight away. If a British person wants to bring in a spouse or partner it costs them thousands, they have to be earning above a certain level, and they can’t claim benefits. This is why many choose the asylum route rather than apply for a work visa. Soft touch Britain strikes again.
March 23, 2024
The ‘right to family life’ ….ECHRs
March 23, 2024
I have read that under United Nations law anyone who gets within 20 miles of our coast is entitled to free FOUR STAR hotel accommodation and a right to transition thrir sex. Why do We have to pay for all of thus? I listen to R Tice and N Farage and i ask, why are they not in charge instead of Sunak?
March 23, 2024
They will follow.
March 23, 2024
UK immigration is more to do with balancing the successful west vs the east in disarray, by destroying the success bit!
March 23, 2024
Well if you have 750k net immigration then some of them will surely get jobs, will they not?
March 23, 2024
My point is that if you restrict immigration, you will then get employers complaining of labour shortages. You need to deal with this problem as well.
March 23, 2024
I thought AI was going to take over all our jobs.
March 23, 2024
Would that be unscrupulous employers âŠ..thereâs over a 1.4 million unemployed, we don’t need immigration, we need employers to pay a fair pay for a fair days work
March 23, 2024
They mean labour shortages at the low wage rates they wish to pay.
March 23, 2024
It’s not so much low wage policies the MPs like, but high cost of living. Increasing wages just makes British industry less competitive. Lowering cost of living and reducing the tax burden is what industry needs. Higher wages isn’t the only way to improve workers’ wellbeing. Cost of living could be reduced by having less competition for housing from foreign buyers and wealthy people with second homes, but the government likes expensive housing with foreign buyers bring in currency and the stamp duty income on all sales.
March 23, 2024
Higher wages can be achieved by incentivising workers to be more productive. There will be less competition for housing by not increasing the number of people needing it and improving supply by building more.
March 23, 2024
Fundamentally Sir JR, todays piece tells everything that is wrong with government/two-party system in the UK. The lot of you spend more time fighting, bickering and point scoring. When you are supposed to be governing the country.
March 23, 2024
The underlying message from today is the Uni Party say we can only chose Red or Blue/Green One Nation Liberal Uni Party as the other choice will let the other in. No, no, no, no. Every journey starts with a first step. We want and need radical change from a failed Uni Party ( list Life Logics at this point). The Tory’s simply refuse to do what we want, in fact the reverse. They know what conservative voters want on all types of immigration, taxes, woke bs, placement of left wing leaders in health, emergency services, public services, removal of quangos, time limited welfare, nut zero and its huge implications in costs and our economy etc etc. So your Party has had its chance and failed. It will not change so we will give Reform a chance to deliver CONSERVATIVE policies.
March 23, 2024
Timeaction, ++++++++. You repeat the advice of LL, and you state it well, but there is a deep seated perversity or stupidity to be overcome, and please, may you succeed.
March 23, 2024
I am now on a twelve coach train from Cambridge heading for Brighton via Gatwick, capable of carrying perhaps 1200 people. Two staff it seems and two passengers on it currently. All 12 carriages nice and warm heated by electricity (and not even using heat pumps it seems). Do these government experts and the deluded dopes at the climate change committee really think trains are more CO2 efficient than a small car or a mini bus? Perhaps if they regularly had 1200 people who wanted to do this journey at 6.00 am but this does not happen very often. It happens less and less as people work from home more and more. Also as train fairs get prohibitively expensive.
Oh five more got on at Royston one with a bike, so seven now, nearly two warm carriages for each person.
March 23, 2024
No passengers on or off at all at the next stop Ashwell & Morden. Seats rather hard and upright too.
March 23, 2024
The two things you mentioned, immigration and taxes, would be vote winners if something was actually done about them, and it was not all talk.
Illegal immigration continues to rise despite all the promises – over 500 in one day this week. This has continued for months, and it is obvious that the government has no idea what to do about it.
Taxes are the highest for many years. The Government has cut NI, but done nothing about Income Tax. I am still paying full whack at 84, and I bitterly resent it. I am not rich, I have just been prudent, paying my own way, and a fat lot of good it has done me!
Labour will continue in the same vein, so people are losing hope, and I believe many will not vote. The Parties have only themselves to blame.
March 23, 2024
+1 Cheshire Girl. And even if they started doing something now about immigration and taxes, who would be dumb enough to believe that it would continue after election day.
