There were many reasons given by people who had voted Conservative in 2019 as to why they switched their votes or abstained.  I will attempt here to distll the main things that went wrong that lost the government support.
The long and strict covid lockdown
Many people disliked the lockdown and thought it wrong. Government failing to apply all of the rules to itself angered many more. Young people missed out badly on school and social activity. Some self employed and small businesses were badly damaged. Ideas proposed by some Conservative MPs to reduce the duration and exempt more people from the lockdown were rejected. The Opposition parties urged more severe and longer lockdowns, but government owns the policy as it implemented it.
The sharp rise in inflation
The government allowed the Bank of England to print excessive amounts of money in 2021, a recovery year. The first ÂŁ300 bn in lockdown year made sense to offset some of the economic damage lockdown did. The Bank made this mistake in line with the Fed and European Central Bank. The Chinese, Japanese and Swiss Central Banks did not announce more money printing and bond buying and kept their inflations around 2%.. The Opposition supported this Bank policy but were very critical of the resulting inflation. The government had to own the results of bad Central Banking. The Bank of England could not even forecast the inflation let alone control it as they should.
The rise in taxes
The high costs of support to people and public services during covid led to big increases in public spending. OBR/Treasury rules kicked in and forced tax rises. Labour supports the failure to raise Income Tax thresholds, one of the main ways of raising tax. Conservative voters felt badly let down as they expected the government to offer lower taxes, not higher. They became critical of excess spending which included the costs of lower productivity, Bank of England losses, waste and excess in NHS covid procurement, big cost overruns on HS 2 etc
The large numbers of migrants
The 2019 Manifesto promised lower migration. Conservatives assumed there would be fewer new arrivals from the EU with the ending of free movement, as there were. They did not expect a very large increase in non EU migration instead. In January 2024 the government was persuaded to tighten the eligibility rules substantially to cut numbers significantly. The election came too soon for people to see the impact this is now having to control numbers, and too soon to allow the government to toughen rules further if numbers are still too high.
Too many changes in government
Three different Prime Ministers and many changes of Ministers made it difficult for government to sustain a strategy or for Ministers to be in full command of their briefs and their departments. This added to public frustrations.
July 5, 2024
The vote share of the âvictoriousâ Labour Party is dismal. The collapse in the Conservative vote at time of writing is an all time record.
None of these TV commentators and political figures are able to address the real problems because they have no idea of why they are.
We are in for a very rough ride, but we have shocked the party which was in Government and unleashed all of these attacks upon us.
It had to be done.
July 5, 2024
Agreed Lynn. Labour have a huge majority, although only 1 in 5 votors support them (35% of votes cast, 60% turnout). Call that democracy?
I (and others) predict Starmer will have problems within a year even though he has a 170 seat majority.
July 5, 2024
Ed Davey got over 50% of votes in Kingston and Surbiton. More than all of the other candidates combined.
I have no idea how the clown managed to do this. This despite the Horizon scandal and a former postmistress standing in the same constituency.
Dorking (boundary changes) also failed to elect a Conservative for the first time since 1885 (Liberal Democrat again)
July 5, 2024
No one on the right had any complaints about our voting system when it delivered you a majority on the basis of a minority of the votes. You are the very definition of a sore loser
July 5, 2024
Heâs in deep trouble. Heâs inherited a âlabour legacyâ. No money, everything broken and the whole world laughing at our leaders.
July 5, 2024
Yes, it is democracy. The Lib Dems and Plaid Cymru (4 seats with under 200,000 votes) have worked the system to their advantage; if 40% of people wanted to leave it to other people, then so be it. However, many of those people not voting are people with UK-settled status from the EU but no citizenship to vote; many of those people have come to the UK to get away from communism and socialism.
July 6, 2024
Most unbalanced result on record in terms of vote share vs seat share. Even BBC Verify confirms this.
My political voting decision is my own – my point is that Thursday’s result is a bad day for democracy. Millions more than normal cast their vote only to see it have no value. This will lead to problems if it continues.
July 6, 2024
The Lib Demâs are there to push extra taxes for social care onto the agenda and fast, the Tories tried to implement twice and couldnât, it wasnât in Labourâs manifesto but it will be done. It will be classed as cross party concensus as increasing taxes by dedicated insurance is easier to do. Any right wing person in posh Surrey and Tory areas voting Lib Dem are about to find out they are the ones paying for this. I doubt most people could name five Lib Dem priorities yet look how many MPs they got, it was a protest vote without understanding what they were voting for. The new extra council taxes and higher bands in increasing number of bands will swing straight through too and pay the big bills but the money wonât be kept just in their area it will be redistributed to poor areas for âlevelling upâ.
The green onshore windmills and overhead pylons will be coming to nice ex Tory borough near you, so all the nimbies having their little pop at the Tories are going to pay the price for going left.
July 5, 2024
It is difficult to accept Sunakâs apology when he deliberately acted against his own manifesto promises, leader pledges and five point plan. He knew what he was doing but relied on arrogance he would be preferred to Starmer who offered exactly the same!
The EU one nation types still carrying on this morning as if it was not their fault! Good to see Baker and Ellwood ousted. It really is comforting to see those who showed utter contempt for their voters to be booted out. By making some of these EU one nation fools Lords means Sunak has still not got the message despite his false apology otherwise he would know the public rejected them! Now they carry on their bile, again in contempt of the public vote. Time for Lords to be scrapped changed so the public decides who goes there. Cameron and May in the Lords! Good grief Tory party never learn.
July 5, 2024
Exactly and Reform get more votes than the Lib Dums yet a 20th of the seats. A democracy we ainât.
July 5, 2024
The successful Muslim Vote campaign is a snapshot of the future of British politics
No one anticipated how many pro-Gaza independents would be elected to Parliament
RAKIB EHSAN in The Telegraph.
You want Syria law asap? Overturn the SUPERMAJORITY REFERENDUM were 67% votes to keep FPTP. Donât complain if other referendums are also overturned and we find ourselves starving to deaths with the rest of the EU.
Jess Phillips had to call the police into her Count to defend her from her own political policies! Apparently the men in Yardley donât think women should be in Parliament. Labour lost a seat to a straight Moslem vote. Thank God itâs Labour who will be going head on into the results of their own replacement policies.
July 5, 2024
I sincerely hope so, I cannot stand the man as he destroyed the RUC, a police force who were awarded the George Cross for galentry, defending the people of Ulsted from republican terrorists. We here in North Devon have an other problem as the system has lumbered us with the Lib Dims, a party that few voted for! What makes that worse they are led by the incompetent Ed Davey who should have resigned when innocent Post Masters and Mistresses were wrongly convicted when the actual dishonesty was Davey and those in computer programming!
I despair !
July 5, 2024
But then he was a lacky of Tony Bliar, so what can one expect?
July 5, 2024
JR,
So are Sunakâs EU Tory remainers pleased with result? Guido shows jubilant pictures of Sunak loosing!
July 5, 2024
Sunak incredibly still paid tribute to his EU Windsor sell out. I viewed this as good cop bad cop to align and act in lock step. Good news Farage will expose Uni party treachery.
July 5, 2024
Yes, exactly so; to be blunt, the Tory Party LOST, (for the reasons noted, plus non performance on Brexit and Net Zero and LIES) Labour didn’t win.
This SHOULD cause the Conservative Party to have a long hard look at itself, remove the present candidate selection process, and find conservative principles again.
July 5, 2024
+1 critical – we need candidates we can support!
July 5, 2024
Agree – however that hard inward look should have happened pre-election and not post-election
July 5, 2024
The better Conservative MPs remaining could switch to the Reform Party like Lee Anderson did.
Reform are developing into a strong position outside parliament too, which will generate a wide and loyal audience of voters to support them with increasing effect.
July 6, 2024
The Conservative party are finished, Labour must arrest all members of SAGE and make them pay for the catastrophic damage they caused
July 6, 2024
Theyâve given Patrick Valence a senior role Minister of State for Science.
July 5, 2024
There is a God then. It’s a pity some of the better tory MP s have lost their seats especially JRM and Liz Truss.
I’ve just been listening to a Tory spokesman on BBC and he said it was good Liz list her seat because she was toxic to the tory brand. Totally deluded are these no nation wets.
We just have to hope for a very cold extended high pressure over Europe this winter and watch Liebour twitch when the lights go out.
With Europe rapidly rowing back on net zero, Starmergeddon will fund himself very isolated on the world stage. Maybe we’ll even get to frack our own gas when the stupidity of net zero becomes apparent even too the socialist party.
Well done Nige and Reform, the party to watch.
July 5, 2024
Just been listening to the CEO of Octopus energy saying Starmergeddon should go flat out for decarbonisation of the electricity grid as this will bring down power bills and create thousands of jobs. He never mentioned that these jobs would be mainly in China.
July 5, 2024
If Labour supporters find any Conservative MP toxic – thats a good sign!
July 5, 2024
Reform ask close to loads of FPTP wins. They are close to the tipping point. If then fight for PR they will NEVER win office. Neither will anyone else.
So many parties picked up votes yesterday, because loads of people were looking for a dustbin to throw their vote into.
July 5, 2024
Of the 173 seat EU one nation Tory lost, in about 153 Reform votes would have prevented them winning the seat. Excellent choice public, Tory party need to be obliterated for betraying us and showing us utter contempt.
July 5, 2024
Truss was unfairly blamed for the economic bomb that Sunak as a dire Chancellor and Bailey at the BoE had created for her and that she tripped on. Then they had local disputes because Cameron had forced Truss on them. The Turnip Taliban got her it seems. I suppose we might see more of Mogg on GBNews.
The people the BBC had on their election coverage were appalling, people like Kahn, Mandelson⊠no one sensible, god help us not that I believe in a God.
July 5, 2024
What local disputes, what do you mean?
July 6, 2024
Google the Economist – Liz Truss and the turnip Taliban. A local group is trying to eject the former prime minister from her seat.
They resented her being forced on to them by Cameron amd his A list.
July 6, 2024
I doubt it, GB News it only suited JRM because he was stuck in London without his family 4 nights per week after putting in a full day as an MP he went on to the show rather than sit at home relaxing. Reform did us all a disservice standing in his seat and Iâm truly annoyed with them for that. There is only a handful of Tory MPs standing in 2024 that deserved to stay and he was one of them and a big loss to the HoC.
Reply I think you are wrong about JRMâs domestic arrangements.
July 6, 2024
Good, you know better than I. I enjoy his program.
July 5, 2024
Labour 35%
Conservative 24%
Reform 15%
LibDems 13%
July 5, 2024
Labour 35%. 412 seats
Conservative 24% 122
Reform 15%. 4
LibDems 13% 41
All very fair then, so a Labour vote gets about 90 times the representation of a Reform vote and three times a Tory vote.
