I see debate about disagreements within the Conservative party. It is true there have been important debates in recent years over lockdowns, money printing, migration levels, Brexit wins, Â ways of controlling small boats, tax levels and other issues of great interest to voters.
It is also the case that over the last year those who wanted changes to economic and borders policies and to Brexit implementation did not challenge the leadership, put in letters or seek to undermine Ministers. There were discussions with Ministers who decided it was best to run a largely One Nation policy. Ministers  argued that the threat to the Conservative  party  came from Labour and Lib Dems  to the left so it was important to move in their direction. They wanted to improve relations with the EU, follow international law as interpreted by internationalists, follow Bank and OBR orthodoxy and regulate more against possible harms. Critics of these views accepted they had lost the internal argument and supported the leadership going into an election.
Self styled One Nation Conservatives have been very vocal in recent years, arguing that the Conservative party and government was correct to shift to the left to command more support. George Osborne from outside Parliament joined with Michael Gove inside to promote this.
In government both the current  Lord Chancellor and Attorney General have been insistent in taking an international lawyerâs view of Treaties  based often on a very debatable view of their impact. This has led to impediments to controlling borders and sorting out the EUâs role in Northern Ireland. Counter proposals by former Attorney Suella  Braverman and past Migration Minister Robert  Jenrick were turned down. The Home Secretary rejected the  idea of strengthening the law against legal challenges, favouring the One Nation approach.
The One Nation Chancellor has preserved the EU originated debt control, trusting OBR 5 year out numbers that are likely to be wrong to constrain the tax cuts needed for faster growth. He has implemented a conventional programme of fiscal consolidation claiming this is necessary to create stability.He rejected ideas of asking the Bank to control its bond losses, to speed restoring lost public sector productivity, and to cut nationalised industries losses. These spending cuts would have allowed cuts in  small business, self employed and income tax.
The One Nation Foreign Secretary has sought to please more overseas countries and international quangos. The U.K. has continued to negotiate at the World Health Organisation which is wanting to take powers over the NHS,when there was considerable opposition to ceding power. He  has shifted to the EU/Spanish view on Gibraltar  and has cosied up to  the EU and Ireland by building on the Windsor framework.
The government put through  various regulatory new laws which were supported by Labour. It abandoned wider ranging repeal and amendment of inherited EU law.
It means we will have a good test of the argument that the way for the Conservatives to win elections is to have plenty of One Nation representation around the Cabinet table and to follow consensus and internationalist policies on the economy, taxation, migration, regulation and our international relations.In a weekâs time we will see if this approach did win more votes for Conservatives, or whether it left the Conservative vote too vulnerable to the Reform challenge based on their tougher approach to border control and based on a lower tax growth model.
June 28, 2024
Good morning.
The One Nation (Wets) side of the Tory party have won. As the Old Guard such as our kind host depart the stage, more of their ilk will be moved in by Tory HQ to replace them.
As we will see, their ‘victory’ over the right of the party will be seen as a pyrrhic victory, although they will of course not see it.
Our kind host has timed his political retirement well.
June 28, 2024
Agree Mark. As for Sir John’s statement that we’ll see the voter’s opinion next week I think the opinion polls have already given the answer. Big Labour majority. We are heading for (another) 5 years of economic failure, high immigration, high tax and increased central control.
June 28, 2024
JR has adeptly set out why the public no longer wants to vote for a socialist Tory party.
The Pro EU left wing one nation types ought to join Labour and can decide whether they are on the Corbyn or Blaire side of their party. They are the enemy within the Tory party destroying it from inside while conning the public they are something they are not.
By acting like chameleons in blue rosettes they have destroyed the Tory party electoral prospects – good. I truly hope the Tory party is obliterated for their utter betrayal of the nation. Johnson should have culled the lot before 2019 elections to bring back true conservatism implementing the Brexit mandate give by the nation.
What JR has not said who is controlling the takeover of his party to a lighter socialist outfit of Labour? Is this why Slimy Cameron was brought back to reinforce that conservatism in the Tory party is over?
The good news is that Reform Party is an option for conservatives to vote for. Deciding which side of socialism is worse to vote for is no longer a choice! Vote for Reform and be proud you are ridding the nation of the two dishonest socialist choices on offer.