March 23, 2024
We’ve had 14 years of promises but NO delivery at all. Einstein madness rule applies for voting One Nation Liberal Tory’s.
March 23, 2024
I have often wondered what would happen if..sayâŠonly 3 people in the country were prepared to vote.
Would the election be declared null and void? Is there an official minimum?
Depending on how the votes were cast first past the post might still pertain?
But what a waste of all those spoiled/witheld votes.
Oh goodnessâŠweâd just get another coalitionâŠthe source of so many present woes!
March 23, 2024
or even a 3-way tie? We could see 10,000 for each of Tory, Labour, Libdem – but probably Reform not Libdem.
30,000 votes from an Electorate of perhaps 80,000!
March 23, 2024
Talk and broken promises is all we get. Plus the âwe have cut taxes and the Covid vaccines are unequivocally safeâ lies!
March 23, 2024
C G, +++++
March 23, 2024
I apologise for the length of this post. I would hope any politician reading this will realise why you need to get rid of Rishi immediately.
Thatcher lost because the narrative of cuts to Government services won out. Her problem was focusing too much on wealth and not enough on the families who didnât want wealth but wanted a larger health and education system.
Her deputy chancellor took over, but because he was grey and invisible, he was politically weak handling the EU and ERM and lost control.
Blair was overtaken by small events caused by his constitutional changes. 20 years ago I discovered a well known imaging software tool and used to supply Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes with what people today would call memes. You could call me the first political meme writer. I used to knock them up on the commute up to the City. Brown persuaded him it was his âturnâ and briefed against Blair. When Brown took over he became invisible and lost control. I remember creating memes called called âwhereâs Gordonâ. Iain told me Brown thought my memes were winning the political narrative and cursing me. When Cameron won I stopped.
Brownâs lax City regulation caused his downfall. Brown never understood the City despite him bigging up his intellect. He ended up deferring to Goldmans who ironically created the credit derivative mess but got out a few months before it blew up.
Cameron was a mediocre PR man, with few ideas, Boris was a better PR man with but literally no idea what to do when he got into power. Both could win elections. What did Cameron in was the EU project had advanced without taking the British voters with it. What did May and Boris in was the liberal minded âBlobâ filling in both their vacuum of ideas with major policies of Mass Migration, NetZero, Woke ideas and Authoritarianism. None of which were ever voted for.
Finally we get Rishi who is not a PR man. He canât win elections. He is also not politically strong and has no political ideas, only technical ones, and has not reversed the take over by the unelected blob. Rishi has all the weaknesses of his predecessors but none of the strengths. As you have documented he doesnât even understand the current stealthy fiscal policy of selling bonds created by the bank he used to work for. The country is run by the globalist blob not the Conservative party. I donât expect that to change under Labour.
My political instinct is that Labour are the heir to Rishi because they too will defer to the blob. There is a small fork in the road, to the right, which leads back to real democracy but itâs closing very fast.
March 23, 2024
@ Javelin “The country is run by the globalist blob not the Conservative party.”
That’s what I mean when I say, the globalism needs to be smashed at Government level! Take back control of running the country, for the benefit of the country! It’s a mammoth task, particularly as the long march through the organisation’s sleepers have risen up and are unashamedly doing their woke will. And the mammoth immigration problem, that is changing the face of our country, urgently needs sorting out!
If anyone can win this war on the enemy within, Britain can, if we can’t, no-one can! But we need very strong leadership!
March 23, 2024
The fork to the right already being cut off with Blob challenging GBNews. An outlet which is becoming too popular and sucking in erstwhile symbols of the right who’ve been constrained within a lefty Tory party. It’s starting to become obvious that voting either Lab, Con or Libdem will lead to similar outcomes along the lines you’ve described. The clear alternative is in sight but at the same time risks being killed off as was UKIP. That’s probably why Farage is keeping head down right now.
March 23, 2024
The historical analysis above is accurate. Unfortunately for the Conservatives, this will not prevent a defeat in the Jan 2025 election of monumental proportions.
Tactical voting in constituencies where the electorate are determined to punish the Tories for their incompetent response to the pandemic, partygate, the state of the NHS, watering down the net zero commitments – and their personal dislike of Sunak – will result in a huge Labour majority, with the Lib Dems also picking up many seats
Many Tory voters will transfer their allegiance to Reform, the anti-net zero landlords party. This will gift Labour/Lib Dem at least an extra 40 seats. Reform will achieve zero seats, but may save their deposit in a handful of constituencies. Expect the right of the party to be wiped out
The longer Sunak delays the election, the worse will be the result for the Tories.
