I have  heard a couple of Shadow Cabinet members on the BBC setting out the Opposition position. They clearly found it difficult. They rightly sounded chastened by the electoral disaster that beset them. They apologised and sounded contrite.
They do however have a vital role to play. In a Parliament where 34% of the voters have such dominant representation and where the third largest party largely agrees with the government, the 121 Conservatives need to provide strong criticism where the government is wrong and a good alternative where its laws and policies will not work.
They need an early agreement amongst themselves as to why their candidates did so badly. They need to apologise for the bad errors that led to the result and move on to the current world. They should not apologise for everything and accept  the blame for all the problems Labour will now expose and blame on the previous government.
The three big mistakes I think they should apologise for are the boom/ bust inflationary cycle Bank and Treasury delivered, the huge overrun of migration which they should have controlled and the collapse in public sector productivity 2020 to 2023 which pushed up taxes and worsened services.
In Opposition they should support the governmentâs aims of the U.K. growing faster than the rest of the G7, of providing  high quality public services and promoting opportunity for all. Where government does good things that support these aims they should back the government. I will set out in a later blog where they already need to oppose and warn, as early policy announcements will take Labour further from these aims.
July 14, 2024
Dead right!
Unfortunately a lot of things get in the way of being a constructive opposition in the national interest. The most obvious are identity politics, woke ideology, climate ideology, globalism, cultural Marxism, growing sectarianism and communalism from political Islam. These are so embedded in the institutions of the state the task of opposition is herculean and extends well beyond the government to every institution of the state. These infect Tories as well as the other parties.
Thank goodness for the presence of a handful of Reform MPs which is a clearly identifiable truly conservative party unblemished by a track record of unconservative policies and actions even when it held a commanding majority in government.
Apart from yourself other truly conservative MPs in Parliament should ally with Reform informally if not formally to push a truly conservative agenda. But I do not advocate Farage joining the Tory Party as some do because it would kill conservatism forever by tainting Reform with Tory betrayal. Reform is the visible kernal of conservatism and must paddle its own canoe, otherwise voters will never be certain of the position the party they support would actually take. Trust in politics cannot be restored otherwise. The Tories are rightly condemned for their inexcusable betrayal of the millions who gave them such a commanding majority in September 2019.
July 14, 2024
Inexcusable serial betrayals. Lies at four elections promising tax cuts & reduced immigration & yet not even trying to deliver these – let alone actually deliver. Promises on public services, defence, law and order police, the NHS⊠yet the Tories delivered the complete reverse. Plus we got a botched Brexit. They blamed it all on Putin and Covid. When really it was what they did during Covid net harm lockdowns, the QE, the net harm Vaccines, the vast government waste, crony capitalism and corruption, HS2, duff degrees, over bloated governmentâŠ
Then we have the moronic policies of Net Zero and their Energy lunacy that they did actually, totally moronically, promise (and nearly MPs supported) & have idiotically actually tried to deliver. Nor will the mad Miliband in charge.
Plus Sunak moronically even abandoned office six month early rather than beginning to sort this.
The deed is done, little or nothing that the opposition can do, other than say the Tories lied & got everything wrong for 14 years and Labour are doing even more of it and even faster.
Huge haul of Gun parts intercepted by the police from Pakistan I see. What proportion do they manage to stop I wonder? 1%, 10%, 30%?
July 14, 2024
Moronic and idiotic? Strange that your obsession with Net Zero obscures the fact that the electorate voted for the Labour Party with an even more draconian approach as evidenced by Millibandâs actions. Take your blinkers off.
Reply Only 34% voted for them. 38% voted Cons/Reform
July 14, 2024
reply to reply….if you want to point to low support quote 66% opposed. Joining the mistake ridden Cons with the solution offering Reform doesn’t make sense.
July 14, 2024
The election was designed to prevent the public from voting Brexit or conservative. Thankfully Reform Party offers Brexit and conservatism.
Lynne might helpfully change the Tory party back from Blaire socialism to conservatism, but I fear that is no longer possible. The Tory party has lost all trust. The party is done.
In 2016 we witnessed Tory govt., Labour and lie dumb MPs try to overturn Brexit, ignore the national vote and defy democracy. They were all prepared to do whatever it took ie cross the floor, work with EU to betray our country, change laws and change long recognised parliamentary procedures to overthrow democracy. Sunakâs govt. gave away N.Ireland to EU to force lock step and coerced DUP to cave in. Sunakâs EU Windsor sell out did not get the attention it deserved for selling out the nation against the democratic vote to leave the EU in its entirety. Now they tried to give us a dishonest choice of EU, EU or EU lock step. Unfortunately for them Reform provided a better choice.
Do not expect the MSM to do anything other than con the public with the BBC spear heading the propaganda.
July 14, 2024
0% voted “Cons/Reform”. Because no such party exists.
July 14, 2024
Reply to reply: Youâve added Conservative and Reform. But you didnât add Labour + Lib Dem + Green.
And, really, as far as voting for the Net Zero Lunacy goes, the sum should be:
For: Labour + Tory + Lib Dem + Green
Against: Reform
You canât really put the Tories in with Reform – your 14 years in power put you very much in the Net Zero lunacy camp.
July 14, 2024
Correct
July 14, 2024
They did not vote for Labour they voted against the fake Tories.
Without growth, nothing else can be achieved
Tax revenue can only go up if our economy is larger. Labour will be relentless in its pursuit of this goal
say Darren Jones in the Telegraph.
Well yes mate – but all Labour policies net zero, bigger state, energy lunacy, higher taxes, more red tape, more bans on oil, coal, fracking⊠are all profoundly anti-grow. The only pro-growth policy Labour have is to relax planning. I agree with that one IF done sensibly and quickly. The rest are bonkers.