June 28, 2024
JR, why did the pro EU one socialist nation types not get the election result of Treacherous May? It does explain why there was a coup of Johnson and Truss. Perhaps Nadine Dorries was right after all.
June 28, 2024
Hope. đđ»đđ»
People are voting Labour to give the conservatives a bloody nose!
The awake and informed voters, are voting Reform!
June 28, 2024
The One Nation not Tories have destroyed the brand
They model themselves in European Social Democrats who have recently been outed in the EU
They are internationalist and anti British in their outlook
The Limp dumb party is their natural home. They will be shown the door next week.
June 28, 2024
It was all Disraeliâs blinking idea. One Nation?
Along with the likes of Betsy Fry et al.
We pay for the bleeding hearts of the super rich 18th century oh-so-liberals tories! ( And a few Independents).
And keep paying.
And Sir Keir will up the price!
June 28, 2024
One Nation was a Disraeli idea – but it was different to what currently goes under that label.
Originally it was to ensure that poorer masses ( ie most people) were treated fairly, with a big dollop of noblesse oblige thrown in. The fixed class system was still taken as a given.
Nowadays, it seems to be defined as flexibility and pragmatism. So if you donât like my policies, I have others (provided they fit with globalist ones). Or, I will adopt those that are successful for other parties (with the same proviso).
Chancers and careerists are happy with the flexibility aspect and the cover story of pragmatism.
Conviction politicians may be deterred by the absence of fixed/longstanding principles & a recognised set of policies.
June 28, 2024
It sounds very similar to me.
Faux ( and neck-saving) âcompassionâ from the great and the good.
Without a single care for the outcome!
( They like things to develop âorganicallyââŠHa!Ha! Not an authoritarian bone in their bodies).
And really has the class system disappeared now? Just been replaced by a new one.
Basically many of our present woes emanate from 18th century affluence and the boredom of the rich.
June 28, 2024
Ian,
I am not not sure lie dumbs are their choice, I think it is which side of the Labour Party they want to be on, Corbyn or Blaire. Cameron has publicly stated he wants to be Blaire.
June 28, 2024
No one wants to vote labour but we don’t trust the tories, and we need to punish their disregard of the voter
June 29, 2024
@GC +1
June 28, 2024
+1
June 28, 2024
They are facing the biggest loss in history! What sort of a win is that?
They have LOST!
We need to plan for the post-Starmer era of full blown conservatism, maybe with a new name so we can consolidate all the red-wall voters on our side who were let down. Letâs ditch the toxic name.
Donât resuscitate this âConservative Partyâ. It deserves to die, it does so by itâs own hand.
I read that Starmerâs landslide will be won with 1 million fewer votes than Corbyn had. Any âConservative Partyâ that canât even scrape a victory in those circumstances is seriously defective.
June 28, 2024
Well I think that the âwetsâ are entirely victorious.
They have achieved their aim of totally destroying right wing politics in the U.K.
Whether or not they join Labour or Greens or whatever is totally up to them.
If there is any true conservative rump it should expel all entryists for what they have done.
June 28, 2024
The Conservative Party is NOT meant to be a ‘right-wing’ party. ‘Right-wing’ is a 19th century concept tied up with being the opposite of Marxism.
The Tory Party is best understood by the views espoused by Edmund Burke.
June 28, 2024
I think the Conservative Party has always been exactly what it chooses to be.
It has always changed in order to gain power.
Generally conservatives are regarded as being RIGHT of centre.
Profit. Personal enterprise. Equality before the law. Private property.
And Burke was often called the conservativeâs conservative.
He wasnât a Fox.
June 28, 2024
The majority of PEOPLE in the U.K. are âright wingâ. So they have NOT destroyed âright wing politicsâ – they have merely destroyed themselves.
June 28, 2024
Obviously I meant the right wing of the Conservative Party.
Where else are you going to get right wing politics however feeble?
As to the majority of PEOPLE (?) being right wingâŠ.
The tories should have no problem next week then?
June 28, 2024
All my replies just disappear!
June 28, 2024
Thanks!
June 28, 2024
As I said, a Pyrrhic one. A victory achieved at such a cost as not to be worth it.
June 29, 2024
@Lynn +1
June 28, 2024
If those on the left are ‘wets’ then those on right are ‘psychopaths’.