July 5, 2024
40 times rather not 90.
July 5, 2024
Reform campaigned for 4 weeks! Labour have been campaigning for a hundred years.
What do you want? To destroy the ability of the British people to sack a government? Imagine waking up this morning and finding Hestletine, Sunak, Johnston were all still in the cabinet? đ€ź
Did Oxbridge beat all the ingenuity and individualism out of you?
July 6, 2024
You keep assuming I am in favour of PR. All systems have their problems and advantages I am merely pointing out just how very biased FPTP is even before votes are cast it rigs the voting.
A system which gives us an appalling Con-socialist government for 14 years and the only way to remove them is to get even worse Labour with a huge majority on a minority of the vote is not ideal.
July 5, 2024
Lib Dems 71 MPs the Reform Party……………4. That’s democracy right???????????
July 5, 2024
JR forgot the elephant in the room the far left EU one nation types refused to deliver Brexit. Starmer will continue to do the same lockstep, no divergence and follow EU laws and regs.
Mass immigration was a choice against what it promised. High taxes rather than public spending cuts was a deliberate choice.
Astonishingly far left EU one nation tory types have no regrets and will not let go of the left March, some touting failed Hunt as leader!
Good riddance to Sunakâs party, glad to see Shapps and pro trans Mordant go.
July 5, 2024
Hope
+1
July 5, 2024
+1 the only real serious loss is Mogg, JR, Bridgen who Sunak kicked out for telling the truth.
July 5, 2024
LL,
The good news those who voted for Bridgen stopped the Tory winning and Labour got the seat! Therefore if. Ridges remained a Tory he would have won the seat, another loss for Sunak. I really do not think he cares, he made it clear Starmer is good person etc. in other words he will continue the good work to keep UK in lock step to EU. Sunakâs behaviour disgusts me.
July 5, 2024
The outcome is a consequence of FPTP the voting system. If you don’t like how many seats a party has won compared to their vote share, argue for a voting system that is more representative of who the electorate voted for. FPTP shows, yet again, that it is not representative.
July 5, 2024
The whole of Birmingham would be represented by the âPalestinian Partyâ and God knows what Labour would promise them to cobble together a majority.
Itâs a pity Hunt won. Gutless Tory voters lost a few opportunities last night, to sack the fakes. They will pay dearly – possibly not be ready for the next election. They remain riddled with confused types lost in the wilderness. When Sir John was trying to explain in kindergarten terms why they had lost, they did not get it, a young blonde âministerâ (I canât remember his name) declared that âif you are against homophobia, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, – and a few more phobias I canât be bothered to remember – and want to beat Putin you should vote Toryâ.
The idiot was unable to comprehend that was EXACTLY when we did NOT vote Tory!
They remain lost, confused, they may as well all be called Biden.
July 5, 2024
How many would each party have got with your preferred version of PR? Would Plaid Cymru, for example, have four seats on such a small number of votes?
July 5, 2024
My preferred version of PR is STV which could be implemented by taking the existing constituencies and clustering them together in logical groupings of 3-5, each electing between 3 and 5 MPs. This is how most elections work in Ireland (both the North and the Republic).
Under such a system, candidates are still individuals standing to represent a particular constituency and, as voters, we vote for individuals (not parties) by expressing our preference by ranking candidates in order or, if you want, simply putting an X by your preferred candidate as under FPTP.
To get elected, an individual needs to accrue enough votes to be above the threshold in an individual constituency (which varies based on the number of seats to be filled – a 3-member seat has the threshold at 25%, a 4-member seat has the threshold at 20% and a 5-member seat has the threshold at 16.67%). The thresholds give you an indication of the level of support a candidate needs to be capable of gaining (either as first preferences or via transfers) to get elected, and if you look at the overall level of vote share and individual constituency shares, those would give you a decent indication of how likely a particular party’s candidate(s) are to be elected in any part of the country under STV.
It’s very hard to give exact numbers in answer to your question but, based on levels of vote share/distribution etc., in general, Labour would have ended up with far fewer seats than they did yesterday, Reform would likely end up with a lot more, the Conservatives may have ended up with a few more, the LibDems, probably not much of a change, the Greens, probably a few more than they got, maybe into the teens.
Given that Plaid’s votes would still be concentrated in only a few Welsh constituencies, they’d probably end up with a fairly similar number of MPs because STV is all about hitting the threshold in an individual constituency, not overall national vote share. On that basis, I’d also expect STV to have given the SNP more MPs than they ended up with yesterday under FPTP due to their vote share in Scotland.
Of course, all that assumes that the current parties stay as they are and Labour don’t split into a Corbynista party and a Blairite party, the Conservatives into a One Nation party and a ERG/5 families party (can’t think of a better name), the LibDems into a social liberal party and an economic liberal party etc.
July 5, 2024
It is not even representative in the voting as with FPTP as you often cannot even vote as you wish without wasting your vote so the voting is distorted even before you are cheated on representation.
July 5, 2024
It’s not representative and won’t change as it suits the Uni Party. A bridgehead is established now the push for 2029 to remove the rest of the Uni Party. Reform doesn’t have to do a lot as Starmergeddons gang will do it all for them!!!!
July 5, 2024
Bridgen was the messenger of too much truth, they shot the messenger.it suits the British People! We got a Supermajority for FPTP against âthe best option of PRâ a decade ago.
Do you think the results of referendums that you dislike should be discarded?
Farage could have spent the last 5 years building his party, selecting candidates – they canvassed for 4 weeks, they did not know their own candidates. You think the British People should vote for unknowns because they have Farage on their rosette?
July 5, 2024
Mass immigration, boat people, Higher taxes, higher energy bills and betrayal of Brexit will finish him off. Helped by the Muslim vote turning against him. I doubt Corbyn will be quiet in Westminster on this point!
July 5, 2024
Indeed. Just 33.9%. Tories 23.7%. Reform 14.3%. Tories + Reform = 38% (enough, generally, to secure victory). Which begs the question – just HOW STUPID are the current Tory leaders. Why have people voted Reform? I would suggest, largely, immigration and the boats. All the Tory government had to do was stop the boats and get immigration down – and Reform would have been history.
July 5, 2024
Indeed it had to be done.
What a dire & dreary speech from Starmer I am bored with him already. He thinks Sunakâs achievement being to become PM while being âAsianâ. Why does Starmer think, in some racist way I assume, that âAsiansâ are somehow inferior & not usually capable of being PM? Though if John Major can make it with his two O levels!
Then he tells us every single person in the country deserves full ârespectâ. Sure all the rapists, murderers, stabbers, thieves, fraudsters, muggers, burglars, fraudulent benefit claimants, scroungers, drug dealers⊠full respect to them all.
Does respect no longer need to be earned anymore Starmer?
Best wishes to Starmer though let us how he is better than expected and can deal with and protect us from all those Labour MPs – most of whom seem to be totally mad, full of green crap, the politics of envy and extremely dangerous for the economy.
July 5, 2024
So even Tory Scum and Landlords they are about to rob will be respected. And all the children forced to change schools due to VAT making them pay 4 times over.
July 5, 2024
Vote share (@ 5.09 hrs.) shows Conservatives plus Reform edge ahead of Labour. That is the scale of the Conservative folly.
We the people have rid ourselves of a rotten government and now have a new one that will likely be much the same quite soon.
July 5, 2024
Much the same, but even worse. It had to be done after to appalling serial betrayals of Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak and the net zero Con-Socialists.
July 5, 2024
Female teacher 30, who had sex boys from the age of 15, is given a six-and-a-half year sentence.
Not the nest ways to behave but 6.5 years why? I thought we were short of prison places? Can we keep the violent and dangerous ones in instead please.
July 6, 2024
I read this article for the first time yesterday. She claimed that the second boy had already left school and not a minor when she started a relationship with him and got pregnant by him. What punishment would you give her instead? Working in a care home looking after old men.
July 5, 2024
07.36: DT is showing Labour on 34.07% and a combined Con and Reform equalling 38.00% (Con 23.66%, Reform 14.34%).
Across a large number of seats mainly in the north and east, Reform was second and is now the challenger.
July 5, 2024
In the north from where a load of squaddies are drawn – THEY DONâT WANT TO GO TO WAR. they will fight if we are attacked.
Farage won all those excellent second places by partly clarifying the issues pertaining to the War in Ukraine.
July 5, 2024
You can’t discount the left-wing Lib Dems and the 4 new, very left-wing greens.
July 5, 2024
@formula57
Yep
For some time it has been clear that the UK would need to endure 5 years of Starmer in order to get rid of Sunak.
We can only hope that the large Labour majority will give Starmer the confidence to focus more on the urgent needs of the UK people and focus less on outside influences and less on conflicts in other parts of the world.
July 5, 2024
your deluded old wolf if you think they care about the Brits – migrant maybe, but Brit No
July 5, 2024
An even worse government (possibly far worse and irreversible if David Starkey is right and he usually is). With PR or FPTP this vote share would almost certainly be a hung parliament. Plus of course the vote share of Reform and the smaller parties is reduced even in advance of voting as people realise it is often a wasted vote so end up voting for X to stop Y.
Still the destruction of the SNP and Suankâs Con Socialists is hugely welcome.
July 5, 2024
Starkey is wrong – he was wrong on the âpandemicâ why donât you think he could not be wrong on his doomsday scenario – no Parliament can bind its successors. We need to elect a Parliament we WANT which will reinstate our Constitution.
July 5, 2024
Lifelogic has a good share of posts today, numbering perhaps 24.
July 5, 2024
Essentially the conservative government in power was not Conservative. They walked away from their Conservative support in the country while reacting possitively to too many lobbyists and vested interests in allowing the deposing of Liz Truss in an undemocratic coupe.
My guess at 05.18 on the 5th July is that the conservatives ( Wets or consocialists) lost it. Labour will win it by being the perceived option, caveat emptor.
July 5, 2024
+1
That and not actually seeming to be in control of anything
July 5, 2024
The failure to handle the Brexit negotiations well, the poor deal and the refusal to use the freedoms it brought whilst displaying a willingness to unnecessarily shackle the UK to the Evil Empire surely also contributed to the scale of the defeat.
July 5, 2024
“The failure to handle the Brexit negotiations well” is masterly understatement for Mrs May’s attempt to keep UK in the EU in all but name without anyone noticing. The EU did better with her than countries achieving unconditional surrender of the enemy in full scale war. There was and is no way back from that.
July 5, 2024
+1. The House of Lords needs to be abolished – a small price yo pay for being rid of the damned woman!
July 5, 2024
Can’t see that, myself. People are much more focused on the cost of living and their own lives than thinking about something that happened years ago. It’s over. Largely forgotten – apart from people who are very focused on it. Which, I would suggest, is a very small number of people.