July 14, 2024
A massive 2,800 acre solar panel monstrosity built over perfectly good farm land. Red Ed happy to announce this monstrosity rather than grow food for an ever growing population! Instead farmers paid not to grow food!
Basic commodities like water and food production should be a national priority, not rely on imports. Lessons from WWII should never be forgotten. Food Rationing lasted until fifties! Capture and distribution of water. Reservoirs central to this should be a priority Not EU environment lock step! Nor reliant on hostile EU or countries for our energy and key manufacturing like steel. Labour and Tory party prefer to do what they are told by EU and create a narrative for public consumption. The dictoral Uni party needs ousting.
July 14, 2024
Cheap, reliable, on demand energy is essential for good growth, health, defence, living standards, to be competitive… It is why we made such huge strides in living standards, health, reductions in poverty, life expectancy, productivityâŠsince the start of the industrial revolution. Labour, Libdims, Greens, SNP, Plaid and the Tories all want to roll this back, in another chairman Mao type of disaster. Justified by a mad CO2 devil gas religion. A mad war on tree, plant and crop food when in historical terms we live in a relative dearth of CO2!
July 14, 2024
LL,
Excellent post.
July 14, 2024
34% of the few that voted, more like circa 20% of people who could vote I think! There was not real good will for Starmer look at his personal vote which collapsed.
July 14, 2024
Nigl, I think you’re over-interpreting the result. Most commentators I’ve heard agree that the electorate voted against the Tories, rather than for Labour. To the extent that they voted for anything, they voted for the rather vague idea of ‘change’, which doesn’t apply to net zero as both major parties supported it.
July 14, 2024
Reply to reply: so the start-up finally counts in the numbers? There might just then be a smidgen of truth in the idea that the Conservative party and its value proposition is as alive as the proverbial parrot. If it were a company it would be split into its two component parts and sold off. Which is what should happen. Let the 52% from 2016 speak out for one genuine party, not split between an old rag-bag and a start-up. Then we can watch the Reform element grow properly, representing that 52%, as Labour and its wagging tail of Libdem and a few old Tory voters eventually realise that the holy grail is NOT in Net Zero, the EU and higher immigration from the third world.
July 14, 2024
Reply to reply.
JR,
Your percentages are incorrect. Reform opposed net stupid tory party did not. But Tory party offered the same net stupid left wing socialist policy. Tory voters like Labour voters voted for net stupid!
To answer your broad question Tory party cannot oppose Labour because they want the same key central policies! Net stupid, mass immigration, dilute Brexit to force EU lock step as a vassal state, high tax, big state, mass welfare claimants. That is why the country feels betrayed by the Tory party and those MPs who served 14 years a Tory MPs cannot escape the facts or responsibility.
JR, When Labour betray Brexit further Will any of the front opposition bench- Sunak, Dowden, Hunt, Plebgate, Atkins- even raise it as an issue? What could they say about mass immigration? What could they say about high taxes? What could they say about no law and order? Public services overwhelmed? Lie dems the same. Therefore only Reform can ask opposition questions. Time for Tory party to be obliterated.
July 14, 2024
‘ Only 34% voted for them. 38% voted Cons/Reform’
– Who cares. These are just numbers. They do NOT represent POWER to do anything,
Labour is in power. Tories are left sitting on the sidelines, sucking their thumbs, after having achieved next to nothing over the last 14 years – because of in-fighting and no clear, substantive policy to grow our economy. And Tories could now be out of power for next 10 years whilst Labour – even more socialist than the Tory gov – spend, spend, spend etc and indulge in more WOKE
July 14, 2024
Stop niggling about Net Zero Nigl. Basic fact is that generally people do not realise how much in subsidies is directed to renewables. For instance at Drax the power company said it had earned ÂŁ837m in subsidies in 2020 and ÂŁ885m in 2021. The level of support fell to ÂŁ617m in 2022l (see The Guardian 22.2.23).
July 14, 2024
What’s the point in opposing the very things the tories did for 14 years. All liebour will say is they’re improving on your policies.
Already they’ve begun the slash and burn in pursuit of the illusionary nut zero, approving massive solar farms, cancelling the Cumbrian coal mine and giving the nod gor 10gw of windmills which will on average produce 1.9gw.
They’re clearing the jails and letting foreign prisoners on the street instead of deporting them.
Anyway the rump conservative party isn’t big enough or truthful enough to oppose anything.
Reform will have to be our voice of reason.
July 14, 2024
Indeed. No credibility at all in Tories opposing Labour doing things that the Tories have done for 14 years, albeit less vigorously than Labour. Until the Conservative Party folds, this is a field day for Labour.
July 14, 2024
The current Tory opposition front bench are pro EU one nation Tories that JR blogged about recently. They share the same views as Labour front bench!! It will be a sham for each Wednesday Punch and Judy show. The only difference is the colour of the rosette. Sunak did not even consult the 1922 committee or anyone else over his manifesto or policies or election timing. Those he did tell put a bet on the date!!
July 14, 2024
âwhere the third largest party largely agrees with the governmentâ
I would say that a majority of Conservative MPs also agree with the government. Therefore they will be a weak opposition. They would look pretty stupid to attack Labour on immigration, net zero, wokery, and Bank/Treasury mismanagement when they championed these same policies. The WEF baton has been passed and the destruction of our country will continue unabated.
I donât see any future for the Conservative party. They have utterly destroyed themselves and our country. They should be ashamed of themselves and rightly feel contrite.