Both terms are unhelpful and fuelled by self-righteous of one’s beliefs. Rather than allowing one’s beliefs to be channelled and then may the best man win.
June 28, 2024
Probably Thatcher used the word ‘wet.’
I think she was a fantastic PM in getting rid of socialism.
But I don’t think she had a business head – certainly not an entrepreneurial one.
Personally, I would have challenged her to let someone else take over after the end of her second term in office (that was long enough but she was high on power to her own detriment).
Heseltine was the most entrepreneurial-minded Tory in the Party. But big problem: he was too pro Europe. If he’d been more sympathetic towards Brexit, then I think he would have done a good job in developing our economy in particular 1) In the North of England – not just the South (important as that is of course – and in particular, London) – where the North is like a completely different country (at least to me) 2) Developing Cambridge / Oxford area as Europe’s Silicon Valley.
June 29, 2024
So the opposite of Conservatism is Free Market Capitalism?
Over-focused on Free Market Capitalism is one big reason why our Western World is tumbling into chaos (and so tragically costing us far more financially as a result). Where people turn to excessive individualism and so selfishness. It’s not just about the individual but the bad example they set to everyone including the young. Who then end up not wanting to work but to live a hedonistic lifestyle or to work but at the ruthless cost to others – their workmates and family etc and you end up with destructive and self destructive narcissistic that you see today in today’s Western World on a scale never seen before.
We need to return to the basic principles of Edmund Burke. Thatcher would agree too if she saw the chaos the UK and the entire Western World has been tumbling into the last few decades.
June 28, 2024
A rhetorical question, unless there is a hugely unexpected revival in Conservative fortunes then there will be huge losses at the election.
However, there are so many One Nation types that they believe they will still dominate the survivors and can rebuild the party to consolidate their approach.
If you move closer to Labour and Lib Dem politics you run the risk of having no unique selling point. This is compounded by a lack of conviction politicians across all parties.
The election is not just a test of One Nation policies though. Failure to deliver, trustworthiness , abandoning core supporters etc are other big factors.
June 28, 2024
Peter,
Yes, that is the problem, we don’t have sufficient ‘….conviction politicians…..’ in the Parliamentary Conservative Party. I think there are plenty in Labour and Greens, poor misguided fools.
This is where the Conservative HQ selection process has gone rogue, and destroyed the Party. It selects ‘lobby fodder’ members who will do what they’re told and not question the policies (Need more science graduates!). So we get sheep not worth the title.
The PCP don’t select political thinkers and leaders, only technocrats, poll-followers and droids. The whole lot must go.
June 28, 2024
They aren’t conviction politicians, they’re career politicians equipped with PPE degrees. Their only conviction is to climb the greasy pole, get in power and stay in power.
June 28, 2024
and to network for useful friends.
June 28, 2024
Peter, I think the public have reached the point that there is no difference between Labour and current Tory party.
That is why Reform party is surging. Conservatives want a voice in parliament, deciding national policy.
Sunak offers:
EU lock step no divergence
High tax, big state, big spend
Mass welfare claimant immigration
Getting rid of our nation, our culture and way of life.
Out sourcing national policy to UN,WEF, EU and WHO.
Starmer offersâŠ..the same with bells on.
June 28, 2024
The ‘offer’ in their manifesto is rubbish, complete meaningless junk …just full of woke words
https://public.conservatives.com/static/documents/GE2024/Conservative-Manifesto-GE2024.pdf
June 28, 2024
Who on earth does their election publicity?
They are sending out a bizarre email.
âFrom Joe Bloggs to Joe Bloggs 2044â
Basically a message from a Tory-free future caused by the recipient voting Reform.
It actually spooked me a bit and it seems to predict 20 years of Labour.
A tad defeatist since Labour is warning its candidates not to be over confident.
June 28, 2024
85% of the 3 million immigrants granted visas by the Tory Party in the last 2-3 years are students or their dependents. Only 15% are workers. Wow. A stunning stat that should sink this awful anti English Government. Source Alison Pearson/Liam Halligan in their latest Telegraph podcast. A disaster of mass immigration causing health, housing, dentistry, culture crises, high taxation everywhere.