July 5, 2024
Largely right. I would add the vast government waste, corruption and crony capitalism. The vast costs of the net harm âvaccinesâ, the insanity and vast cost of net zero, the lockdown cost a fortune and did net harm. The Tories published their 5th Manifesto, that promised lower taxes and lower immigration but for the first four they did the complete reverse. Sunakâs appalling lie that the âvaccinesâ were âunequivocally safeâ, how failure to even try to cut immigration. Fool one once perhaps – fool me five times get lost.
Tory Party Chairman Richard Holden Wins Seat By Just 20 Votes – how very depressing.
The Sunak holds his seat and appalling failed PM Theresa May (who tried to cheat voters out of Brexit is elevated to the Lords – how typically depressing. Who wants to hear anything more from the dreadful Theresa May or indeed the appalling Sunak?
July 5, 2024
Alas Starmer is also pro-net zero, pro vast government waste, pro open door immigration, pro the net harm vaccines cover up, has hugely anti-growth policies, full of woke lunacy, want even more red tape and even higher taxation and supported nearly all the policies May, Boris and Sunak got wrong.
Let us hope he is less dire than he seems and is not replaced by even worse.
July 5, 2024
+many to first post.
July 5, 2024
Not much hope of that I’m afraid
July 5, 2024
Lifelogic: “Alas Starmer is also pro-net zero, pro vast government waste, pro open door immigration, pro the net harm vaccines cover up, …”
Those things all originate above the Party(s), so you can change the party but the policy remains the same. Net Zero, the WHO (un)health treaty, all come from NGOs that are controlled by other interests.
July 5, 2024
Your obsession with vaccines which I havenât heard discussed once in ordinary conversation clouds an otherwise accurate post.
July 5, 2024
Jeremy Hunt has won in Godalming and Ash with a majority of just 891 votes after a number of recounts.
He would have been the first chancellor in modern history to lose his seat – what a shame he did not.
Speaking on the declaration of his win, he said the election had been a “crushing defeat” for the Conservatives.
âDonât be sad, this is the magic of democracy,” he added. More of a suicide.
âThe Magic of democracyâ Sure we vote 4 times for the Tories to deliver lower taxes, lower immigration levels, competent public services, higher living standards and they deliver the complete reverse with net zero lunacy on top for 14 years. Then the voters find that the only way they can kick them out is by getting the same but worse in Starmer! Plus the rigged voting system gives almost no seats to Reform despite getting millions of votes.
Sure Black Magic perhaps The certainly not remotely âdemocracyâ is it?
July 5, 2024
You can understand why that subject doesn’t come up much in ordinary conversation. Who wants to discuss their past mistakes?
July 5, 2024
+1 especially if they are irrevocable.
July 5, 2024
I also wish Holden had lost. He was a simply dreadful constituency MP. Haughty, distant, like Davey, always sided with the Council/State against his constituents.
10 people have on their consciences that they have blighted the Conservative Party with his presence.
July 5, 2024
Mr Redwood needs to be honest with himself to truly understand the sense of betrayal felt by millions. His party of whom he was a member endorsed Blair’s woke cultural and demographic realignment using mass importation as a political weapon of cultural war. We now live in a nation that is unrecognizable to many millions.
I genuinely fear for the future as does many though at least we now have MPs like Farage, Anderson and Tice who will fight to expose the extremism of Labour in a way his party didn’t
Heseltine, the CBI etc etx will be rubbing his hands with glee. The UK will be back in the EU before you can say ‘my wife’s ran off with the milkman’
July 5, 2024
Indeed using mass importation as a political weapon of cultural war and to under cut wage levels. Further depressing living standards with the net zero insanity, vast tax increases, botched Brexit, Botched Covid and the consequential lack of housing due to open door immigration. This despite promising the reverse in four manifestos.
July 5, 2024
Starmer will almost certainly do more damaging alignment with the EU but I do not see any formal rejoining being likely.
Penny Mordaunt perhaps paying the price for her idiotic gender change views and woke lefty lunacy.
July 5, 2024
+many.
Utter betrayal of what they promised five times and utter betrayal of what conservative values are.
EU lock step, High tax, high energy bills, trans ideology is what the nation voted for. Good to see Ashworth gone to a Gaza MP! Here comes Balkanisation! Well done Tory party.
July 5, 2024
Indeed
July 5, 2024
We will NOT be in the EU. Redwood etc the Spartans, did enough to keep us out.
Everything Labour does can be reversed and never forget that they start with 900 âindependent expert committeesâ which run the country outside the remit of the HOC.
This is already done – if Labour add another couple of hundred, how can it be worse? When democracy – control by the people – is dead itâs dead, it canât become more dead!
July 5, 2024
Spot on John, whilst Labour may have won this election regardless after 14 years, it still feels as though the Conservatives lost this election rather than Labour won it. There has been too much change, and incompetence, at senior levels in the party over the last few years for many people to see the party as a credible source of government. Time to reflect and rebuild.
On a personal level I know, more than many, how much you will be missed in parliament, I have very fond memories of my time there with you, although it feels so long ago now! I wish you all the best going forward and I do hope that we shall find a way to reconnect in person at some point.
reply Happy to talk
July 5, 2024
There is little or no enthusiasm for Starmerâs Labour that I can detect but they were the only way to tell Sunakâs tax to death, broken promise and open door to immigration Con-Socialist to get lost.
July 6, 2024
Youâre not speaking to people at work then who think heâs going to make their bosses give them more and higher sick pay, more holidays, more pension contribution, lower their mortgage! Build them low rental social houses and lower cost private housing by flooding the market and giving planning permission all over yimby not nimby.
July 5, 2024
See david Starkey recent excellent three videos.
Sir Kierâs Stasi, Labours plans to end democracy, we are about to elect a government no one wants.
Sunak says he leaves with âgood will on all sidesâ I can assure him I have nothing but total contempt for Sunak and Hunt and about 90 of Tory MPs. Depressing that the dire Jeremy Hunt was returned. a dire health secretary for 5 years and failed, tax to death, Chancellor.
July 5, 2024
90% of Tory MPs not just 90!
July 5, 2024
Suella Braverman:- “You voted for us over 14 years and we did not keep our promises. We have acted and we need to learn our lesson because, if we don’t, we will have many worse nights to come. “The country deserves better and I will do everything in my power to rebuild but we need to listen to you – you have spoken very clearly.
Correct Suella – but they did not even âtryâ to keep their promises made in four manifestos. Just blatant serial lies and huge fraud against the voters. Combined with vast government waste, net zero insanity, covid lies and incompetence, vast tax rises, every more red tale, crony capitalism and fraudâŠ
July 5, 2024
Is that the same Suella “will do everything in my power to rebuild ” Braverman the same as Home Secretary Suella “absolutely determined to stop the boats” Braverman?
July 5, 2024
Deluded Sunak ‘goodwill on all sides’ . His performance following shambolic Government decisions prior to this disaster, shows the division not admitted to. Under his leadership Conservative constituencies were abandoned to Libdems and Reform hoping to signal the extent of the ill-feeling.
July 5, 2024
Sunak resigns as leader, well thats the end of the tories …sarc.
He should’ve went before the election
July 5, 2024
Sunakâs departure speech had kind words for Keir Starmer: probably to avoid Starmer repeatedly blaming him for years ahead about the complete mess Labour is inheriting from Sunak.
July 6, 2024
No theyâre in the same team Bloke.
July 5, 2024
+many
July 5, 2024
+1
July 5, 2024
Jeremy did Starmer’s work for him. Increasing corporate tax to 25% will soon give this Labour government a bonanza of extra spending, and the Tories took the pain of the decision.
July 5, 2024
A great shame James Cleverly and Evette Cooper scraped through – both are dire.
July 5, 2024
And Hunt. I raised a glass when Shapps was ousted …. and Elwood.
July 5, 2024
Oh I missed Elwood thank goodness he has gone.
July 5, 2024
Inflation is also pushed by things other than bad economic management. Policy choices like Net Zero or not buying Russian gas raise costs for everyone.
I think Net Zero costs will be a big drag in the future, not just due to the Labour government. My local Tory District Council (Chichester) wants to embark on a Net Zero mission, employing new staff and resources to do it that will push up Council tax and/or impoverish other services.
Even if one believes that anthropogenic climate change is a threat, any CO2 they save will be absolutely negligible globally. Madness.
July 5, 2024
âEven if one believes that anthropogenic climate change is a threat, any CO2 they save will be absolutely negligible globally. Madness.â
CO2 is not a threat but a net good, the UKâs contribution is irrelevant anyway and the things they push EVs, renewables, walking, public transport, burning wood at Drax, heat pumps do not even save CO2 anyway to any degree. EVs increase it.
July 5, 2024
The government exports jobs and energy intensive industry then imports and even pretends the CO2 & probably more CO2 has gone away.
July 5, 2024
Conservatives have only themselves to blame. They went all in with Net Zero, essentially a Labour project, resulting in no meaningful difference between the two main parties. They utterly failed to control our borders and spectacularly allowed vast numbers to enter legally. They failed to rein in an out of control Bank of England and they disgracefully embraced deranged gender issues and equally ludicrous Equity, Diversity and Inclusion policies. They failed to listen to the people and displayed a breathtaking arrogance by going against their own manifesto promises. And they fudged what should have been huge economic wins for our Country after the success of Brexit. They also ignored wise counsel from within the party from long serving and very experienced former Ministers. So Labour get a huge majority from a reduced percentage of the vote which in many respects is hardly a ringing endorsement from the Nation. Fourteen years of mismanagement by successive Conservative administrations underpinned by an absence of honesty, clarity of purpose and leadership has been their undoing. This âtrain smashâ was entirely predictable and itâs no good blaming Reform.
July 5, 2024
You think the electorate have massively swung from Conservative to Labour because of the Net Zero agenda?
Like they don’t know that Labour will follow the same with added zeal?
July 5, 2024
You haven’t read what MS has written. He claimed no such thing. ‘swung from Conservative to Labour’ not true, Conservatives refused to continue support, not voting Labour!
July 5, 2024
The deluded dope & Cop26 chief Alok Sharma also sent to the Lords with May by the idiotic Sunak. Letâs stuff the Lords with dim, deluded, net zero, fools!
July 5, 2024
Surely we cannot continue stuffing failed MPâs in the over bloated Lords. If anything needs reform it is the Lords, the ridiculous numbers and the manner in which they are selected. The amount the are given per day is in now way value for money.
July 5, 2024
Sorry for the typos
July 5, 2024
ÂŁ361 a day tax free. So about eqiv. of a NI and taxed salary of ÂŁ150k. Four times that of a junior doctor in London amd just just sign in for 2 mins. or have a subsidised lunch!