July 14, 2024
They promised largely what they knew the public largely wanted, in four manifestoâs and deliberately delivered the complete reverse and tried this again in the fifth. Then Sunak even pathetically abandoned ship six month early. Still lying that the Covid vaccines were unequivocally safe, net zero was vital and that the Truss crashed the economy. No Sunak, as a piss down the drain Chancellor, and QE pushing Andrew Bailey did that she just tripped on the bomb they left.
July 14, 2024
For those who are mathematically minded ( certainly not me) there are some new and said to be horrific ONS figures out.
Buried it seems on Election Day.
Harm to young people I believe.
Youâve probably already seen and analysed?
July 14, 2024
All the figures I have studied, from several countries have been appalling especially for the young who never even had any need to take any vaccine for Covid even a safe effective one that worked and these were very far away from that! Nor should anyone who had had covid already have been given them, unless there were some very special circumstances indeed.
July 14, 2024
+++
All of it beyond terrible.
July 14, 2024
OK, so nothing in this comment suggests how the Tories are going to get back into power.
That’s a huge problem with the Tory Party. It’s all about in-fighting and recriminations and on fantasy politics that the voters won’t vote for (not enough to get the Tories into power) – and fantasy politics that doesn’t work to an important degree either.
If we’re going to grow our economy we have to do a lot more to help entrepreneurs and in particular those in the High Tech industry to do that – whilst doing something to try and make our native population more productive instead of sitting around on welfare (and weaning them off welfare too quickly won’t work – just results in chaos making life even more expensive for the tax payers / middle classes).
Sometimes I think a lot of people are more interested in politics to mean about others than actually have a positive plan for people to jump on board with and enthusiastically.
July 14, 2024
Well said.
First they surrendered to the language of the left.
Then they surrendered to the objectives of the left.
Then they surrendered to the agenda of the left.
Then they surrendered to the policies of the left.
Then they implemented those policies.
They made themselves obsolete. If you want left-wing green-socialism, you’ll vote for the organ grinder, not the monkey.
July 14, 2024
Donna
Agreed, How can you sensibly oppose many polices which you as a Party were pursuing, or looking to pursue when in power.
I think the Conservatives should pick their subject matter, and opposition to them, very, very carefully, in the meantime they should reflect that Labour only won, because the Conservatives lost the trust of millions of their traditional supporters, difficult to get that trust back when in opposition.
So yes of course oppose the most extreme labour policies, but only with sensible, factual, and logical argument.
Reform of course have no need for such constraints, but will they get much Parliamentary air time ?
July 14, 2024
hear hear
July 14, 2024
Good morning.
They were NOT errors, it was deliberate policy. The Conservative Party were booted out of office for the very reason many here stated – They were no longer conservative. That is why people either did not vote for them or, voted Reform. They did not vote Labour as Labour’s vote share did not increase, not even in the so called Red Wall.
I am given to understand from other sources that a purge of right wing members is currently going on, and that, after an initial phoney war between so called right and left of the party to select a new leader, which in all likelihood will be Kemi Badenoch MP, they will are to lurch even further to the left.
The demise of your once great party Sir John has entered a new phase.
July 14, 2024
Indeed âNot errors they were deliberate policiesâ!
July 14, 2024
Mark B
Yes.
I heard that too. ( A video I think)
And it also said that the purging tories actually believe the wokeness is what people will vote for!
In spite of disastrous election results!!
More of the same on steroids in other words.
July 14, 2024
The leak of Badenoch criticising Braverman was not a mistake. My goodness Plebgate on the front bench of the opposition bench sitting next to Sunak, Hunt and Dowden says it all. Get real JR. The public have outed the socialist chameleons masquerading as Tories.
July 14, 2024
+1
July 14, 2024
Agree – Its time that the conservative party was renamed to the one-nation party and the reform party allowed to be renamed the tory party
July 14, 2024
@Mark B +1 – Yup they destroyed it, they own it. No way back until a ‘Conservative’ turns up.
They use the phrase of ‘right-wing’ nowadays for those that are ‘not’ prolific uncontrolled spenders, that want to control the public purse, balance the budget, want to earn our future not borrow it. The sort of things every house-hold in the UK has to contend with daily – the centre of the UK.
The last 14 years have seen the Socialist takeover of a Conservative Government, the One Nation big uncontrolled spenders, the CCHQ only permitting WEF disciples in to standing, all because they are images of themselves. Then at the extreme left we saw Sunak/Hunt maliciously cause inflation, cause high interest rates – then thinking they were hiding what they did created the highest peace time tax take and borrowing. Everything was to right even labour
July 14, 2024
The Conservative party should also apologise for it’s stupid and damaging Net Zero policy. It gives a free run to Miliband who has wasted no time cancelling future oil and gas drilling, and issuing licences to cover prime farm land in East Anglia with solar panels. Food security apparently does not matter.
July 14, 2024
Speaking on a âSpectatorâ panel JRM apologised saying that losing his seat was entirely his own fault not Nigel Farageâs and that the tories lost because of non adherence to conservative policy. He also referred to the madness of NZ.
So for goodness sakeâŠall is now lost.
A stitch in time and all that.
He had plenty of chances!
Maybe the conservative tories will be more robust in opposition?
July 14, 2024
So why did it take the losing of his seat for him to realise this ? If he spoke up and told fellow members of his party and the public that Nut Zero was and expensive and dangerous folly and, that not keeping our promises would end in being forced out of office, he would not be on the outside wishing he done the aforementioned.
No sympathy.
Our kind host wrote long and hard on what measures he believed the government needed to do. They ignored him.
July 14, 2024
+++
Exactly.
July 14, 2024
First the CP should decide what it believes in, other than a divine right to power. Very difficult as most of them are products of central office thinking, politically distant from those they claim to represent. A difficult claim as their electorate largely stayed at home or voted Reform.