June 28, 2024
Unbeliveable
June 29, 2024
I read an article in The Critic magazine which put it very simply: the Conservatives are going to be voted out of government because ‘they aren’t very good at governing’. That seems to apply to a lot of policies that have been followed in recent years. We’ve been given high migration, a stagnant economy and a bloated state sector, none of which a traditional conservative electorate would support. ‘Incompetent managerialism’ sums it up.
June 28, 2024
One Nation is a disaster.
I cannot vote Conservative.
June 28, 2024
It is really a no ânation agendaâ broken up regions within the EU agenda.
Sunak yesterday:- Labour will reverse all the changes I made to get us to net zero in a sensible way.
Sure Suank, but there is no sensible way to net zero, it is a vastly expensive disaster that will do huge harm with zero benefit. A touch on the brakes perhaps but still heading for the cliff.
June 28, 2024
Betting odds next US president post the âdebateâ suggest chances are circa:- Trump 59% Biden 24%, Gavin Newsom 12% Michelle Obama & rest 5%.
Next PM Starmer 98% Sunak, Farage & others 2%. Well done the Con-Socialists 14 wasted years and now the appalling prospect of 5-20 years of Labour.
June 28, 2024
It’s not so much One Nation as Any Nation Except the English.
June 28, 2024
+1
June 28, 2024
Has it âleft the Conservative vote too vulnerable to the Reform challenge based on their tougher approach to border control and based on a lower tax growth model.â
Well if you have 14 years in office & promise various things in three manifestos but then do the complete reverse. Then you promise these things yet again at the next election, why would you expect anyone to trust you this time? To lose in such a huge way to the appalling Labour Party is quite some achievement Sunak. Labour are even worse.
Reform have the right policies:- on net zero, on taxes, on the size of government, on deterring immigration, on over regulation, on tax breaks for education to save money for the state, on deregulation⊠Labour have entirely the wrong policies even worse than Sunak – but only slightly worse.
Starmer was asked what deterrent he had to deter migrants, his answer was we will smash the trafficker gangs. The man is clearly totally deluded.
Farage: Second and third Covid lockdowns UKâs biggest peacetime mistake
Reform UK leader tells Sunderland event that restrictions led to âlong-term economic and psychological damageâ
Indeed, plus the lockdowns did not even save lives & even the first one was an error. But the net harm Covid vaccines were an even larger error.
June 28, 2024
Why did the lockdowns not work? Very simple, Covid was only really a danger to the old and vulnerable with health issues. Lockdowns could only (at best) delay some infections slightly but in doing that it also delayed many more free, earlier natural vaccination for the vast majority who were not at any real risk. Thus extending the epidemic for longer.
This did far more net harm than the rather few lives that were perhaps extended slightly by a few weeks. Then we have the vast cost and other damage done on top. Even Portillo with Nigel Nelson on GB news still think the Covid vaccines saved about 500,000 UK lives. Clearly they have not done their homework. The Stats. very strongly suggest the Covid vaccines did huge net harm.
I am yet to hear Nigel Nelson say anything remotely sensible on GB news he gets virtually everything wrong, why did they employ him I wonder?
June 28, 2024
Why did they employ him, LL? Perhaps because quite a few of their regulars are off trying to defend their parliamentary seat, like William Rees-Mogg. I dare say if you had to work night and day trying to win a campaign in your constituency, giving interviews to the local media, knocking on doors, and trying to be everywhere at once, you might even have to scale back the number of comments you make on this blog. (Just a legpull, LL – keep them coming!)
June 28, 2024
Sorry, I meant Jacob Rees Mogg.
June 28, 2024
Poor Jacob set to unfairly lose his job and have to pay ÂŁ400k VAT to finish off his 6 kids education. They even want to close the pay in advance VAT avoidance plan. Stick them all in the local comp. Jacob then stop working so hard to pay the fees they will be fine. Will then cost HMG about another ÂŁ1.5 in lost of Tax and NI. Or perhaps move to Monaco or similar and run you businesses from there. The only way to stop Government waste is to stop them ever getting their hands in it it seems.
Plus more Oxbridge chances at the Comp. due to large, blatant anti-private school discrimination which will doubtless increase further under Labour.
June 28, 2024
Agreed LL. If people stop and think the lockdowns did not equate to isolation of the whole population. If done in a draconian Chinese fashion this would have stopped the spread (temporarily). In practice many people still had to move around, interact with others and consequently pass on the virus. Hospital staff and patients/inmates are a classic example.