July 5, 2024
Yes, and the worst one to get a lordhood is the detestable May, a person who has blood on her hands.
July 5, 2024
same old, same old train of thought by PMs.
July 5, 2024
Broken promises. Not doing what they said – or doing nothing, or the opposite.
Not listening to the electorate.
July 5, 2024
Treating the electorate with total and utter contempt.
July 5, 2024
Listening to the electorate isn’t going to do any good; you will just get a myriad of views and no direction.
A successful government needs to steer a course, be seen to be competent, and then draw the electorate along their chosen path.
July 5, 2024
we just had 14 years of not listening – you want more of the same?
July 5, 2024
Ignore the electorate and you will just get no followers.
As the Conservative Party have just discovered.
July 5, 2024
You get clear direction. You may not like the direction but you have to remember you are a representative and not a totalitarian psychopath.
July 5, 2024
The real question Sir John is why did the people of Wokingham vote for a Social Democrat MP with a very large majority ? Turnout 72.19%
Reply You need to ask the Conservative candidate Lucy Demery as she ran the campaign of her choice, highlighting the issues and people she thought best. As elsewhere votes went to Reform and to Lib Dems with a big swing of 19.3% Con/Lib.
July 5, 2024
I think that it is wrong to blame lockdown for the unpopularity of the Conservative Party. Certainly lockdown was difficult and disliked by many people but the need for it was understood and complied with by most people. It was well explained and presented by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson ably assisted by chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak. The noise level of âParty Gateâ was generated from within Parliament and not the general public. The harassment of Prime Minister Boris Johnson was generated within and by the Conservative MPâs. The policy chaos that ensued with the removal of Boris Johnson as Prime Minister was entirely the Fault of the Conservative Party.
July 5, 2024
It was a CRIME! The state and corporate sector were exempt from the virus on orders of Johnson? All the parties were free of the virus? But every small business was shut!
Free people are NOT LOCKED DOWN!
July 5, 2024
James Morley – 100%agree with you. What happened to Boris was disgraceful and then the way Liz Truss was treated was no better!
July 5, 2024
Why would anyone vote Libdim they are wrong on almost every single issue.
July 5, 2024
John M.
That’s what happens when you parachute in an unknown. Lib Dem candidate is a local and working on this position for many years.
Earley & Woodley a new constituency has gone Labour, but it must be said Pauline Jorgensen did well to come a close second đ
July 5, 2024
reply to reply …The Libdems deluge of criticism and the stepping out of Sir John, plus I suspect the forced very late candidate and her choice of photographs with Mrs May and Sunak were the last straw.
July 5, 2024
@John McDonald – it appears CCHQ parachuting and outsider into a safe seat again has worked against them.
Johm McD- splitting hairs, I thought you meant the the CCHQ candidate was a Social Democrat (although she probably is) and not a new name you have probably inadvertently given for the Liberal Democrat’s (that are not Liberal and not Democrats).
As an aside, I was accosted in my front garden by a very obnoxious, rude man in the run-up to the election – he is now the MP for Wokingham. The Council has declined and now so has our representation in Parliament
July 5, 2024
Yes, Sorry Ian for the wrong name I gave to the LibDems. Maybe I can’t bring myself to think of them as Liberal in the true sense of the word as they seem anything but. More dictatorial in my view in the way I have seen them behaving in this general election, and indeed in the Council. I always refer to the California Cross Roads project as an example of LibDem Democracy in action.
Maybe that why they used Yellow bricks for the disaster forced on Finchampstead rate payers, and local business.
July 5, 2024
I’ve never met the lady but her campaign would have been better suited to the recent local elections. All very well talking about local concerns but since she currently lives in Banbury (and was parachuted in at seemingly short notice) it didn’t carry very much conviction. The Lib Dems have clearly targeted this area for many years, have a solid ground game and many local supporters. Driving around the area, there were plenty of orange signs in evidence but no blue ones at all.
We did get two ‘blue’ people knock on our door, one before Ms Demery candidacy was announced and one after. The last caller couldn’t tell me very much about her political views apart from the fact she cared for the countryside and was opposed to further develeopment. He also told me that she had your full support and endorsement Sir John, which I guess was technically true. However, I did wonder with how much real enthusiasm you had supported her, as I’ve never seen you mention her (that’s a rhetorical question btw).
Not to worry, as I suspect that we won’t be seeing her around here again in a hurry, in spite of her concerns about our local countryside. Enjoy your well earned retirement Sir John.
reply She asked me to deliver leaflets locally for her which I did. She did not want photo ops with me or any written copy.
July 5, 2024
Sir John,
Repy-to-Reply – In which case she totally under estimated your popularity in the old Wokingham constituency đ
July 5, 2024
That really sums it up. Sir John with his decades of experience and unmatched capability for articulate advocacy of free market, true liberal conservatism is requested to make his main contribution to the campaign the delivery of local leaflets!
July 5, 2024
Not that clever then….
July 5, 2024
If the choice is between a real Lib Dem and a yellow Tory – you may as well have the dinkum thing.
Not wanting photo-ops with JR, not asking him to go out with her on the doorstep – what an opportunity to reject.
We all knew she was rubbish because she has been selected by Central Office.
Wokingham Tories did the right thing. Accept the real thing or nothing!
July 5, 2024
How about not get personal. Just thank your MP and move on.
July 5, 2024
Why dont I feel that âa burden has been liftedâ. If it has, then another, greater, one has been imposed.
Iâm not in the mood to celebrate.
July 5, 2024
Yes itâs another example of a government losing when it gets elected on one prospectus and does something else.
But really itâs simpler than that. We were -5% to Labour on the day Boris Johnson left (itself a remarkable recovery – we were falling like a stone while his govt collapsed). The brief Liz Truss episode took us to -30%. It looks like weâve clawed back, after an exceptionally lacklustre and incompetent campaign, an anaemic manifesto and poor timing, to -11%. Iâm afraid the conclusion canât be escaped that had the Party had a smooth transition to Sunak after Johnson we would not now be looking at defeat.
July 5, 2024
If the centre of Wokingham was like the rest of the constituency you would think the Lib Dems were the only party in town. With door step intrusions, and tons of paper publicity through the door. And of course a Lib Dem Rosette at the entrance to a Polling station. Perhaps not mention a Lib Dem Council đ
July 5, 2024
Didn’t do well in the new Earley & Woodley constituency, which “should” have been good hunting ground for them…
New Labour MP for there could be interesting as she is/was an economist, maybe could keep a handle on Rachel Reeves [product of the Bank of England] but I won’t hold my breath..
July 5, 2024
Rosettes at the polling station is illegal.
July 5, 2024
The lights are going out all over Britain. But at least Steve Bakerâs gone.
July 5, 2024
Have there been widespread powercuts? I knew we relied on Interconnectors for 20% electricity but perhaps Labour have already said ‘we won’t pay for it?’ (laugh).
July 6, 2024
I quite enjoyed the video of clip of him taking apart Ed Balls and George smirky Osborne, did you see it MPC?
July 5, 2024
You omitted to mention the Net Zero lunacy Sir John.
Labour has won a landslide because the Conservative vote collapsed – hardly surprising after the betrayals of the last 14 years and shambles of the last 4.5
Perhaps the new Party Leader will understand what Cameron, May, Johnson and Sunak didn’t. If a Party wants to win and then get itself re-elected, it should “dance with the one who brung ya.” Not abandon them in favour of waltzing away every other tart on the dance floor.
July 5, 2024
It seems to me that the sense of betrayal over Brexit, effectively conveyed by Nigel Farage, mobilised the Reform vote and caused the loss of many Conservative seats. I have not seen the Reform share of the vote – the broadcasters seem unable or unwilling to display it., but Labour on 34% is extraordinarily low and on only 60% turnout.
July 5, 2024
Reform got 14.3% with over 4m votes producing 4 seats.
Libdems got 12.2% with under 4m votes producing 71 seats.
The UK voting ‘democracy’ at its finest.
July 5, 2024
Cameron moved the party towards being social democrats which continued up to now. Boris/Gove etc are âliberalsâ Central Office was tasked with ensuring candidates were of the same persuasion albeit, like Cameron, they pretended to be right wing until elected. Add the no worldly experience (PPE) , promoted from SPADs, plus the âchildrenâ fluttering around in the Cabinet Office etc and you get the woke/weak centrists.
You and those on the right of the party were denounced as âold school, nasty Tory dinosaursâ
However your manifestos to attract your core vote continued to espouse those old values. In other words the same liberal elites so contemptuous of the Brexit supporters continued in the same vein totally subsumed by their own sense of self importance. As commentators have said âfrankly you liedâ
Obviously your comments are important factors but without Reform you might have got away with it but your self righteous grandees totally failed to recognise the anger growing from their core vote and considered Farage and Tice something they had got on their shoes.
This is about more than the points you make. They are symptoms. This is about a revolution clearing out a total political class.
Frostie correct in the DT. A rebuilt Tory party must not replicate what has failed so miserably. Farage is an excellent communicator, we saw his performances in the European Parliament. Given our Parliament as his hustings, Reform will only go from strength to strength unless you elect a leader who can match him.
Unfortunately unless someone really strong emerges I think you will continue to be in denial.
July 5, 2024
John you are not being honest with yourself.
You forget to mention NetZero and the Brexit-Botch-job.
The way you describe mass migration is that you were a victim of immigrants post-Brexit rather than the author and executioner of that policy.
The Conservatives deserve the result they got. I strongly suspect they will move even further to the left as more left wing indoctrinated PPEs arrive from Oxbridge.
July 5, 2024
I agree with Sir John that these are the main specific reasons why the Conservatives lost the General Election. But I would like to add an extra observation too.
The Conservative party has been obsessed with a ‘centre ground’ overlay to its policy making. This means its policy approach can never solve issues needing right wing solutions nor left wing solutions. At best therefore it can only ever solve issues needing centre-ground solutions. This means most of the problems of this country (which need a mix of all 3 solutions) cannot be fixed by a party which refuses to countenance 2 of those 3 solutions. Incidentally, it’s fine to net off to the centre-ground (with a mix of the 3 solutions being employed) but don’t have a centre-ground overlay to every single solution which renders the policies mostly deficient (as we have often seen).
The proof of this is Margaret Thatcher. She effected all 3 solutions (eg right wing on low taxes, welfare and NHS reform, defence spending / centrist on education reform and environmental protection / left wing on big increases on NHS and welfare spending – yes the welfare budget was cut towards the end of the 80s but not before). For those left wing policies, however, she wanted efficiencies and results in return and that is responsible and fair and it is Conservative.