March 23, 2024
Watering down net zero which they haven’t done would be a massive vote winner for any party especially Reform.
March 23, 2024
Not a single line of net-zero has been repealed
March 23, 2024
Just ditch it and reverse all the daft net zero agenda already in place.
March 23, 2024
Reform, âthe anti-net zero landlords partyâ as you call them are also for far less immigration, lower taxes, deregulation and far less government. The policies the country clearly needs. I would not call them the landlords party but they are sensibly against Socialist Goveâs and the parties idiotic and counterproductive war on landlords. Also against their moronic war and the road blocking endless mugging of motorists.
All sensible policies but alas with FPTP voting we are doomed to suffer Labour.
March 23, 2024
Reform is the tenants’ party. Leaving the rental market to large corporate landlords will leave tenants with less choice. Killing private landlords with regulation and more tax will increase tenants’ costs and frankly leave less money for maintenance by landlords.
March 23, 2024
Exactly.
March 23, 2024
SG, a November 2021 Ipsos poll found that a majority of the public (52%) thought the Johnson government’s response to the Covid crisis was either ‘too strict’ or ‘about right’. Only 36% criticised it for being ‘not strict enough’, i.e. they agreed with your and the Labour party’s narrative of incompetent handling of the crisis. A few months earlier, a huge majority thought the government had done a good job in promoting mass vaccination against Covid. OK, that figure may well have gone down a bit now as the truth about the Covid injections becomes better known. Still, I don’t see any evidence for mass public condemnation of the Johnson government’s *competence*. I do see polling figures showing huge public anger at certain ministers’ hypocrisy, in ignoring the rules they were inflicting on the rest of us, but that’s a different issue.
March 23, 2024
LL,
Waterloo station was deserted last night around 6:30 pm. In the old days it would be jam packed. Probably due to working from home and employees staying away on Friday.
However the Tube was jam packed. Camden Town underground was the same. People going for a night out.
You just got lucky on a train you are on. Itâs better than having to stand or sit on the train floor which affects other routes.
March 23, 2024
Average occupancy on public transport over the whole is generally surprisingly low. People get the wrong impression as they obviously tend to catch the full ones a huge sampling error. 70 on the bus see it full on two on the bus see it nearly empty.
March 23, 2024
Buses in London are usually full even on weekends. It is increasingly difficult to drive and park a car.
March 23, 2024
No they are not the ones you tend to catch are perhaps.
March 23, 2024
LL,
Waterloo station was deserted last night around 6:30 pm. In the old days it would be jam packed. Probably due to working from home and employees staying away on Friday.
However the Tube was jam packed. Camden Town underground was the same. People going for a night out.
You just got lucky on a train you are on. Itâs better than having to stand or sit on the train floor which affects other routes.
March 23, 2024
LL,
I live in London and am therefore better placed to observe the numbers of London buses than you -whether or not I am a passenger on each bus or not.
March 23, 2024
Numbers of passengers on buses
Not number of buses.
March 23, 2024
You perhaps have not followed my statistical maths sampling error comment. If you sample the bus occupancy from depot to depot all day as say the driver you often tend to get occupancy averages of under ten. Yes the buses most people catch esp. in rush hour may well be rather full but on a full day in and out of town no so. 90 people on one bus sample it and say it had 80 people on another three empty buses but no passengers to say they were all empty. Average occupancy of the four buses 20 but average answer from the passengers gives you the wrong answer of 80? Ask the drivers you get 20 the right answer.
March 23, 2024
If voters actually voted for who they really, really want (spicegirls) instead of being fearful of the outcome – they might not get the fearful outcome!
March 23, 2024
Apparently Liz T and JRM lobbied the PM to do something about the âextreme Leftâ and to stop appeasing them.
THAT alone would go some way to garnering a few votes.
March 23, 2024
John’s party is woke, which explains why our nation is now a woke shit-hole and that state power is now unlimited.
Try passing laws to guarantee absolute free-speech and the right to offend rather than appointing woke Czars to police speech.
Take the side of freedom rather than pandering to progressive totalitarianism for an easy life.