Lets see how they select a leader. If they do what they did last time and ignore their own members, it is irrelevant what they think or do. If you as a member, I assume you still are, are allowed to give an half hour autopsy speech at their conference from the pIatform I would consider it progress. If the wets have established leadership by then you will not be allowed.
The only opposition to this 34% of the electorate government is Reform. As we saw in the EU parliament Nigel can effectively oppose and tell us where they are burying the bodies. With respect, because only you know why, you did not stand last time round. You missed an opportunity in not standing for Reform in Wokingham. The electorate there , on past performance, supported you despite your marked differences with your government. Your political stance was Reform in all but name. The conservative party was social democrat, consocialist, call it what you choose, but unelectable. When we know what they intend to be in the future we can decide whether they have the honour of being considered as the opposition.
Reply Reform chose a candidate for Wokingham early and got fewer votes than the Lib Dem majority.There was no Reform vacancy and I would not have won the seat if they had asked me to stand and I had accepted. I disagreed with their PR policy and with their clumsy and lop sided approach to economic policy over the Bank and the losses which I had highlighted as an issue. My decision not to stand was based on not being able to defend the Conservative record and Manifesto. I always thought the Reform/Conservative split would produce a huge Lib/Lab majority.
July 14, 2024
reply to reply…..’I always thought the Reform/Conservative split’ You never gave any indication that you felt you would lose, until very late on stepping aside, plunging your supporters into the dilemma of backing a parachuted ‘ Conservative’ providing photos of her with Sunak, or supporting emerging Reform who want to dispute the Conservative policies.
Reply I did not think I would lose. I thought the party would lose lots of other seats. I made it crystal clear to the Conservative leadership I thought they would lose if they did not change policy on the economy and migration in ways I set out on this site
July 14, 2024
Reply to Reply. Looking forward very much to your memoirs, Sir John.
July 14, 2024
Reply to reply Oh come on!
“their clumsy and lop sided approach to economic policy over the Bank and the losses which I had highlighted as an issue” you are talking as though your influence with Reform would have been on a level with that in the Conservatives= totally untrue! You would have added credibility and been able to amend and explain these policies.
“I always thought the Reform/Conservative split would produce a huge Lib/Lab majority.” to coin a phrase, having the “courage of your convictions” would have helped the Reform cause. You really think an unknown place person from outside the area as Tory would have beaten a Redwood as Reform candidate, not to mention the publicity it would have given to the cause?? Really?
As for PR policy, I think Reform beat the Tory PR policy hands down (despite it being a start-up). In Wokingham, you could have pointed out that sending mountains of paper through doors as Libdems did is hardly saving the planet.
There are plenty of good reasons for standing down after Sterling service, but these aren’t!
Reply Reform never wanted to talk to me about economics.
July 14, 2024
reply to reply…..quite probably that they feared you tearing into economic details and history which would be used against them! What did they want to talk about? A major policies discussion prior to you even thinking about joining?
July 14, 2024
The combined Conservative & Reform vote in Wokingham would not have beaten the Lib Dems Sir John as I’m sure you know.
David Starkey has this right I think, when he says that we are being moved to rule by the ‘establishment’. The Civil Service will assume the same role as the European Commission in terms of actually deciding and enforcing policy. The Commons will have little real power, exactly the same as elected MEPs in Brussels, who can neither initiate policy or ultimately stop it. I believe we’ve seen this already with Rwanda. Whatever the merits of the plan (or not), the Government was completely powerlesss to enact it in the face of legal and CS challenges.
Reply When I decided not to stand I thought I could scrape a win. The national Conservative campaign was then far worse than expected.I did not expect the D Day incident or the gambling saga. The Conservative candidate in Wokingham ran a very different campaign to the one I would have set out.
July 14, 2024
reply to reply …we both gave Lucy serious consideration, but the material with photos of Mrs May, and then next to Sunak killed any chance of our votes. Sorry to say that left us not voting or voting for Reform – which we did.
July 14, 2024
Different being a synonym for hopeless.
July 14, 2024
You may be right Sir John, if only that I suspect many people would have carried on voting for you after all these years….whatever they thought of your Party….
July 15, 2024
Ian T
Perhaps John (in his early 70’s) did not feel like 5 years or more in opposition with the Party still not listening to him, no point in wasting time at that stage of you life if you think you can be more productive doing something else.
I only ever voted Conservative in Wokingham at the last few elections because of Johns views, the Conservative Party left me when “hug a hoodie” Cameron was elected, and it got even worse under May.
Any Conservative candidate who slavishly followed the Party Line, was never going to get my vote this time around, hence the reason I voted Reform, the alternative was to spoil my paper or not vote, but those two options quite honestly mean nothing, if you do not vote, you cannot complain.
July 14, 2024
Among those who wake early the thinking is fairly uniform.
July 14, 2024
Spot on.
We wake from uneasy dreams to a political and economic nightmare.
July 14, 2024
Having clarified that the conservatives lost by not being Conservative we are asked to think about how Labour are to be opposed.
Consider this, Labour got fewer votes than they did under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn who lost. In 2024 everyone else lost for the reasons already discussed.
Labour carry the germ of their own destruction. Their vast numbers are now the broad church. They now contain paganism to the pope and the cracks are already evident. Large numbers breed arrogance. Evident within labour and just as important, policy decisions that put them in direct conflict with the 66% who didn’t vote labour or didn’t vote at all. They can also find themselves in conflict with their core financial support, the unions. Offering the North Sea oil and gas industry death by strangulation will cause an enormous schism. Just as Conservatism lined itself up for finality due to Nett Zero, so Labour are heading the same way by adopting a gold plated version.