By contrast Cameron, May and Sunak just offered a centre-ground overlay to policy making which resulted in little to show for 14 years in power and that is not Conservative! The proof that the country does not even want this approach is that the Conservatives failed to win a majority at all in 2010 and 2017, got a peanut majority (12) in 2015 and lost spectacularly last night. Yet when they employ all 3 solutions they win big (reference Margaret Thatcher and Boris Johnson too).
In my opinion the answer to the Conservative Party’s problems is very evident: ditch the centre-ground overlay and employ right wing, centre-ground and left wing solutions as are required. The thinking, substance and policies wins peoples’ respect and votes not the silly game playing which is all there is to offer to differentiate oneself on the perma-centre-ground
July 5, 2024
Who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 2021/2022, Step forward Rishi Sunak.
July 5, 2024
People blame the lockdowns for everything like Remainers blaming everything on Brexit. ONS and other sources show that UK debt was already at unsafe levels (~85% of GDP) before the pandemic, compared with historic levels of around 40%. Public sector debt was 20-30% of GDP in the period 1998-2008, around 80% from 2014 â 2020 and rose to 100% in 2020 and has yet to decline. About 10% of UKâs debt is due to the Bank of Englandâs losses. UK also has migrant hotels at about ÂŁ3bn pa.; mass migration as a net drain on the economy, Net Zero and support for Ukraine.
The pandemic response was only one of several causes for high debt in the UK. The real problem is UKâs addiction to government spending.
July 5, 2024
Spending in the UK is ridiculous.
But you will never really lower it by clever politics or economics. But only by ordinary native British becoming more productive. And that involves a massive return to healthy conservative cultural values through the churches, educators and those in media and arts working closely with the Conservative Party.
July 5, 2024
The Uni Party only ever talk about higher taxes never reductions in State spending. The most obvious is the unlimited time welfare bill and instant access by the mass immigrants, social housing and to our collapsing health services. I have a feeling this won’t go unnoticed anymore with “Reform” representation in Westminster. A housing crisis…….. no a mass immigration crisis. An Education crisis. No 17 languages in one class room doesn’t work for English children with class sizes of 50 plus!!! VAT on private education won’t cover the cracks. I give them a year before it all collapses around their socialist ears.
July 5, 2024
Sir John, have you installed a word count to screen out long comments. Please let us know what the maximum length is so we can more easily meet your requirement.
Reply I bin very long things by eye unless they have new and good substance
July 5, 2024
@ Reply – oh! After yesterday’s “Contributors are welcome, especially if they bring insights or information to the topics covered” and now “new and good substance” the bar is really being raised!
July 5, 2024
I have just read Robert Bucklands comments on why your party lost. A boiler plated belief in his own superiority, utterly out if touch with the ordinary voter.
Various press articles were not the reason for our dissatisfaction, they reflected it and had he, and the rest of the âwe knew better than you prolesâ listened and acted, the result might/would have been different.
July 5, 2024
Also, there are a lack of quality Tory MPs in Parliament with proper business skills and practical common sense.
We can’t blame other factors for Tories’ dismal election results after 14 years in power to an awful Labour / Lib Dem Party who should never be in power.
(Reform appear to have damaged Tories too – for the sake of 4 votes ..)
July 5, 2024
The Conservatives lost because they were useless. It’s not because they were too socialist, although that did lose confidence in the centre-right. It’s just that they presided over incompetence.
Take the NHS for example. More money in, but outcomes worse with hardly any dental care provision and waiting lists ramped up. They could have got a grip on the problem, but there was no one competent to take it on. All we got were weasel words.
Highest tax take in history, but nothing works except the cross-channel taxi service.
Sack CCHQ and try to find a working compass and a rudder.
July 5, 2024
Exactly. We need to TRY and attract higher quality Tories with proper business experience.
July 6, 2024
Talking of people with business experience, I noticed today, James Timpson, brother of Edward Timpson ex-Tory MP (who pushed Sunak on all of us as leader then immediately stood down and didnât stand on his manifesto this time!). James has been elected to Cabinet as Minister of Prisons and Reform, this is what makes me think it is a Uni Party at UK government level top level job sharing, I didnât know that unelected MPs or Lords/Baronesses could actually be put in charge of departments they know something about! Iâm surprised if he can do that he didnât continue with Thangham Debbonaire as Culture Minister even though she failed in her bid to become an MP the arts were expecting a lot of money and change from her, perhaps sheâll be a SPAD or whatever they call them.
July 5, 2024
Sir John
I for the most part disagree with your summation. The loss was more due to repeated refusal to honour manifestos and promises, choosing instead to do the complete opposite.
The above coupled uncontrolled spending, high taxes and borrowings – all the things expected from a 100% Socialist Government. i.e. they refused to be Conservative, they refused an economy to pay for our future.
July 5, 2024
People in comments here who endorsed Reform should, to a degree, be ashamed of themselves.
Farage has been a relative disaster for this country, helping to give the socialists a big victory in the elections as well as pushing Brexit (a GREAT idea in principle) when the country simply wasn’t ready for it. And like in business or the military you don’t embark on a great idea until you are ready / properly prepared for it (1. Finance. Leadership. Proper planning).
July 5, 2024
I’m not remotely ashamed, in fact proud of taking the step that might lead to demolition of the existing Conservative party, hopefully followed by a phoenix. If it took Reform to set light to the rotten wood so be it.
July 5, 2024
@ Ed M – Farage may have had in mind that “There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all the voyage of their life Is bound in shallows and in miseries” might he not?
As for shame, a worse shame would arise from endorsing Sunak and his One Nation pals. Without Reform’s participation the Labour majority would likely have been smaller but still sufficient to run the government. Reform has helped see off many candidates whose return would not have been welcome.
July 5, 2024
Choosing my words carefully. Labour have won just 23% of the electorate votes. Which is less than what Corbyn lost the election last time around with.
Harping back to earlier threads, the largest win was by ‘none-of-the-above’ standing as of 8:30am at 35% of the electorate
July 5, 2024
21%
July 5, 2024
Correction, now more declared this new labour Government still with just 23% of the electoral votes is standing at 1% more than Corbyn achieved and when the Conservatives gained an 80 seat majority.
It is not the system that distorts its who gets to select the candidates to represent us that corrupts.
July 5, 2024
Sir JR. You seem to have forgotten the “stop the boats” pledge……………
July 5, 2024
Yes this was missing from the synopsis
July 5, 2024
The Brexit botch up
July 5, 2024
They didn’t ‘botch’ it ….they planned to do nothing, and the TCA and Windsor Accord is doing nothing
July 5, 2024
Interesting that Sunak MP was able to publish his honours list 1 hour before Polls had closed. Then the insulting bit he has chosen to honour those that have brought the Conservative Party and Conservatism into disrepute and put it on it’s knees – The man has no shame, no integrity
July 5, 2024
Is it strange to feel optimistic about the future? My totally unqualified prediction: Starmer will drift right to appease centrist voters, his government will expose Labourâs incompetence, and the most left wing Labour members will split the party. Meanwhile, Tory wets will skulk away to Labour and the Lib Dems whilst the Conservatives select a proper conservative leader and somehow subsume Reform.
Nothing will change significantly in 5 years and by 2030 this country might actually have the conservative government itâs been craving for 15 years.
Sad though that our best hope for an imminent end to the immigration fiasco is a new French president.
July 5, 2024
I find it endlessly strange and interesting how people extrapolate their own views to encompass a country. I would suggest a correction to your statement.
July 5, 2024
Whatever you are taking, can I have some, please?
July 5, 2024
@DaveM – we all hate this idea that the Union bosses are the tail that is waging Labour, but given the Conservative Governments attitude to the UK(Off-shore everything to save the Planet), the Unions holding Labour to account might, just might, keep some industry and enterprised still located in the UK. Meaning there could be something to create real earnings to pay for a future. Although ‘Red’ Ed has already decreed the need to be beholden to China for his fanciful illusion he is having.
Banking and Services are movable, AI forces them to move it will be just the tax regime that holds them.
It is still about the economy, not left or right. Earnings are needed to pay for a future. Working with, hearing and listening those that pay the bills(the minions, the people) – something Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson and then the Sunak/Hunt duo because of ego were unable to comprehend let alone do. Starmer and his crew have it all to do but I doubt it if they even understand the job.
July 6, 2024
And our best hope for an imminent end to the Net Zero lunacy and the Ukraine “War Game” is a new American one.
I am so looking forward to Starmer and Lammy having to cosy up and be sycophantically pleasant to Trump and Le Pen. Let’s hope it happens.
July 5, 2024
All correct, Sir John – but sadly, these issues were talked about by us voters ‘out in the sticks’, for the last two years. The Tory Party could have done something about these then – but didn’t. Now some of your former colleagues are already indulging in the usual ‘blame game’, i.e. blaming the voters for daring to vote Reform and thus ‘burning down the Tory Party’, according to Mr Halfont.
Blaming the voters is not going to make them change their minds any time soon.
July 5, 2024
@Vivian Evans – blaming the Voter, unfortunately the only thing Sunak and his Cabinet knew how to do. Unable to listen, unable to work with, led to being unable to manage what he was empowered and paid to do.
July 5, 2024
The Conservative decline accelerated with Boris Johnson. He went down the Net Zero route, he sold out Brexit, he allowed unchecked immigration, he agreed to the lockdowns and dubious vaccine, he went against what the voters wanted, and he squandered an 80+ seat majority. He could have turned things around after the disastrous Cameron and May years but he was too weak to understand that he needed to crush the Conservative Central Office that wanted us back in the EU at any cost. Conservative members tried to give you another chance with Liz Truss but she was quickly ousted. The Globalist Sunak has done nothing positive or too little too late to save your party. I know you have been a good MP Sir John, but nobody seemed to listen to your advice and never offered you a cabinet position. I feel angry that bad decisions by your party over the last 15 years have led to this massive Labour majority. Is this the end of our once-great country?
July 5, 2024
With more than 580 seats declared, the BBC is forecasting that the final ‘vote'(*those that voted) share across Great Britain will be:
Labour – 35% (just 23% of the electorate)
Conservatives – 24% (just 16% of the electorate)
Liberal Democrats – 12% (just 8% of the electorate)
Reform – 15% (just 10% of the electorate)
I declare the winner as ‘none-of-the-above'(35% of the electorate), the loser is the UK and its People
It does mean 71% of those that voted, voted for Socialism.
July 5, 2024
Yes, I would like all the people reporting – the BBC etc. – to make clear that percentages of the vote that they show are the percentage of those that bothered to vote. They should also show the percentage of the electorate – to make clear how many people didn’t bother to vote.
July 5, 2024
More like 85% Sunakâs Tories are green crap pushing, tax to death, open door immigration Con-socialists – other than perhaps 50 of their candidates at best.