The Tory party is captured and that means a dark future for us all
March 23, 2024
Only if we vote for them.
March 23, 2024
What we are watching is the dismantling of the West and its institutions and culture.
Just ask what can and can not be criticised and what can be ridiculed and denigrated.
It has been done from withinâŠChurch, Armed forces, Royalty, Education, Healthcare and others all infested from the inside out.
The people now suffering are precisely those who have always suffered and whose loyalty and obedience has been manipulated and used against them for their own destruction.
And strangely, many who have risen up in and benefitted from our magnificent heritage ( when it was so) have sat on their hands and done absolutely nothing.
Probably with an eye to the short term main chance.
A bit like taking out equity release on your house or selling off bits of your garden.
March 23, 2024
â To win the Conservative leadership needs to do more things this group likes and voted for. â
Failure to address issues for which they were elected, after so long in power, means Conservatives have no credibility now.
Promises of jam tomorrow are no good and nothing will happen between now and a general election to change that. Most know defeat is inevitable. A few voice Mr. Micawberâs idea that âsomething will turn upâ.
March 23, 2024
To win you might try truly representing those whom you purport to serve instead of a globalist cabal and their agenda. All of the main parties fail this test.
March 23, 2024
Yes, but not all parties Brian.
The current PM needs to be united with the people. It is he -who is split from them.
Voters see his recurring errors and want shot of him.
He attempts feebly to distract voters with his tortuous smile.
His ability is limited to selecting and uttering at haste three pre-prepared things he thinks he has done well: in defence of each error when challenged. That is unconvincing, worthy only of a trained parrot.
As Nigel Farage told SJR in an interview: Claiming that Labour would be even worse is no reason to vote Conservative.
People should support the best, not the better of two worse, even if the best takes longer to achieve.
March 23, 2024
+1
March 23, 2024
There is no Conservative leadership with the charisma or will to drive through Conservative thinking. There is minimal Conservative support in the Commons. If you look upon conservative as an adjective describing a philosophy it still thrives in the country among electors. Those who recognise the betrayal of the country by those who engineered Brexit as a waiting room. The detail we all know, so beyond the repeated debacle of Northern Ireland I will not boor you.
Conservatism does not build a society in which 20,000,000 are in receipt of hand outs, principally because all their other policy decisions drive people to a financial edge. The business model, I suspect driven by EU pressure when we belonged, relating to energy cost is a prime example. Only a malign government in possesion of its own three fuel sources could dictate we suffer the most expensive energy in the western world. I have no idea of the politics of the Norwegian government but compare how they organised the benefit of having their own energy sources. The UK agreement to being taxed for importing energy and things we no longer manufacture is a classic example of UK government malignancy at EU behest.
Conservatism does not open the country’s doors to 1,200,000 immigrants a year, destroying the culture and infrastructure of the UK, just because its government will not train its own medical staff and industry demands cheap labour while failing to train its own. Such policy fails to find sympathetic space for genuine, in fear of their lives, asylum seekers, as is our tradition.
Conservatism is not in bed with woke, diversity and gender proliferation. Our government has allowed these cancers to run rife throughout society.
Conservatism does not tax individuals and enterprise at current levels to fund vanity and everlasting incompetence, much of which is run by an out of control and out of office civil service.
Conservatism does not allow the systematic destruction through neglect of the UKs infrastructure. What the Victorians gave birth to, your government have changed into an abandoned orphan.
Much as we might respect you as an individual, you are excusing and espousing a lost cause. If you believe this government is anything more than consocialists clutching at the label Conservative because it once meant something, you are misguided.
March 23, 2024
Excellent.
Sadly JR knows all this and still puts party above country.
March 23, 2024
Well said.
March 23, 2024
Yes, all sadly true AG.
I shall be voting for Sir John but I’ve really given up on his Government
March 23, 2024
+1 We don’t have Capitalism. We’re being subjected to Mussolini’s version of Fascism, aka Corporatism. “Mussolini famously said, “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power.” That’s what the WEF is.
March 23, 2024
agricola :
Agreed.
March 23, 2024
Spot On
March 23, 2024
Agricola, +++++ well stated , thank you
March 23, 2024
So where was the demand for unity when the LibCONs forced Truss out of Office?