Of course it was a good thing for all the healthy low risk people to catch covid as that built natural resistance. A focussed protection model for the small proportion of high risk people whold have been a far superior policy. Look at how Florida and Sweden got on.
June 28, 2024
Indeed so why did our Government âexpertsâ get this so wrong it is a fairy simple thing to grasp. Group thing lunacy like we had on the vaccines, net zero, high taxesâŠ
June 28, 2024
JRM should not have supported Sunak. He told everyone to get behind him, I think he should have booted him out.
June 29, 2024
Because it wasn’t about “saving lives” or even “protecting the NHS.” It was an exercise in psychological warfare; testing the efficacy of population-control measures/compliance; trialling novel gene therapies (bio warfare) and swiftly advancing their plans for The Great Reset.
June 28, 2024
Quite right, PeteB, but I wonder if any lessons have been learned. My impression is that the government is still determined to hand over sovereignty on health policy to the UN-affiliated World Health Organisation. Its intergovernmental negotiating body, with British government agreement, is quietly finalising a new ‘pandemic treaty’, while our election campaign has been going on, and no MPs are able to debate it. People’s eyes have been taken off the ball, as Sunak carries out out what may be his last treacherous act as prime minister.
June 28, 2024
@R.Grange I fear the lockdown lesson has not been learned. Even Farage limited his recent criticism to L2 and L3 being wrong/pointless. Probably as he was on record as being in agreement for L1. He could turn round and state he was wrong there too – explain he relied on experts and was conned into supporting.
June 28, 2024
@PeteB – I think even the first lockdown was a major error. But perhaps an almost excusable one.
June 28, 2024
LL.
To keep OFCOM off their backs.
June 28, 2024
The govt rubbished the Barrington declaration and all those eminent scientists who advocated. The govt. scientists were in cahoots with others to steel the international agenda.
The covid inquiry an utter waste of our taxes with no useful outcome or purpose like the Iraq inquiries never designed to find the truth or ensure it never happens again. Ukraine propaganda continues. Does anyone even mention former US aid to Ukraine for return of jobs for relatives? Should we, the public, be interested in all the true facts before loss of life and limb to UK citizens? Whatever Cameron advocates do the opposite, like blocking attack in Syria.
June 28, 2024
Spot On
June 28, 2024
Ofcom behaved appallingly is suppressing free speech on the net harm lockdowns and the net harm vaccines. Plus the government attacks by people like Handcock amd Neil Oâbrian (both PPE grads) who chose to try to discredit or trash some excellent scientists and journalists for telling the truth.
Doubtless many have died as a direct result of these appalling attacks on free speech & many still are.
Sunak says âfreedom of speech was the most powerful feature of our democracy”. Shame the government(s) BBC etc. are so often trying to kill it.
June 28, 2024
Whilst I am pleased we have got GBNews and I watch quite a lot, they provide too much space for the Left like Nigel Nelson, no doubt called ‘balance’.
How much such Left representatives are forced on them I don’t know. If they suffer from authoritarism like that we must all make a noise against it.
We are desperately in need of broadcasters to counter the BBC, Sky etc. who it is well known exclude Left wing views they don’t like.
June 28, 2024
And a complete ban on climate realists and the many sensible physicists who are realists.
June 28, 2024
I agree with you to a degree about Covid. But don’t forget Covid was a new thing. No-one around the world had a clue. Johnson and Co didn’t do too badly under the circumstances. Would deffo give them a Pass (C+ but not higher).
June 29, 2024
The Government DOWNGRADED Covid from a High Consequence Infectious Disease five days before the first lockdown.
Why? They said it was because they had more data and they knew it would have low mortality rates (and they also knew it was only those already knocking on Heaven’s door who were really vulnerable).
It is not true to say “no-one around the world had a clue.”
June 28, 2024
The first lockdown was a disaster. Where was Farage arguing for the private sector – the only one to be locked down?
June 28, 2024
The Conservative Party One Nation are really a bunch of globalists not nationalists. They have taken over the power structures in the party and will be impossible to dislodge.
On the plus side they have created a small echo chamber of woke, wonk policies that bear zero common sense, are unimplementable, disadvantage their core voters, are unethical, incoherent and 90% of Conservative voters disagree with.