July 5, 2024
I don’t think they voted FOR socialism, Ian. They mainly voted AGAINST a tawdry bunch of unprincipled political opportunists who somehow gained control over the Conservative Party, and then greatly overstayed their welcome. I believe the majority of people in this country have principles, are socially and culturally conservative, but the political party that has (mis-)used that label despises them for it. That’s why it got its come-uppance yesterday.
July 6, 2024
@R.Grange – yes the bulk of the country are conservative by nature, they want to earn and pay their way through life. And… Yes whatever happened to the party using that label was not only removed from that concept but were wound up in their own personal ego as to have become delusional.
July 5, 2024
Plus Green Reds who quadrupled their seats with a small fraction of the Reform vote share. 74% voted for socialism and insane net zero policies. The only opposition will be 4 Remain MPs and they have 5 years to wreck the economy during which time all but one nuclear station will close and gas stations will be closing. And the first offshore wind turbines will be worn out.
July 5, 2024
@ Ian B “It does mean 71% of those that voted, voted for Socialism.” – I see what you did there! đ
July 5, 2024
Immigration will be reduced to the tens of thousands, they said. They lied to us.
A government that does exactly the opposite of what it promised to do has no right to be re-elected.
July 6, 2024
Absolutely correct. If the government had carried out its promise and also sent back the illegals, there would be no Reform and the Conservatives would just have been re-elected with a thumping majority. Instead, over the last decade the government have let in a number of immigrants equal to the population of Scotland. For some unfathomable reason, they have preferred to do this rather than keep their jobs and remain in government.
July 5, 2024
And we all think we have problems? “Joe Biden has said he is âproudâ to be the first âblack woman to serve with a black presidentâ in one of a series of verbal gaffes as the USA celebrated Independence Day.”
July 5, 2024
I would add to what you have listed, a very poor election campaign: all negatives about what Labour would do; no focus on the great advantages and potential of Conservatism. But that would have been difficult after the leaders having shown by their actions that they had no belief in it.
It is a disaster that Hunt has been re-elected, and I just hope he does not become Leader.
July 5, 2024
Thank you! That made me splutter my coffee out all over my keyboard. Still, even as I mop it up, I am smiling. Good one!
July 5, 2024
As somebody who wishes nothing but harm to the fake Conservative Party, I hope Hunt IS appointed leader. It will finish them off.
July 6, 2024
@William Long +1
July 5, 2024
I’m actually annoyed that Reform got a higher share of the vote than the Lib Dems (14.4 Vs 12.2), yet the Lib Dems have 71 seats and Reform just four.
So the Lib Dems may scoff at having more seats, however more people actually voted for reform.
It is also sad to see Wokingham and Maidenhead fall to the Liberal Democrats, and Bracknell to Labour.
If the record of the Lib Dems in local Government is anything to go by, they will be an absolute disaster for Wokingham and Maidenhead. However, voters in those areas will have to find this out the hard way, after voting them in.
The Earley and Woodley result was a win for Labour with less than 1000 votes. So hardly a victory that Labour can boast about.
July 5, 2024
Isn’t that somewhat meaningless. If they won with 1000 votes, having overturned a much bigger majority, surely that would be a significant victory.
July 5, 2024
There was no Reform candidate in Earley and Woodley.
July 6, 2024
@Mark J – the Lib Dems hĂ ve spent many years building a very local infrastructure, hopefully Reform coming from along way behind will do the same.
July 5, 2024
There can be little doubt about the reasons for the Tory meltdown (though you could add uninspiring leadership and a poorly led campaign). The interesting question I look forward to seeing this blog address is what the Conservative survivors should do. Who the MPs elect as their leader will set the agenda for how they intend to recover lost ground. Mr Hunt must be thinking his time has finally come. Perhaps, though, Penny Mordaunt will try to get back into Parliament at the next by-election, triggered by Sunak resigning his seat and heading back to California. That wouldn’t surprise me.
July 5, 2024
Overwhelmingly, the Conservatives lost because of their espousal of anti-net zero policies. The pro-renewable energy parties (Labour, Lib Dems and Greens) took a combined 486 seats and 74.8% of the vote. The electorate has decisively rejected the deluded Reform anti-net zero policies
This election was won by Labour because of tactical voting – the nation wanted the Tories out. The 4 Reform wins are collateral damage and Farage has nothing to crow about
July 5, 2024
I agree that his complete failure to honour Manifesto commitments on immigration was a main factor. However, Rishi Sunak had two rises in his polling: first when he stopped Sturgeon’s Trans policy, and second when he relaxed the Net Zero timetable. But he never took the hint and neither fought the woke public sector nor went further on the green madness and continued to penalise manufacturers for selling the wrong kind of car. As for going into the election earlier than he needed, completely reckless, when he could have brought in tax cuts in the Autumn and flown some migrants off to Rwanda.
July 5, 2024
Sir John might also have drawn attention to the relentless character assassination suffered by Conservatives. Some may have been justified, some not, but in politics perception is all and the cry of âTory sleazeâ clearly has huge resonance.
Itâs not easy to know how to combat it. I guess such Tory MPs as survived yesterdayâs bloodbath will have to be ostentatiously pure and hope that innocence will be enough to keep them safe.
But the thing about witch hunts is that you donât need a witch. Any victim will do.
July 5, 2024
I think the first reason for the loss – the Covid lockdowns – is completely wrong. People have forgotten it and, as far as I observed, everyone supported it. I live in (what used to be!) a very safe Tory seat – everyone that I know around here was supportive of the government’s actions. I was treated almost as a pariah, or nutcase, when I questioned the lockdowns and vaccines.
And the ‘too many changes in government’ – again, largely forgotten and, I would suggest, for most people a sideshow, not the main event.
There are, I believe, two main events.
1) The economy
2) Immigration
On both counts the government has failed. But, and this is where it gets weird, the incoming government will be worse. If one looks at the result – Labour barely increased their share of the vote and the Tories vote share went down considerably.
Which does make me wonder about the basic intelligence of those running the Tory party over the last X years. To win an election, generally, you need about 40% of the votes. You can forget about the 60% that will never vote for you. But, for some strange reason, the Tories have been trying to appeal to the 60% that never vote for them, with their high levels of immigration and high taxation. It is most odd, if the Tories had physically stopped the boats, and the PM had gone on the television and said ‘We cannot allow any more illegal immigration – we want to spend your taxes on health, education, social care, law and order and defence of our country. We cannot afford to keep taking people in and putting them up in hotels. It has to stop, and I’ve stopped it’. This alone would have won you the election. It would have appealed to the 40% you need to keep you in power.
Likewise with legal immigration. If you had kept this down and told the people; ‘We do not have the housing or infrastructure to keep admitting more people into the country. It is pushing house prices and rents up and it is not helpful to the people of this country. So, we’re bringing it down so only people we really need will be allowed to move here.’ Again, this would appeal to ‘the 40%’
You’ve tried to be all things to all people – and now you’re out. When will you ever learn the lesson?
July 5, 2024
You missed Net Zero.
I’d say the biggest failure of the Tories was in being a broad church. I actually think that was an excuse not to be Conservative.
On winning the last general election with an 80 seat majority even you yourself said on this site that day “I need to think about the people who didn’t vote for me.” I was dumbfounded.
I pray to God that Labour are thinking the same way but I can assure you that they won’t be.
It’s over. Britain is finished. The only things left to plunder are private housing and pensions.
State pensions will be the source of our next bloody revolution. The serfs grafting to pay them – with none of their own – will either quit the country or revolt.
July 5, 2024
The die was cast even before the election was called, nothing could have be done to change the direction of travel, only maybe minimise Conservative losses.
Mrs Sunak sat on his hands too long and didn’t even meet any of the pledges he put forwards. Of course he was the architect for the failings that he failed to put right.
And as the UK moves to the Left the rest of Europe moves Right…
If Sir John will permit:
I see at Paddy Power Kemi Badenoch is at 11/5 to become next leader of the Conservative party and
Grant Shapps 100/1
Suella Braverman 17/1
Jeremy Hunt & Nigel Farage 17/2
July 5, 2024
Illegal immigration has been ignored by this analysis. It’s ludicrous that thousands of people can leave safe country France and be treated as genuine asylum seekers when they reach the UK, costing the taxpayer a fortune. Actually they don’t even have to reach the UK, they just need to get so far across the Channel and we pick them up.
July 6, 2024
I suspect that’s because the Treacherous Tories made a secret deal with Macron that we’d “take our fair share.” For the sake of appearances, Sunak pretended to try and stop them and Macron pretended he was trying ….. but their actions speak louder. It was being co-ordinated and facilitated.
July 5, 2024
John,
It is because I read you’re reasons, above, that I am responding to you!
Reasons for failure of Conservative Party (In my view);
1) Sunak/Hunt not electable as PM and Chancellor! Not leaders, they seem to believe in the establishment based Keynesian-ism! Hence their inflation response! Or, does it mean, they have strings attached? Why did they accept the BoE behaviour? Did they accept BoE needed to get our debt profitable to hold, by the foreign/USA investors?
2) One Nation Tory’s are just left wing ?
3) Betrayal of Brexit! They actively maintained, and embedded (Transition, WA, EU FTA), alignment with the EU Customs Union, and Single Market rules!
As you will know; there is a conflict, within the Conservative Party, between the Remainers/Centrist (Left)/Statists, and the Free Marketeers! We need to resolve this!
How do we make a Free Market model work for everyone, how do we pay for Public Services, and how do we offer solutions that redressing the imbalances between the Young and Old, Home owners and Renters, and the State and Individuals!
It’s no good just talking about something as abstract as Productivity, if it misses the understanding of target audiences!
But, anyway, there needs to be a discussion, acceptance, but first, an acceptable Leader!
Regards,
RDM.
July 5, 2024
The conservatives lost because, given an 80-seat majority in 2019, in failing to reverse everything Blair and Brown did between 1997 and 2010, they revealed themselves not to be conseevatives. Specifically:
1) Open Door Legal Immigration.
2) Open Door Illegal Immigration.
3) The Creature Johnson’s Great Lie Fuelled and Filled Covid Oppression.
4) The Covid Vaccine(sic) Coercion.
5) The Green Lunacy.
6) Two-tier policing.
7) A Judiciary with its own agenda and blatant bias.
8) Failing to get rid of the BBC.
9) Failing to Reform the NHS.
10) The Horizon Scandal and “Square up”.
11) HS2.
12) The loss of our countryside due to immigration.
13) The loss of our countryside to solar panels and wind turbines.
14) BRINO with the betrayal of Northern Ireland and our Fishermen.
15) Failing to leave the ECHR.
16) Wrecking our Armed Forces.