A demand for unity, when the Party is at 19% in the latest YouGov Poll, is basically a demand for those who are pointing out the manifold failures of the Sunak/Hunt/Bailey Junta (including our host) to SFU. That’s the last thing they should do.
The Not-a-Conservative-Party has deliberately squandered the 80-seat majority given them by a united Conservative/conservative Brexit-supporting electorate. How dare the LibCONs demand unity when they have so comprehensively betrayed us.
March 23, 2024
Donna,
Still no answer why Sunak did not ensure market stability when Truss took over. What did he say and do with Treasury and BOE?
March 23, 2024
Fully agree Donna
March 23, 2024
SG,
âThe longer Sunak delays the election, the worse will be the result for the Tories.â
But 2025 will show a longer term in the top job on Sunakâs CV than 2024. It will also tide MPs over Christmas.
March 23, 2024
People want their country to be safe and stable in peaceful harmony.
Within that, they seek a better livelihood, with all the joys and qualities that wonders of life may bring.
âWinning electionsâ is the politiciansâ attitude: Combat and strife.
March 23, 2024
Bloke : .”People want their country to be safe and stable in peaceful harmony.”
But our political elites are working towards making our country “safe and stable” and see the way to achieve this by creating impoverishment and social disharmony so that authoritarian rule can be imposed using the excuse for making the country “safe and stable”. We saw this happen during the Covid pandemic.
The country will not, however, be democratic and prosperous.
North Korea can be seen to be “safe and stable”. “Safety” is brought about by draconian laws and “stability” by making the population continually believe they are about to be invaded by the evil West.
March 23, 2024
Opinions vary Richard, as do circumstances. Voters select whom they prefer.
Many folk are content with good health, moderate income and willing to pay tax when their govt spends the money wisely and efficiently. Most folk are disinclined from stealing or harming others, not because they risk being caught, but because they know it is wrong, and loving parents have guided them properly.
Harsh regimes behave differently. Many regard the larger UK political parties as harsh, careless and wasteful, but a free society has the means to remove them from power.
March 23, 2024
We can feel democracy slipping away
March 23, 2024
Agree Sir J but that’s what the Conservatives have been promising for ages – and look where we are now!
March 23, 2024
It’s probably too late now.
The only thing that would give the Conservatives a chance is an immediate change of leadership.
March 23, 2024
Kenneth :
A change of leadership will not make any difference at all. It would simply be re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It would require an immediate change of the twin major policies of unilateral Net Zero and mass (illegal and legal) immigration. But even then I doubt the electorate would believe that the Conservative Party had changed without a complete clear out of MPs at a GE.
March 23, 2024
I don’t think so Ken – Who would you choose? (Please don’t say Boris!)
They’ve run out of (willing) candidates. Those still with ambitions of Leadership are now content to let Sunak carry on to crushing defeat and to take over the CP’s corpse in opposition. If Sunak & Hunt had had a ‘Road to Damascus’ early on, things might have been different. However, blowing half-hot half-cold on Net Zero, ‘Stopping the Boats’ whilst allowing 1.2M pa in legal migration, proclaiming ‘Tax Reductions’ whilst stealth taxes continue to consume income – the list is endless and unflattering. The only question now is whether the Phoenix that will rise from the ashes will be the same Turkey it is now – or something we can believe in.
March 23, 2024
I agree with all the replies above.
New leadership means a complete cleanout of the socialists who should have the whip removed and that includes the PM and Chancellor.
The Conservatives could invite Lee Anderson back and encourage him or John Redwood or Liz Truss to form a cabinet.
That kind of change could give them a chance.
March 23, 2024
You just donât get it do you John? I couldnât care less if the party was split if it acted like a Conservative Party but it doesnât because itâs full of wet Liberals who havenât got a clue, donât even care, about the genuine concerns of their constituents. Mass immigration levels of over ONE MILLION being allowed in each year on top of the illegals swamping our streets and getting up to goodness knows what crimes not to mention diluting the very fabric of our society and swamping our infrastructure. The highest taxes in over 70 years with the stealth of fiscal drag thrown in with no intention of raising personal allowances until 2028. The state accounting for almost half of GDP with no intention of reducing it. Civil Servants refusing to go back to the office to âworkâ and Sunak too weak to make them. Between 5 and 9 million people not working and not looking for work because it doesnât pay them to get out of bed in the mornings when they can be better off on benefits. Our prisons full of foreign prisoners that will not be deported. Shoplifters having a free for all because they know they will not be prosecuted because the police are more interested in so called hate crimes than real crimes. Billions spent on foreign aid, the EU, Ukraine, Barnett Formula whilst Junior Doctors in England are being refused the pay they deserve, if only to cover the massive debts your Government have saddled them with for being English. Net Zero madness your party insists on forcing on us. The list is endless John. Your lot put the usurper in against the wishes of the party members and you reap what you sow. No wonder most of them are switching to Reform (the real Conservative Party) or choosing to stay at home. If they want a socialist party, they may as well vote for the real deal Labour. Nothing to choose between the fake Conservative Party and Labour. Iâve voted Tory all my life, campaigned in the past, but I like many others cannot wait to see the not a Conservative Party get annihilated come the next GE.