Which is why the majority of Conservative voters do not respect the party or itâs leadership and isnât going to vote for them. If you canât see that then you shouldnât be in politics.
June 28, 2024
I must have blinked when the debates were held about the lockdowns and mass immigration, let alone the Net Zero lunacy. If there really were these debates they seem to have been held well away from Parliament and have excluded most of the MPs we elected to deliver the Manifestos they stood on and were elected to deliver.
The so-called One Nation Group (which Nation would that be, because it certainly isn’t this one?) have created a carbon-copy of Labour. They have therefore made the Not-a-Conservative-Party obsolete.
Those who want “Red-Green-Socialism” will vote for “Red-Green-Socialism.” Those who want a sensible Conservative Party won’t vote for “Blue-Green-Socialism.” Those who want conservative policies, implemented in the national interest will vote for Reform.
The Not-a-Conservative-Party is now terminally ill, thanks to the snobbish, arrogant, treacherous and patronising Tory Boys in the One-Nation-But-Not-This-One group.
June 28, 2024
Nothing much to choose between Labour, Libdims, Con-socialist, Plaid, Greens, SNP⊠all as bad as each other. All essentially pro net zero, for ever higher taxes, woke lunacy, over regulation and open door immigration.
They talk about the Manifestos being fully costed but they never cost the vast increases in red tape they all push endlessly. Cutting red tap is a win, win yet they never do it?
June 28, 2024
Labour wonât stop the boats. Itâll send migrants to your town
Starmer must know his migrant plan canât work. Angela Rayner may have given the game away
Isabel Oakeshott
Labourâs plan to stop the boat is to let millions in until the UK becomes so crowded, poor and unattractive that they are deterred from coming or go back. Rayner has plans to force councils to accept ever more and to house them and ignore the locals. So the draw continues.
June 28, 2024
This is why community charges have already been hiked, Sunak told councils to raise to the maximum! Rayner will follow Sunakâs lead. I do not want the criminals from France near me let alone pay for them!
Has Sunak worked out yet that he he wasted ÂŁ500 million of our taxes on France! Good at Maths my arse.
June 28, 2024
Rather more than that on net harm lockdowns, furlough, Covid loans, net harm vaccines, PPE procurement, worthless degree loans, HS2 and largest of all Net Zero… Can we under the freedom of Information Act get to see the contract Sunak agreed with the French when he chucked our money down the drain? What did they agree to provided for this ÂŁ500 million. Circa 50,000 people’s taxes for the year.
June 28, 2024
Cameron will in time go down in history as the man who betrayed a nation by endorsing the cultural Left as expressed through woke Socialist Labour and its year zero ideology. A cultural and demographic revolution without bloodshed using mass migration, propaganda and oppressive legislation. We will see the full bloom of this movement when they come to power this month.
No speech can ever be offensive. The right to offend is the bedrock of a free world without which we return to Hitler, Stalin and Mao. This political class are taking us back in time. We are lose when our voice is criminalised
June 28, 2024
Well put Domâââââ.
June 28, 2024
Speech is offensive if it is made in full knowledge that it contains lies.
Look at the candidates we are given, most of their speech is therefore offensive.
June 28, 2024
Like we have cut taxes, we have slowed immigration, the vaccines were unequivocally safeâŠ
June 28, 2024
Agree
June 28, 2024
Thatâs funny I recall the day after David Cameronâs election victory of 2015 that your first posting on this site was proudly headed âOne Nationâ!
Reply That was a characterisation as this is. I did not belong to the One Nation caucus of Conservative MPs
June 28, 2024
It all started to go wrong with Cameron who ran an unfocused, themeless campaign in 2010 ( very much like the current one from CCHQ) so that the floating voter , unconvinced by Blair/Brownism did not know what we stood for .The result? We ended up in bed with the wishy-washy ( useless LibDems). Cameron then compounded the problem by parachuting Wet , One-Nation ‘candidates’ into seats
It has carried on from there and the present lot have ‘failure’ written through them like letters in a stick of rock. Gutless and frightened to disagree with anybody
June 28, 2024
Nothing Cameron did was a mistake. He (famously) wrote an article for The Guardian a year before the 2010 election effectively proposing a CON/LibDem coalition.