17) The failure to protect our servicemen from blood sucking lawyers.
18) Not dealing with the hate Marchers.
19) Not dealing with the XR and JSO cretins.
20) Failure to bring back Grammar Schools.
21) Allowing the Transgender creatures to prey on children in schools.
22) Allowing the mutilation of children and confused young people with puberty blockers, mastectomies and genital mutilation.
23) Out of control public spending.
24) Failing to deal with the Workshy.
25) We need more nuclear power stations.
26) Pot Holes!
27) Failure to sort out woke universities and taxpayer backed loans.
28) Record high taxes
29) Not getting rid of nonsensical tax measures such as 60% 100-125k tax bracket anomaly, close to 100% tax anomaly for parents with children in similar incomes.
30) Gaslighting throughout Covid.
31) War on landlords and small business.
32) WEF and Davos owned globalists.
33) Failure to take back control of Bank of England
34) Failing to abolish the Equality Act.
35) Refusing to use our natural resources to keep the Gretaâs of this world happy
36) Failure to repeal EU regs.
37) Persecution of our self-employed.
38) Levelling up – binned.
39) Allowing a blatant anti-straight white male agenda throughout the armed forces, police, the rest of the public services and the BBC.
40) Allowing a blatant anti-straight white male, couples and families agenda in the advertising industry.
41) Overseas Aid.
42) Not dealing with the Utilities who bill us to pollute our rivers and beaches with raw sewage.
43) Not Reestablishing industries, apprenticeships and technical colleges
44) Not encouraging farming so we can become more self-sufficient.
45) Failure to resolve strikes
46) Rishi blaming the Doctors on high waiting lists. The gall of the man.
47) Massive Government Debt now 104% of GDP!
48) Lunatic QE monetary policy,
49) Creation of the OBR,
50) The ânudgeâ unit.
51) 77 Brigade deployed against the British people
52) Failure to eradicate the ultra lefties in the public sector who are completely out of control and forcing their agenda on the country without no attempt at push back by the faux Conservatives.
53). Failure to curb gross profiteering by retail energy suppliers to the extent we now have standing charges on gas and electricity exceeding ÂŁ300pa which obviously affects the poorest in society. Pure super profits for the most part on assets already fully depreciated.
54) Basically 14 years of failure.
55) Telling blatant and infantile lies about Farage.
56) Failing to deal with Postal Voting.
Will that do?
July 6, 2024
Well done. What a comprehensive list of their failure/refusal to deliver Conservativism and govern in the interests of the BRITISH people.
July 6, 2024
All of the above – spot on Iain
July 6, 2024
@Iain Hunter – great and accurate list. But they still will fail to comprehend,
July 5, 2024
Net Zero and Broad Church were also the Conservatives’ undoing.
In so many ways the exact opposite of what their core voters wanted them to be. Especially mass immigration.
There are far too many Tory MPs left for my liking – I sit hear scared witless over my savings, property and pensions but at least both of my boys are exceptionally well qualified with skills that are in global demand.
Yet another little old person on her own that the state is going to care for because the brain drain has taken her kids away.
July 5, 2024
Mr. Redwood, you must be congratulated on the timing of your retirement as an MP. You avoided the indignity of being booted out after 37 years. We’ll never know to what extent the collapse in Tory vote share was because of the change of candidate.
July 5, 2024
The main reason that the Tories lost was down to the high level of oppressive new laws as well a great deal of deceit from the government.
Labour didn’t win – The Tories lost!
Yes, economic mismanagement and an inability to come up with a real energy policy while netzero triumphed demonstrated how unfit HMG was. Let’s not expect anything but more of the same, and worse from the new regime. It’s 1997 all over again, and this time it will be so much more worse.
The mentality of the British people is to blame for letting labour in – as well as all the imported labour voters that are still on their way. Can’t they see that switching between Tories and labour will not do any good at all!
It’s at times like this that it truly feels that democracy has failed us.
July 5, 2024
This will be the third labour government I’ve had to live under, if we discount the socialist mishmash that was in power for the last decade.
Surely, nobody should have to endure so much dogma and destructive governance!
Surely – I’ve had enough!
July 5, 2024
One must remember that most people have got up this morning, gone to work, and are not looking at, or particularly interested in, what is happening to our government. Nothing much will change. Things will gradually get worse and people will get their shoulders to the wheel and just carry on trying to work and have enough money to enjoy their lives without struggling too much.
It seems no political party is offering a better life to anybody.
July 5, 2024
Well, the people have spoken. I wait see see how the new Government will cope with their inability to re-write the laws of Physics – or get the weather to change for that matter – just by passing a Bill in Parliament.
July 5, 2024
I note, SJ, your old seat has gone to the LibDems. Weird. After decades of Conservative wins, the electorate switch to the very party who have been running Wokingham council and depressing and costing its residents and council tax payers for the past years. “There’s nowt queer as folk”.
They will never been my choice for they always bite the hands that feed them. Go ask Mr Bates.
July 5, 2024
It seems from the latest announcement that Rishi Sunak MP will stick around until a successor is found. From my perspective as it is where the Conservative Parties fault line is, that CCHQ should be excluded from the process and all those that have been the Collective Responsibility of Conservative Government (The Cabinets) should be excluded.
Even after such a disaster I truly believe the bulk of the UK is still Conservative, what I donât see is that we have had in Government any Conservatives.
The die-hard principles of uncontrolled expenditure, high taxation and borrowing and the neglect of a means for the Country to âearnâ shows that we have all had to endure pure Socialism when we voted for something else. Those that have been in control have shown by their basic deeds they were never Conservatives.
Spending has to be controlled, and we have to have an emphasis on earning to provide for the future.
July 5, 2024
Giorgia Meloni, the Italian PM a Country with a higher GDP than the UK
âThe more wealth that is produced, the more the state can use its share of that wealth to provide the solutions citizens are waiting for,â she said. âThe purpose of a tax system is not to stifle society, but rather to help it prosper.â
isn’t that what we thought would happen here by voting a Conservative Party into Government? We where cheated and lied to, by Socialists
Reply Italian GDP and GDP per head lower than UK
July 5, 2024
I think there were a few other reasons as well:
1. Conservatives failed to deliver manifesto promises
2. Fuel prices too high
3. BBC campaign against the Conservatives. This shockingly happened during the election period too
The worst thing was that the Conservatives turned into Socilaists. As a result, we are not much worse off today than we were before. The only silver lining is that Labour is likely to contine in the same way and will not last long (despite its large majority) and hopefully then we will have a decent government.
July 5, 2024
Anybody noticed that the prospective new Chancellor of the Exchequer sounds just like John Major? Itâs uncanny. I thought it was an AI skit at first.
July 5, 2024
I used to find Rachel Reeves’ voice similar to that of Janet Street-Porter, possibly via linkage with Limehouse or Lewisham in earlier days.
July 5, 2024
Well labour didn’t win, they only gained a 2% vote share, it was the tories that lost with a 20% decrease in vote share, mainly to reform, who gained a 13% vote share
The bigger question is why are the tories split (one-nation woke tories and the reform traditional tories)
July 5, 2024
Dear John spot on yet again
July 5, 2024
The Conservatives lost heavily because they were not Conservative. They did not do the job on Brexit, did not attempt to cut Immigration, both legal and illegal, and were blinded by Net Zero when a child could research it and know it is rubbish. They made no attempt to get a grip on government spending so they could reduce taxes.
Sunak’s leadership has been a disappointment, lacking charisma and people skills. His allowance of individuals like Hunt and Cameron in senior positions only adds to the concern. We need a leader who can inspire and lead effectively and believes in and promotes conservative values and policies. We also need a leader and MPs who listen to their supporters. I have been in a CPF group for over 12 years, but I gave up because we were not listened to. It is entirely the fault of the leadership and most MPs, with the honourable exception of Sir John.
I wrote to my MP before Christmas, saying he should get his letter in and encourage others to do the same. But as usual he said we need to be loyally behind the PM.
July 5, 2024
The electoral sleight of hand was demonstrated when a young Lady was interviewed as to why would she would vote Labour â âbecause they have promised to spend more money!â
What wasnât asked, was whose money?
Political parties of all complexions go around with the attitude that âtheyâ have money to spend. They are never up front with were do they steal the money from
July 5, 2024
The shambles of the election, the dire state of the party leaders. The threats that were posed by finishing up were we are today and still only 16% of the electorate wanted the risk of this version of a Conservative Government in power.
July 5, 2024
The inner sole searching the Conservative Party will be going through to rebuild has pit falls. Even now there is a danger they just donât understand, they are so wound up in personal ego they just donât get it! As they have shown in how they presented themselves at the election.
It is not about lurching right or even left and this goes for all parties, it is simply about creating an environment for the Country to earn. Most of us call that the economy. You can spend as much as you like on ideology if it is being earned over and above the basics being afforded and funded without punitive punishment. First thing that needs to be driven from the heads of MPâs Parliament and Government is that tax and borrowing in its self, is not an earning.
July 5, 2024
The problem was the Conservatives talked as if they were right-wing, which put off centrist voters. But at the same time, they implemented left-wing policies in government:
– Increased regulation instead of reducing it, frustrating small business owners and the self-employed, a key group of supporters.
– Loosened immigration restrictions, so net migration increased.
– Implemented lockdowns, a communist policy. When it inevitably affected the economy and public services, they had no answer to the failures as they owned the policy.
– Doubled down on the Climate Act by introducing net zero, resulting in a greater need for left-wing market rigging, subsidies and bans.
– Lost control of public spending, resulting in tax rises.
– Refused to implement planning reform, contributing to the economy’s slowdown. However, the party ended up losing seats to the Liberal Democrats anyway.
– Failed to take more action to address the problems caused by the 2010 Equality Act and the spread of woke ideas. This inaction particularly irked socially conservative voters.
The first five issues involved moving to the left while in office. The last two were refusing to move to the right when it was pragmatic.
Finally, they ditched Boris, the only person capable of holding everything together with voters.
July 5, 2024
Still dodging the real issue. Supporters were betrayed. Listen to what Penny Mordaunt said, she has had the courage to say it when others dare not and look for diversionary details.
July 5, 2024
The latest election results emphasise the weakness , interms of democracy, of our FPTP system.
66% of the people who voted have no say in the governance of the UK for the next five years. 34% who voted have absolute control.
I would suggest that the Conservatives among the electorate , voted Conservative, voted Reform, or stayed at home. The consocialists, distasteful of voting for Conservatives or Reform, voted Lib/Dem. Labour only increased their vote by 1.5% on 2019, but due to the fracturing of the Conservative vote ended up with a dis proportionate 64% of the seats in the HoC.
In fact more people voted for the Conservatives and Reform than voted for Labour, but only got 20% of the seats. It was 38% against Labours 34%.