The opposition is still alive in the country, it is down to the political classes and the blob to wake up to it. Nigel and Reform are already in place to initiate and effect that opposition in Parliament while rallying the electorate outside. Labour are in a house of cards, the more they enact their programme the stronger the opposition grows.
When governments are elected in the UK , the norm is that they govern for all, but Labour do not have it in them to be that generous.
July 14, 2024
Maybe some should lie in more?
July 14, 2024
Swipe across the bows? lolđ
Personally I wish I could..
But in my upended and now uncertain world, relaxation and enjoyment are things of the past.
Woke TV beyond watching. News beyond bearing. Devastated countryside beyond visiting. Roads crowded beyond using. ParkingâŠ.gone! Banks and small shops ( mostâŠnot the wondrous ones naturally) all kaput.
What a prospect!
July 14, 2024
â They need an early agreement amongst themselves as to why their candidates did so badly.â
So the âwin from the centreâ people and the âtraditional conservative valuesâ people must resolve their differences? That is unlikely to happen.
The âbig mistakesâ should have included – promising things and not doing them or doing the opposite and allowing widespread decline to persist in public services, the roads, the NHS etc etc.
The trouble with the mistakes is that they cannot be rectified by an opposition and voters have good memories and may not believe a party that had fourteen years to address these issues.
July 14, 2024
The shooting of Donald Trump is the major news story today. Fortunately the bullet only grazed his ear.
Political violence is on the increase.
July 14, 2024
Peter
To me, even throwing milkshake at a political candidate is an act of terrorism and should not be tolerated. People are entitled to agree and disagree but not use violence or the threat of to promote their views and silence their opponents.
July 14, 2024
Wasnât someone once arrested/prosecuted for throwing an egg ( or similar) at John Prescott?
But I think John muddied the water by punching the bloke in the face.
Re Trump. Awful⊠and wasnât there some news of a bystander/supporter being killed?
July 14, 2024
Yes. Terrible what has happened. And the MSM, to their shame, are trying to play it down.
July 14, 2024
‘Fortunately’ – but killed others?
July 14, 2024
Let’s remind ourselves what our new Foreign Secretary called President Trump:
“woman-hating neo-Nazi sympathising sociopathâ and a âprofound threat to the international order.â
Left-wing politicians and their cheerleaders in the MSM regularly use extreme and violent language to demonise their opponents and whilst there is (quite rightly) outrage when a left-wing politician is attacked (Joe Cox) they almost celebrate an attack on politicians they don’t approve (Farage) with Jo Brand not even disciplined for suggesting that a milkshake thrown over him should have been acid.
The rot starts at the head.
July 14, 2024
To the BBC this was an “assassination attempt” not an assassination attempt. That speaks volumes.
July 14, 2024
Prompt local observation and warnings to Police and FBI (?) speaks to efficiency(?)! of the protection forces not getting him off the open stage. Questions need asking – could only happen in America.
July 14, 2024
As is political lawfare, blatant lies, false accusations of racism, general race baiting and endless dirty tricks especially against Reform.
The charming David Lammy:- âTrump is not only a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath. He is also a profound threat to the international order that has been the foundation of Western progress for so long,â he wrote in Time. âIt is because I cherish and champion those values that this Friday, I will march with London against Donald Trump.â
Lammy also criticized Trump as slandering and insulting London for political benefit, and that âTrump has barely concealed his racist attacks on the U.K.â
Did not Starmer say something about respecting everyone? Even Tory scum, scum, scum as Rayner likes to chant!
July 14, 2024
WOKE EXTREME political violence is on the increase ……because our courts say that they have a ‘human-right’ to commit those violent & destructive acts ….they’re given the green light to continue
July 14, 2024
The remaining Conservative MPs know why their candidates did so badly. They were following an errant leader, Sunk himself, plunging them deeper into the horrid mess they created. They should have opposed HIM instead of pushing worse into worst. A new, sensible leader is needed. Would the rump even have the ability to find one?
July 14, 2024
They got what they deserved. No sympathy there.
As for their new leader. It will be a case of, “Here is the new boss, same as the old boss !” ie Talk right wing to garner support, but will go full on lefty when in office.
July 14, 2024
The parliamentary Conservatives and the wider membership are too shell-shocked by their defeat to be able to mount any sort of opposition to the new Labour government for some time. There will now be a protracted period of recrimination as the various factions try and find someone (anyone) to blame for their defeat; Sunak will take most of it
The party will be convulsed for a long period, at least for the rest of the year, whilst the rump jockey for position in the forthcoming leadership campaigns. As usual, it will be party and internal politics first – and country second
Labour have won a huge majority, though not as large as some of the MRP polls suggested. They have hit the ground running and they will not miss the opportunity to expose the 14 years of incompetence that the “natural party of government” inflicted on the country.
July 14, 2024
Labour hardly need to expose 14 years of Tory incompetence, when the Tories were quite able to that by themselves. What Labour will expose, now they’re in office, is their own inability to do any better. It will be clearest, soonest, on energy policy, where we can expect power cuts fairly soon, but also on utilities, where a year from now the public will be wondering why there is still sewage on our beaches and in our rivers. It may then dawn on them that the major policy decisions are not really made in Westminster, but in the sort of places our new PM says he prefers to be, like Davos. In January last year he was there discussing with his future business partners the party’s green growth plan, including the Great British Energy investment vehicle. Next January he’ll doubtless be there again, working out his policies over the heads of the British people.
July 14, 2024
Appalling appointments so far:- Lammy, Patrick Vallance, Rayner, Ed Miliband, Chris Stark⊠the main ones and all the other. Though the health Sec says the odd sensible thing.