He thought that would keep the Eurosceptics in the Conservative Party in their box. Then, as now, he and his fellow LibCONs underestimated Farage.
June 28, 2024
Forgive me but you appear to contradict yourself ?
June 29, 2024
Underestimating the Farage factor was a miscalculation. The “LibDemisation” strategy Cameron adopted wasn’t done by mistake.
June 28, 2024
No, they underestimated the British Nation!
Together we are supreme – we can have and be whatever we like.
Surely nobody who lived to see the Sunderland Brexit result can doubt that? Those people, threatened by Nissan as well as by everything else, voted to survive! It was heroic!
June 28, 2024
+1
June 28, 2024
âWill One Nation Conservatism Save The Government?â
I believe the short answer is no. After 14 years of broken manifesto promises is it any wonder that so many voters appear to be no longer listening. The old adage comes to mind – âFool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.â
June 28, 2024
If a runaway train endangers your path, should you run toward it?
Sensible people would do what is safe to prevent its danger.
So, if a threat emerges from a direction such as the left, moving toward that threat is not the remedy that Ministers argued.
Evidence revealing Ministersâ folly will be released on 5 July.
June 28, 2024
Better termed zero nation conservatism, or net zero nation conservatism.
June 28, 2024
đđ»
June 28, 2024
You have not been part of government for many years. You have been in the party of government for the last14 years. I assume you are still a member of the Conservative party.
The party were elected as Conservatives and morphed into consocialists( One Nationists). In the process the ONs left their support of Conservatives among the electorate. Their final act of betrayal was to deny their original Conservative membership a vote in their undemocratic coupe, from which Rishi emerged as leader.
Conservatism is about to reap the benefit of their behaviour in government and if the polls are near correct the population of the UK is about to suffer five years of the consequences. Labour is displaying its true self as the party of envy before it arrives in Downing Street.
There has been no great rush to Labour. They are where they are because a betrayed Conservative electorate is opting for Reform or abstension. One Nation equates with electoral deverstation. For you it must havs been five years of utter frustration.
The only true Conservative party left on the ballot paper is Reform. I hope increasing numbers of the electorate realise this and vote for it. It is now in the hands of the Gods of Guilt.
June 28, 2024
+1
June 28, 2024
Reform are many good things but not conservative.
June 28, 2024
Sir John and so any more Conservative MPs sat and (almost) kept quiet while the tap kept turning on to bring Conservatism to defeat. The blame for where we are is simply that each had their own reasons to sit on hands while the trend inexorably continued. Who said ‘enough is enough I resign’ due to the slippery slope?
Like it or not the tide could only have been stopped or reversed if many had publicly stated what was going wrong.
Reply I set the case for policy change here and in Parliament with great regularity. You can only resign once and you are then out of the internal debate
June 28, 2024
If only you would join reform, as their chancellor from the lords âŠnow that would upset the apple cart, your economic vision could be realised …now wouldn’t that be something
June 28, 2024
Well my first post seems to have been deleted – maybe too long or because I named local candidates. Who knows? So I’ll be short. I won’t vote Liberal but I’ve certainly not been happy with recent Tory Governments either. I have no desire to vote for more One Nation Conservatism. Labour won’t get in here and it’s probably going to go to the completely lunatic Lib Dems. Maybe the new Conservative canadidate will come calling and I can ask a few hard questions. Until then, I’ll assume she’s been sent here from CPHQ with all that implies.
On that basis, it will be Reform next week I think…
Reply Yes I am not posting re named local candidates as you need to list all the candidates etc.
June 28, 2024
One nation Conservative party = Consocialists.
The Conservative party abandoned conservatives so of course they will not vote for them. At the same time they have not gained Labour votes because they failed to grasp that the majority of Brits still have conservative values.
They have self immolated.
June 28, 2024
The biggest electoral problem the Conservatives have isn’t ‘one nation Conservativism’ – it is having Sunak, a Leader without credibility, as Leader. In the local elections under two months ago Houchen in Teesside and Street in the West Midlands who are One Nation types and Susan Hall in London who isn’t a One Nation type all did so well that if replicated throughout the country the Conservatives would easily have won an overall majority in Parliament. People haven’t been refusing to vote Conservative as much as they have been refusing to vote for Sunak in what is very much Presidential system. I stated many times in my comments here since Sunak came up with his 5 mainly unfulfillable key promises early last year that Sunak was unelectable and needed to be replaced. However the idiots (apart from a handful) who at ÂŁ90,000 a year were Conservative M.P.s wanted to suit themselves(about 350 people) and not the millions who elected them.