March 23, 2024
Well said.
March 24, 2024
Excellent. I too used to be a member and campaign. Never again after Cameron.
March 23, 2024
JoolsB :
Correct.
March 23, 2024
Jools B, ++++++. Lengthy and comprehensive list of what we really want to see and hear, and it was well worth reading, thank you.
March 23, 2024
But the attributes you list in your final paragraph, should be part of the DNA of any Conservative. The current leadership have made it very clear that they are not part of theirs, and any belated efforts to embrace them can only be greeted with very well deserved cynicism on the part of the electorate. Sunak and Hunt seem to have used the Conservative party as a vehicle to impose their brand of half baked Socialism by stealth. The Conservative Party has been the natural party of Government for this country for a very long time, and still could be, but not under this leadership, which no Conservative, outside Westminster, will ever trust again.
The Labour leadership at least has the merit of believing in what it offers on its tin, however awful that might be, and that is why they are virtually certain to win the coming election.
March 23, 2024
This state of affairs is what comes when you let the ‘Wets’ run things.
March 23, 2024
Nobody in their right mind would want the current Tory administration with their ‘global policies’ of destruction to win the GE – but there must be some Tory MPs that we could trust, real Conservatives, like our host.
Likewise, who would vote for labour if they had an ounce of marbles left, for we know how destructive they can be, and they have promised to be more severe than the Tories are now.
Whoever is pulling the strings knows that but are over-confident that they are totally in control, whichever party gets in.
Our vice-ridden establishment will surely nullify any good that might come out of the election – it’s happened before with elected leaders hounded out of office. Parliament has failed us far too often to seek a real answer there – so where do we find a solution to our problems?
Riots and protests achieve nothing unless they are from the left – where are the mechanisms in our unwritten constitution to regain control, to dispose of the amoral and bring back those with a virtuous nature to serve us?
March 23, 2024
It is not helpful that major Government Policy Decisions are disputed within the party at the legislative stage. I remember especially well the the spectacle of Teresa May trying to obtain the support of the party that had elected her, and the subsequent parliamentary hounding of Boris Johnson who was obliged to semi-complete Brexit in the most trying of circumstances due to the failure of his predecessors to formulate and to agree and to follow coherent policy.
March 23, 2024
The last paragraph in Sir John’s post is what we are all hoping and praying for and ,as he indicates , it all depends on leadership . Whether the present will now resemble the past is another matter . The party splits that are very evident today have exposed a turmoil bigger than anything I can recall in my long years , and the mountain that has to be climbed now depends on the economy led by someone I would never call a true Conservative . We elderly ones have been betrayed and the same goes for those capable of creating wealth and growth . MIracles can happen and my fingers are crossed .
March 23, 2024
I’ll vote for a Conservative party when I see Conservative policies being implemented. The current conservative party needs to be voted out. The UK state is broken and needs a leader that can fix it.
March 23, 2024
hear hear
March 23, 2024
âParties with plenty of internal rows and disagreements always winâŠ.â
I would say this depends upon whether the disagreements are fundamental or just minor skirmishes.
I have unfailingly voted Conservative in our FPTP two party system for 58 years. I always believed that the Labour Party saw impoverishment as the route to power as this would increase their core vote. For instance we saw a Labour Chancellor announcing to the World that he would be selling off the countryâs gold reserves and doing this when the price was known by everyone to be low.
I now see that the Conservative Party with its major twin policies of unilateral Net Zero and massive immigration has developed the same aim. The former is designed to destroy our economy and security (military as well as energy security) and the latter to destroy our social cohesion and democracy.