July 14, 2024
Quite so. Indeed both Conservative and Labour Parties are incapable of either governing or of opposing. Thatâs why our democracy is not working.
We need to replace the political class completely with our own choice of candidates, competent people willing to work, and with an inkling of what the principles of their politics comprises.
July 14, 2024
They support most of what Labour will do and will only offer token opposition.
It is already been mooted that they think they lost because they were not Left Wing enough and that it was all Liz Truss’s fault.
As our kind host mentioned in a reply to another poster. He could not support the government and its manifesto, so he decided to retire.
July 14, 2024
So he joined the majority who also could not support the Governmentâs manifesto, and didnât. We canât all be wrong.
July 14, 2024
Good morning SJR
The issue for the Conservative party and those who belong to it both as serving MPs and party members runs far, far deeper than mere policy prescriptions. We’re talking about a party consumed and captured by woke and progressive ideas. That capture therefore informs all policy, opinion and belief of every Tory MP apart from a few brave souls like Bridgen and Jenkins who a decade ago would have been seen as the epitome of a decent MP. Now they are portrayed as bordering on evil for expressing views endorsed by tens of millions of decent, ordinary people.
The Conservative is now a party so fearful of what they once were, following the left’s agenda of demonisation, that they are quite content to both capitulate to and fully endorse what many label ‘the left’ and its transformative agenda which in effect seeks nothing less than the total demographic and cultural realignment of the UK. This is the real problem. In effect the Tory party believes in absolutely nothing except career and personal enhancement. Why would anyone vote for people like that?
I note the real fascists have just tried to murder an American politician. I have just an image of Trump, blood running down the side of his determined and defiant looking face, with clenched fist in front of the figure. Trump is now the POTUS. Antifa have failed in their quest to extinguish their most potent political enemy.
Violence should never replace fierce and aggressive debate. Free speech is the litmus test of a free and democratic nation. Woke is a cancer. To survive the Tory party must reject all forms of woke and progressive poison
July 14, 2024
‘clenched fist in front of the American flag’
Back to being happy!
July 14, 2024
We saw in 2016 the traitors acring together to stop and overturn Brexit in parliament. They are now all together sitting opposite each other. It. matters not to them which bench they sit on they are the same. Tories are finished, public punished lie dumbs for going in with Tories. The public just gave the verdict on the pro EU one nation socialist Tory party.
July 14, 2024
All too true. Proper opposition to the agendas driving the Labour government will not come from people who also follow the same agendas. Look at the continuity – Chris Stark, appointed by Theresa May to head the Climate Change Committee, kept in post by three successive Tory PMs, and thanked for his great work by Claire Coutinho, is now back in charge of that ‘climate’ policy committee again. Says it all.
July 14, 2024
100% Correct +1
Viva President Trump !!!!
July 14, 2024
+1 and President Putin. They may save us yet.
July 14, 2024
Lynn
Whilst I too admire President Putin love of his country, to me he is still and ex-KGB thug who will kill people in the most horrible of ways. Never heard of polonium until it was used to murder someone.
July 14, 2024
I saw Lord Frost’s interview on TDS. I agreed with his points.
He was saying there was no future for the Tories unless they became conservative again. The “red wall” had been betrayed by metropolitan globalist Labour, so they voted Tory to get traditional conservative policies, but found to their disgust that they just got more of the same globalist ones.
He also said a divided Right cannot get into power. Sadly, true.
The Tories need to settle what they are, before they can be an effective opposition. If they turn out to be de facto in the Uniparty, then the only real opposition will be Reform and until most Conservative voters turn to them, we are stuck with the Uniparty in power.
July 14, 2024
Like all politicians, straight to outcomes.
Two fundamental requirements of successful change management.
Engage with stake holders and hearts and minds. The Tories failed at a strategic level by arrogantly thinking they had a right to government and could ignore/override the views of their core voters. They were also operationally inept and politically cowardly, for instance thinking they could âbuyâ trust in the NHS by pouring money into it without anything in return.
Even now we see the failed centrists pushing back on Braverman saying she is too far right, creating party fragmentation etc when it is they who have been the problem.
July 14, 2024
The three big “mistakes” they should apologise for are:
1. Refusing to deliver a real Brexit and, having refused to do that, refusing to take full advantage of the limited freedoms we did get.
2. The Net Zero Scam
3. The Covid Tyranny
Of course, none of these were mistakes. They were deliberate because they weren’t governing in the interests of the UK and the British people.
I see no likelihood of the rump Not-a-Conservative-Party opposing the Government, since they both report to the WEF and both support the policies the WEF espouses.
The only genuine Opposition in Parliament will come from the 5 Reform MPs.
July 14, 2024
They haven’t a chance in 5 years ….until they completely reverse your 3 points ….but they won’t !!!
July 14, 2024
I seem to remember that the COVID Tyranny was welcomed by many, happy to sit at home and be paid for it.
July 14, 2024
Thats the people with public sector /tax-payer funded jobs
July 14, 2024
And they still sit at home refusing to work- the world owes them a living donât you know?
July 14, 2024
Commentators call the apparent schism in the tories âfakeâ.
I wonder why.
Are there actually no Conservatives remaining?
So the split is fake to fool the voters again?
And much publicised alleged in-fighting, the usual curse of any apparently right wing group, appears to be dogging Reform.
Put not your trust in âŠactuallyâŠANYTHING,
July 14, 2024
+1
July 14, 2024
âThey [the Conservative Opposition] need to apologise for the bad errors that led to the result and move on to the current world.â
But their policies of high wasteful spending to justify high taxes, massive illegal and legal immigration and Net Zero were all designed deliberately to impoverish the UK and the middle and working classes in particular.