FPTP results in very polarised agendas which in my view have progressed the UK very little since 1945. We swing from one pole to the other and achieve very little. The only achievement is absolute power and the UK wallows while we wait to reverse it with the next five years of absolute power.
If you ran a company in that manner, then in no time you would be bankcrupt, which in effect is what FPTP gives us and the shareholders and workers suffer.
In just one example this is what FPTP gives us. Private education gives a minority the very best teachers and facilities. It should be the aiming point for state education. However since the 60s succsssive governments have swung between toleration abd destruction of private education, while of course making use of it themselves however rabid their views, and for one reason alone. It emphasises how appalling a job they have made with state education.
So there you have it, we are now headed for the other pole, a pigs ear having been made of the last polar expedition.
July 5, 2024
I think another reason is that the Conservative MPs chose Sunak as leader somehow failing to see that he was useless at politics (D Day, the election date, standing in the rain, national service etc. etc.) despite the fact the members didnât want him which should have given them some clue as to his appeal outside Westminster. I suppose now theyâll compound the error and choose Hunt.
July 5, 2024
A nation sacrificed on the altar of Neo-Marxism because Eton boy Cameron didn’t take too kindly to himself and his party being labelled racist and xenophobic. That’s how pathetic the Tories were and still are.
I hope Cameron’s happy with his sneaky, nasty work
Maybe Mr Redwood should explain the real reason why his old party sold itself and its soul?
A bit of soul searching may act as a cathartic tonic
Race and identity strikes at the heart of the real Tory party
July 5, 2024
You blame Lockdown the banks the rise in taxes and illegal immigration and yet no mention about the disastrous negotiations with the EU following brexit – nothing at all about Liz Truss and the billions wasted through her attempt at trickle down and then Jacob Rees-Mogg asks where did it go wrong? well for me it was when I saw that photo of him reclining in the House – summed it up – no respect.
July 5, 2024
Your party has lost some good MPs John. Jacob Rees Mogg, John Gullis, Andrea Jenkins to name but a few have lost their seats. What a pity the two to blame for this wipeout, Hunt and Sunak, got to keep theirs.
July 5, 2024
Agree with the list of reasons you have presented Sir John. It might have been easier to simply say. People stopped supporting the Tory government because the Tory government failed to do what it promised to do.
You would need a long list if you were to detail that though.
July 5, 2024
I just do not understand how they lost their way. After 2016’s Referendum which I worked along with others over 10 years was won I thought we were in for a new dawn. How wrong I was. Boris was unfit as a Leader other than as a figurehead. The people who run the Party should have put some really good management men in (not Rishi who seems to have plotted to get himself in top job) who had the power to tell him what to do and he had to obey or be threatened with removal. It could have then gone on for two more terms but, oh no, we had to have all this infighting which was not pleasant to watch from the shires where we were all trying to get by on reduced salaries/pensions as taxes went up. Only themselves to blame but many of them will be okay with payoffs and big pension pots so it is us again, the little ones in the shires, who will take the bullet from Labour (been here and seen it all before). What a pity as I was so happy to be going into the new dawn.
July 5, 2024
What should really annoy people is that Reform with 14.4% of the vote got 0.6% of the MPs.
When will the Brits realise they donât live in anything like a democracy?
July 5, 2024
No mention of Net Zero which together with the lies on curbing immigration meant I could not vote for any existing Parliamentary party.
Unless Labour lock away Red Ed and U-turn on Net Zero we will be experiencing riots and draconian authoritarian rule to enforce it. I donât think even the state broadcasterâs CAGW propaganda that the planet is boiling will continue to convince U.K. residents the need to unilaterally commit suicide to save the planet.
July 5, 2024
The Conservatives popularity will fall even further when it is realised that those MPs who remain will not be capable of acting as an Opposition with their wish to support Labour to return to the EU, continue with mass immigration and uncontrolled borders , the forced implementation of Net Zero and high wasteful spending to provide an excuse for high levels of taxation. In fact I cannot see any opposition at all coming from the Conservative Party. They have made themselves obsolete.
July 5, 2024
The speeches by the losing Conservatives were enlightening. They all said the same “We lost because we moved too far to the… [opposite of my politics]. So we must fix this by moving towards [my politics]”.
All with their heads in the sand. Or perhaps, in some cases, still deliberately preventing the Conservative Party from becoming remotely conservative again.
Read the Reform policies on their web site and you will see policies that would have been on Margaret Thatcher’s To-Do list if she were PM in the modern world. The broken promises are one thing, especially over immigration, but that’s just this parliament. After the 1997 wipe-out the Tories promised to abolish IR35. Then, when they were back in contention it became “review IR35”. When in power, they spent ages talking about it and did nothing. Then they made it worse.
So for me, it’s not just all of the items listed in the article (except perhaps covid, that didn’t bother me so much) – it’s the serial broken promises over decades, even when not in government. The changes of PM since 2019 are nothing compared to the failures since the 1990s and the lack of joined-up BELIEF. You have to stand for something AND make it happen when you get the chance.
The Tories are a busted flush because we know they will do the same again. They will promise real Conservative policies until close to power, then promise “reviews” etc … then fail miserably to do what the people voted them in to do. And they will defenestrate leaders due to their ridiculous rules, which will also allow new Lib Dem candidates to be imposed by CCHQ – and they will be a bunch of young careerists for whom being an MP is a stepping stone, they will sell the country out for personal gain.
That is why we MUST have a new party of the right. With new rules to prevent infiltration so that we have candidates/MPs who understand that it is country before party before self. I see that in Reform UK. I do not see it in any other party.
July 5, 2024
Sunak’s No 10 farewell speech a hoot. I long me me me of supposed success stories – all a bit late, and if true a monumental mistake calling an election that early.
But thats the man, missing you already.
July 5, 2024
Soon to be living in the USA but working in the Lords
July 5, 2024
The things is; this tory government didnât even try to resolve the issues with its traditional voters âŠ.ie no attempt to return or stop the boats, increasing visas, trans & gender, to stop net-zero, overriding our culture, allowing the BoE and the civil service to rule, getting rid of the only members PM and the TCA with the EU âŠ.I fear that voter trust is lost forever
July 5, 2024
Lord Ashcroftâs post-vote poll today, I guess much less directed to the kind of readership of this blog, is also very interesting.
July 5, 2024
Lammy as Foreign Sec.! Can we complain after Johnson, Truss, Shapps etc?
The face and voice of Britain on the global stage.
Wow.
July 5, 2024
Dear Sir John,
As you suggest, the Conservative government did not fall over issues of policy but because it was perceived as incompetent, not just over the economy but also healthcare, policing, mass immigration and control of our borders – ie because “nothing works”.
Millions of voters just wanted to be rid of it. So, as a broad generalisation, Brexiteers moved to Reform, Remainers switched to Lib Dem and former members of the Labour tribe who had “lent” their votes returned them to Labour. The result therefore tells the Conservatives nothing about whether they should move more to the right or the centre or stay where they are (wherever that may be).
In Opposition, it is very difficult to rebuild a reputation for competence, rather than just wait a decade for bad memories to fade. Proritising local government and especially executive mayoralties would help.
But there is one fundamental thing your party needs to do: finally end the bitter pro/anti Europe split that has wracked it for the past 40 years . It is still raging wildly if one has a look at the reader comments on the Conservative Home website.
Sir Keir Starmer has not just purged Mr Corbyn and his followers. He has also purged himself: the man who devised and spearheaded Labour’s attempts to thwart the Referendum by any means, the man who prevented a no-deal exit and has thereby threatened the union with Northern Ireland, now says that we shall not rejoin the EU or the single market/customs union in his lifetime.
We shall see whether he means that, but it seems to me that the Conservative Party needs to bury the Brexit hatchet and smoke the pipe of peace (if still legal ) if it is to recover unity and credibility.
July 5, 2024
It is almost true to say that the day the Conservatives threw out Boris Johnson was the day they lost the General Election. He is a titan among politicians both in his ability to see the wood from the trees in government and in his ability as a vote winner when running election campaigns. The American Republicans have rallied around Donald Trump and he is a more difficult man to rally around than Boris Johnson ever was. Unfortunately most Conservative M.P.s were far more interested in not feeling embarrassed in ‘polite society’ than in keeping their jobs and for the same reason they would not remove Rishi Sunak when it was evident he was neither popular nor competent. I agree with most of the the blog in respect of policies but with Sunak the Conservatives wouldn’t have won, no matter what the policies were.
This election is likely the first part of a two part process that will destroy the Conservative Party, the second part being the next General Election. As nominally still the Official Opposition the Conservatives can still act but their only chance is to outshine all the other Opposition parties which is probably too big an ask with the ultra-flamboyant Farage to the right and the Liberal Democrat tactical voting machine in the centre. Probably the only available chance is some deal with Reform and all rallying behind a radical agenda with Suella Braverman as Leader.
July 5, 2024
The tories & reform need to merge under the leadership of Farage to become a super-opposition
July 6, 2024
Dont underestimate the effect of traffic measures. We have an LTN now that we love, as traffic has reduced in our street and it’s safer for our children. No more nutters speeding there now. Conservatives would get rid of them. Only Labour & Greens are pro. I voted Labour, never have before. There was no Reform candidate in our area – I agree with almost everything they say except proportional representation which would be a disaster and give tiny weird parties huge disproportionate power via coalition-forming deals like in Spain.
July 7, 2024
All true ..plus the amount of MPs getting thrown out for lying, thieving, watching porn in the Chamber was unreal. I was disgusted to be honest. MPs being underhanded by getting contracts for their mates during Covid for instance. Profligate spending and incompetent management by the Treasury
Putting incompetent people in the top jobs. (Grant Schapps who knows nothing about the military as Secretary of State for Defence!!) The way that Boris was advised re Partygate and the defenestration of a PM who got an 80 seat majority was in my mind the start of the downfall of the Party. Incompetent MPs getting top jobs knowing nothing about them or being able to handle the Civil Servants running rings about them. Jobs for the boys let the Party down. I could go on. As a life long Tory and a Councillor on a London Borough years ago, I am disgusted in my Party and did not vote for the first time in my life.
July 10, 2024
Fairly key one missing…
Leavers had been going Tory given that they were the only party in a position both to govern and that was respecting the results of votes such as the referendum.
Party gave their membership the choice of Truss or Sunak, membership didn’t like Sunak so put Truss in, party failed to get behind her and the result was disastrous… but then, even worse, they put the already rejected Sunak in unopposed as her successor. Literally any other MP would have been a better choice.
If the party can ignore their members and overturn them on a leadership vote, what other democratic votes will the party ignore. And thus large numbers either stay home or switch away, mostly to Reform in protest.