Naturally these are also the main policies of Labour and all the other existing Parliamentary parties and consequently any vote for any of these parties will be taken by these parties as a vote to continue with Net Zero and mass immigration, both designed to ultimately end in some form of authoritarian government.
A country is its people and our Parliament is desperately keen to change the electorate in order to change our type of government. The reason why the UN/WEF and climate activists have no issue with China continuing to increase its CO2 emissions is simply because China already has an authoritarian government.
So there exists no Parliamentary party for whom I can vote and if I cannot find a suitable candidate on the ballot paper at the next GE I will be forced to spoil my ballot paper.
What other action can I take? Take to the streets?
March 23, 2024
What you say about Mrs Thatcher is true but you give too much credit to Blair. From the death of Smith onwards it was ordained by the media that Blair would rule. For all of his time there might just as well not have been an opposition. Hague, Duncan Smith, and Howard were all denied the oxygen of publicity. This started the moment the Conservatives were defeated in 1997. Howard was alone or so it seemed in trying to find a voice amid the rubble but the media would not have it. They would invite him into studios and then not let him speak at all. He just had to sit there while the other parties held forth. This was revenge and it will come again – or rather it already has with Partygate and the toppling of Miss Truss. Cameron was treated differently because it wasdecided he was no threat. He would not undo what Blair had done and he didn’t. Howard and Duncan Smith would have done.
March 23, 2024
This explains why the UniParty led by the WEF is doomed. Labour is just a continuation of the Conservatives.
All the economies below had slow growth in GDP per person up to 1980 after which GDP per person grew faster. Then in 2005 something happened and GDP per person flatlined in the Western countries of UK, France, Italy and Spain.
Whereas in the USA, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Russia GDP per person continued to grow. I got these numbers off the statistica website.
Why did this happen.
After 2007
USA $45 to $76
Germany $34 to $45
UK $45k unchanged
France $40 unchanged
Italy $35 unchanged
Spain $30 unchanged
Hungary 10k to $30k
Poland $10 to 18k
Russia $4 to $15
These figures must be in thousands. They show the Uk second only to the US.
March 23, 2024
Sir John
You appear to be saying to win a Conservative Government needs to be found. The shower that has hijacked the office of Government are pure control freak Socialist all punishment and tax. They will jump to the doctrine of Klaus Schwab, but refuse to support the UK.
A Conservative controls expenditure, a Socialist refuses. A Conservative manages, a Socialist refuses. A Conservative owns up to mistakes, a Socialist blames others. So pure Socialism at the heart of the Uni-Party
The majority of the UK, the middle ground are Conservative, they as voters have not deserted the cause. The Sunak/Hunt team in their move to high tax, more State control, punishment to impose their will, their refusal to manage â has deserted the middle ground Conservative voter â it is what is sometimes called a leadership that has gone AWOL. They have destroyed the core of Conservative MPâs in Parliament, consigned them to being kicked out of office.
A Conservative has no one they can vote for, even if the have a good Conservative MP to vote for them would be a vote for Socialism
March 23, 2024
PM May ramped up the unilateral Net Zero law in 2019 to 100% net zero CO2 emissions by 2050 with no vote taken after 88 minutes of debate and without any costing either in 2008 or 2019.
PM Johnson : UN speech 22/09/2021 : âWe started this industrial revolution in Britain: we were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural order.â
PM Sunak when Chancellor : COP26: âSo our third action is to rewire the entire global financial system for Net Zero.â
Conservative MP, Mr. Alok Sharma, COP26 president seen here in this official SSE video of the provocative demolition of a national asset, Ferrybridge power station :
https://video.twimg.com/ext_tw_video/1429456184902393858/pu/vid/720×720/JwPnpycxEiyBmqVJ.mp4?tag=12
And I am expected to vote for a party that promotes the fanatical pursuit of the Net Zero Strategy, a fifth column communist deception designed to destroy our economy by finding more ways to produce less energy more expensively, less securely and less efficiently whilst using more capital, people and resources?
March 24, 2024
While this country blows up one coal-fired power station the Chinese BUILD two. So what is the point of Little Britain killing its economy while the Chinese grow stronger and laugh at us stupid people?
March 23, 2024
Dear Sir John,
If I was an elector in your constituency I would vote for you on a personal basis and sincerely hope that you are re-elected.