There is no way that the current Conservative MPs can act as an effective opposition to Labour any more than can the Lib Dems for both parties are in agreement with Labourâs policies. Opposition will only come from Reform. The Conservative Party has made itself obsolete.
July 14, 2024
As a party machine, the Tories are currently discussing how to get back to power. Everything will be a means to that end. Considerations of political principles and values will take a back seat. First and foremost will be how to look presentable in the media. They will want to learn from Starmer’s achievement in avoiding nearly all negative publicity by carefully following the ‘Ming vase’ policy – getting from here to there while avoiding any accidental upsets. The message from the election campaign is that all that matters in politics is getting into power and not dropping a clanger that the media will seize on. Then you’re electable. If you state your policies too clearly and the left-liberal establishment don’t like them, look what Channel 4 did to Farage – at least he didn’t have to dodge a bullet, though. Would I blame the Conservatives for thinking along those lines? No. It’s party machine politics.
July 14, 2024
âThe three big mistakes I think they should apologise for areâŠ.â
You have omitted, Sir John, the biggest of all, the unnecessary and unilateral economy destroying Net Zero Strategy. PM May legislated for 100% Net Zero by 2050 without a proper debate and vote and no costing and PM Johnson wrote the Net Zero Strategy and advanced the end of our car manufacturing business with the ending of the sales of ices by 2030. Plus the military and economic insecurity of ending our steel making.
Unless the incoming Labour Government u-turns on these net zero CO2 policies then Red Ed Miliband will have all the tools he needs to completely destroy our economy and make us a third world country with chaotically intermittent supplies of expensive energy.
July 14, 2024
PS : CAGW is a hoax. The IPCC WG1 (âThe Scienceâ) only attributes a mere 1.2 degrees C to a doubling of CO2 (P95) because of a phenomenon known as IR saturation and Table 12 in Chapter 12 shows no signals for climate change other than some mild warming. There is no anthropogenic CO2 emissions explanation for the warming of the planet out of the last ice age which ended 11,000 years ago or for many other historical facts such as the Icelandic Norsemen colonising Greenland for several hundred years prior to the Little Ice Age which required temperatures to be 5 degrees higher than today.
July 14, 2024
PPS :
The woke Marxists m.o. is to cause chaos, division and destruction by marrying a truth to a lie to achieve an operational objective. The truth is that there is some slight benign warming of the planet as we come out of the Little Ice Age. The lie is that this warming is caused by burning hydrocarbons and anthropogenic emissions of CO2, a greenhouse gas, are causing the rising temperature.
July 14, 2024
How should Conservatives oppose?
More to the point, why should they oppose when Labour will just continue the exact same policies of big state, tax, borrow, spend and waste?
Or how can they oppose? If Labour presides over continuing unsustainable legal immigration and illegal immigration, as I fully expect them to do, the Conservatives can say nothing. If the NHS waiting lists continue at their present level, again I can’t see Labour making things better, that will be business as Conservative usual.
Sacking CCHQ would help as a start. I’m sure the Conservative membership are the Yeomen of England, but for every vote they carry, how many are the consequence of influencers on social media, voting for the woke and socialist ideology? Etc ed
July 14, 2024
The Tories are opposition in name only. There is no way they can hold the government to account. On this Reform have the field and should take it.
July 14, 2024
Conservatives lost because they appeared incompetent and because they could not control the civil service nor drive the narrative. Every policy they attempted to cut costs and lessen the burden on tax payers was drowned out by the siren progressive voices calling out to be nice. (10+% increase for benefit recipients, unable to depart illegals, Deputy Prime Minister having to resign because of hurty language and net zero subsidies and costs going through the roof).
The Conservatives must oppose by safeguarding our money and our culture They must also focus on the absurdities of carbon accounting rules showing the folly of Labour’s approach to making us poor and exporting our industry.
It is easier to be competent in opposition but they need to work hard at it
July 14, 2024
‘In Opposition they should support the governmentâs aims of the U.K. growing faster than the rest of the G7’
– This is like an entrepreneur asking investors to invest in his company on the hope that his company is going to be worth lots of money in the future without any evidence that it will be!
Instead, we need detailed pragmatic and creative plans of how a Tory government would help grow the economy. And the Libertarian view of just letting business get on with it is NOT enough. It’s a cop out of the hard work needed of finding ways to INVEST to help make life easier for entrepreneurs and people in the High Tech industry in general.
One-Nation Conservatism is just as bad as it too ignores the needs of entrepreneurs and those in the High Tech industry.
July 14, 2024
If they had let business get on with it, business would grow the economy, but they couldn’t do that so interfered with legislation and punitive taxes. Anyone with the temerity to employ somebody discovers they really need to be a lawyer in employment law, and even then can’t be certain given the vagaries of the courts . We know of the work of BEIS (Business Extinction and Import Substitution), which was successful in pushing industry abroad.
If any government was serious about growing the economy, they would scrap employer’s NI immediately.
July 14, 2024
Thatâs a traditional conservative view âŠ..go stand in the corner and reflect upon your outdated views âŠ.weâre all woke & green now
July 15, 2024
I agree with you here. But my point is, it’s not enough (I agree with Libertarianism in the sense of freeing people of business of bureaucracy etc and letting them get on with it). Entrepreneurs and people in the high tech industry need help as well. Like the way the Israeli government has helped these people in Israel and Israel’s high tech industry booming (similar to US government helping give rise to Silicon Valley).
Just as Libertarians helped capitalists in the financial sector and the consumer market by their approach to the North Sea Oil revenues in the 1980s, so they should have helped capitalists in the High Sector to help create the UK as the world’s second Silicon Valley (and help the North of England and help those in the car industry to create British brands to rival the German’s).
But that didn’t happen. I’m not one for stewing in the past. But Libertarians still haven’t learned their mistakes from the 1980’s. We’re still stuck in the past here (and in One-Nation Conservatism).
And this needs to be said right now and said hard. The Tory Party needs a right kick up the b— right now – if we’re going to get into power and do something useful.
July 14, 2024
How do you oppose then you agree with all the governments policies ie net-zero, fiscal plan, immigration, foreign aid, closer union with the EU & UN ……only reform can oppose unless the tories change direction, and I don’t see any desire for the tories to change
July 14, 2024
Sir John
“How should Conservatives oppose?”
the Conservative Party should rebuild as a Conservative party – it is that simple. But with the Labour LibDem pact they have a mountain to climb.
As we know there is a noisy section that now lead the Conservative Party, the One Nation and CCHQ Socialists, until they are gone cross the floor to their rightful home, conservatism is dead. (Although the sneaking suspicion is the others wont have them)
July 14, 2024
If I may state the obvious the party MPs don’t know what Conservatism is, even most of those who claim to know have given up because they don’t. If they did they would speak up now. Convincing change back is impossible.
Those who are true should leave it, and move to Reform and restart there. Reform should not go the other way – it is a Tory trick to smother and destroy Reform.
July 14, 2024
Sir John
We, You should never forget it was the Conservative Government over 14 years that destroyed conservatism. They now have place a 14-year record as a noose around the party.
Labour didnât win, Cameron, May, Johnson now Sunak ripped up everything conservatisms stood for and sort to outdo Labour with prolific uncontrolled spending, then High Taxation and Borrowing to hide their refusal to manage. The refused to do everything they were empowered and paid to do.
How can the Conservatives oppose when the 100% agree with Socialism? Did any Conservatives get re-elected? Where possible Sunak & the CCHQ ensured no Conservatives were selected.
July 15, 2024
It was both the Libertarians (the likes of Nigel Farage and Liz Truss) and the One-Nation Tories (Cameron etc) who wrecked the Tory Party.
True Conservatism is about helping entrepreneurs and the high tech industry not just those in financial services and the consumer market (which has been the Libertarians’ focus since the 1980’s) with One-Nation Tories too wet to bring in many policies of the Libertarians that are good.
Let’s kick into touch the approach overall of the One-Nation Tories and Libertarians for an approach more focused on helping entrepreneurs and those in the high tech industry (whilst also trying to promote Conservative Cultural values). And let’s kick Farage out of the stadium altogether.
July 14, 2024
I dread to think what would happen if any of the media speculation names get to lead the Conservative Party. As a reminder to us all, anyone that was involved in Government for the last 14 years had the collective responsibility for destroying the Conservative Party â how could they sell the idea that the party they helped destroy would be viable with them at the helm?
July 14, 2024
Historically the Tories have always been bad at being in opposition.
The trouble is that many of the labour policies were already in place – Starmer is just going to reinforce them with extra vigour.
The Tories in Parliament are all but a spent force, so their numbers won’t affect anything that labour want to do, but they can shout loudly when labour’s idiotic plans fail at the first hurdle.
Tory MPs should certainly make a fuss whenever our rights and freedoms are curtailed, but whether they do that depends on how many ‘One Nation Conservatives’ are left pushing the globalist agenda that labour will be following.
July 14, 2024
The Conservative Party’s real problem is not going to be with what they oppose but the much more significant matter of what they propose. It is split between a populist faction and a bigger centrist faction which are basically incompatible and they have no inspirational big personalities left in Parliament to lead them apart from Suella Braverman who is probably unacceptable to most of them. Caught between the political streetfighters of the Liberal Democrats and the flamboyance of Farage they will probably go extinct as a significant political force after the next General Election. To avoid such extinction they must go very populist even if that leads to some centrists leaving and also preferably reaching some electoral accommodation with Reform.
July 14, 2024
The best thing that the rotten remains of the Con party can do is to dissolve itself.
Reform, if they have any sense, will keep them at arms length. They are beyond rehabilitation but will still taint everything they touch.
July 14, 2024
I agree with your last sentence.
July 14, 2024
âThey [the Conservative Party] need to apologise for the bad errors that led to the result and move on to the current world.â
In addition to vigorously pursuing the entirely unnecessary and wasteful Net Zero Strategy based upon the hoax that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are causing a climate catastrophe the Conservative Party, together initially with the Lib Dems, destroyed our nuclear industry, ironically the only low CO2 emitting source of affordable, abundant and reliable power.
Instead of repeating the building of our existing and successful large nuclear plants they selected the duff technology of EDFâs EPR which when coupled with Chinese finance at 9% will result, if and when completed, in an electricity price which is 2.4 times the one built in Finland, although completed 13 years late, using the same technology.
Instead of placing an initial order with RR so we could have SMRs operating by the beginning of the next decade they decided instead to delay everything by a further 5 years by opening up an SMR competition to be not decided until 2029.
As a result, from a peak of nuclear of 26% in 1997 it is quite possible that by Labourâs intended electricity decarbonisation date of 2030 we will only have 1 nuclear power station operational, Sizewell B, providing just 2% of our electricity and planned to close in 2035.
This cannot have been just a “bad error”.
Reply I repeatedly told them of nuclear run down. Hinckley C should be working by 2030 which adds 3.2GW or 7 – 10 % of demand.
July 14, 2024
Don’t worry we’ll just ask the French for more energy ….interconnectors from France as at 17:30hrs is at 22.6%
July 14, 2024
Why would you want to oppose Starmer he is the same as all of the other leaders that went before him including M Thatcher and all come from the same stable.