There is no chance of my voting for the Conservative Party for reasons others have stated and some of my own ( more things banned or mandated by law than any previous post-1950 government and several more on the way). And what other party would be nasty enough to vote its own erstwhile people-elected leader out of Parliament mid-term?
In the (Con-held forever) constituency where I can vote there is as yet no Conservative candidate and the well-organised Labour candidate has already sent out forms to claim a postal vote. Reform candidate also TBA. Guess who is likely to win.
March 24, 2024
That is one of the annoying things about the Conservative Party. It is so diverse, there are several individuals I would vote for but they are outweighed by the number I would not vote for until hell freezes over. And the guy in my constituency is one of the latter.
March 23, 2024
I canât vote Conservative, your government frightens me. They have used pseudoscience to impose an Orwellian nightmare on this country.
They tried to âfrighten the pants off everyone â didnât they? Letâs see who manages to hang on to their pants after the next election!
March 23, 2024
To save the party at the next election you need to adopt all of the ‘Reform Party’ policies and drop net-zero, all foreign aid and repeal all EU laws including the windsor agreement ….than perhaps you’ll have a chance
March 23, 2024
To win the election, the Tory leadership MUST revisit the policies that won their Party these long terms in Government.
Isn’t that the logical way of proceeding? After reviewing those successes they MUST adopt the MO of, “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. Boom, boom, job done.
Just what is their problem with this approach? Too blue Tory for these yellow libdem posers? I suspect so.
March 23, 2024
”Attacks on dams are war crimes, as explicitly noted in Article 56 of Protocol I and Article 15 of Protocol II of the 1977 Protocols to the Geneva Conventions”
Why aren’t the russians kicked out of the UN
March 24, 2024
’cause the UN is now ruled by China and Russia and favours communism over democracy. Similarly the WHO.
March 23, 2024
The difference between the dissent against Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair among their own government MPs, and the dissent in the Tory Party since July 2016, is that 1) a large faction of the Tory Party (including at least one of its leaders) decided to oppose the democratic mandate for Brexit while pretending to support it, and schemed to undermine a manifesto they had themselves misleadingly framed. Corbyn and McDonald have never stooped that low. Nor did Heseltine. And 2) Thatcher and Blair had the guts (as had Churchill in 1940) to face down their opponents on their own backbenches. Wilson tirelessly (and with cunning) did much the same. Boris Johnson, alas, did not. He bluffed then folded. Bravado and bravery are two quite different things.
Nobody wanted the current Tory leader, apart from A-lister leftwing pretend Tory MPs. This time the dissent is between them and the country, as the party is about to discover.
March 24, 2024
Sir John, your prognosis in your last paragraph is correct. But The Conservative Party has been saying this for years and, in government, has not done any of it; quite the opposite on, for example, immigration. The disadvantage the Party has that is not shared by Labour is its track record of not doing what it committed to do. No words can erase that.
If I could I would split the Tories, keeping the true conservatives and merge them with Reform or other new blood and tell the rest to go and join Labour or the Lib Dems. The ‘Broad Church’ is all very well but it leads to weak government – the traditional argument against PR but there is already PR inside the Conservative Party. What most people want and do not find in any political party at present is a strong conservative philosophy of government in the national interest. The Sunak government has sacked the wrong people, like Suella Braverman and Priti Patel, and sat on the wrong people like Kemi Badenoch, because they are closer to true conservatism than the party leadership is comfortable with. But that is exactly what most voters want.
It is true that many conservative leaning voters are expected not to vote or vote for reform without an expectation of winning but there is another factor now: anger and the desire to punish the Tories. This is very clear in Matt Goodwin’s analyses and is quite unprecedented. Many people are willing to accept things getting worse under Labour in order to punish the Tories, believing it to be temporary. It is a visceral hatred of the Conservative Party and that arises not from its stated policies but the mounting evidence that it does not actually believe in the policies it commits to. It was summed up in Nigel Farage’s statement that the Tories, even under Boris Johnsoon, never believed in Brexit, meaning the Party as a whole does not value sovereign national independence. In common parlance it is not on our side even though it claims it is. That deception is unforgivable.
March 24, 2024
PS. If the Conservative Party were ‘on our side’ why is it enabling mass immigration of alien cultures inimicable to British culture and ways.
March 27, 2024
The Conservative Party will NOT be winning the next election.
They may not even take part in the one after that (Canada 1993 style).