I myself do not support the ‘One Nation’ faction and can see the failure to overcome the Judges (suspending membership of ECHR) and send any illegal immigrants to Rwanda has been electorally the worst policy failure but also think the abandonment of the rhetoric of ‘levelling up’ was the second worst policy failure. After the election the One Nation types will drop Sunak and claim with some justification that Sunak was never one of them and the Conservative splits will continue.
June 28, 2024
A very restrained post this morning, Sir John, when you could be much more forthright in holding those responsible to account, for the massive defeat that’s coming. But I suppose your cold analysis of the facts is even more telling. You and other MPs like you had ‘discussions’ with Ministers, but lost the argument. I suspect it was more a case of good arguments being raised against a wall of sheer blind obstinate complacency. It puts me in mind of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor murdered by the Nazis in 1945, who said that stupidity is invincible: you can’t overcome it by rational argument or by force. It seems that was never so true as with PPE graduates.
Reply Mentioning Nazis is a bad idea.
I will write a critical appraisal of the results of these policies when we know the election results. The One Nation Cabinet has a free run to win people over without Criticisms from Conservative candidates and recently resigned Conservative MPs.
June 28, 2024
And who is this FS, why the Noble Lord (Remainer) Cameron, more a Socialist than a Conservative?
June 28, 2024
If only people would use accurate words.
Authoritarian versus libertarian and decentralised vs centralised have been the most obvious divides since spring 2020, when apparently orders on what health policy to follow were imposed on the UK from the outside.
Yet what do we see? Sterile sniping of the ‘left’ vs. ‘right’ kind. It delights those who wish to divide and rule us.
June 28, 2024
A famous capitalist once said that democracy is the enemy of capitalism. Democrats always want the profits to be shared out to reduce inequality. Hence western style democracy is under attack because the workers are getting to big a slice of the profits. A repeat of the late seventies and the deployment of Thatcherism.
June 28, 2024
NO. Socialists want to redirect wealth. Nothing to do with democrats who demand the right to sack the government.
Hitler called capitalism and democracy the English System.
You quote a very stupid one-nation-Corporatist rather than a capitalist.
June 28, 2024
Save what government, Sir John.
What is there to save?
June 28, 2024
The left may have to move to the centre ground to win, but that doesn’t seem to hold true for the right. Mrs Thatcher didn’t win from the centre ground. The ‘Heir to Blair’ very nearly lost to Gordon Brown , when he should have walked it. Mrs May very nearly lost to Corbyn. Get Brexit done, and control our borders , not One Nation Tory policies, won the Conservatives an 80 seat majority, and now with the One Nation Tories back in control again and they are about to lose big time.
How many times do the ONT get to try their luck, and lose, before they are told to take a hike with their centrist nonsense?
June 28, 2024
The lesson was there when the membership voted for Truss rather than Sunak.
It is that membership that is now voting with its feet
June 28, 2024
Spot On
June 28, 2024
One nations Conservatives suffer the certainty of the left even as the administration crashes around them.
I am doing good so I am right is a zealotry we do not wish to see in our politicians.
June 28, 2024
Thatâs not the impression Iâm getting. They are mostly unemployable and their empire is crashing all around the west. The ones I have seen are in a flat panic. Itâs over! The nightmare is just about over – transfixed like Biden and unable to move.
June 28, 2024
Mr. Redwood, I have queried your pursuit of growth. The other day you said you wanted growth in GDP per capita. Why do you think lowering taxes would improve productivity? If I have a few more quid in my pocket because taxes are lower, I might well save that money. If I chooses to spend it, I might increase demand for some things. If the government doesnât reduce tax then the spend the money. Either I spend it or government does – or I save it. How does this affect GDP per capita?
Reply Cutting taxes on income and wealth leads to more investment, more risk taking, more businesses and more investors coming here.
June 28, 2024
Fair enough. How does more investment lead to better productivity? I mean, I have said this before, if someone invests in a million quids worth of machinery to make his factory more productive – what happens? Does he make more stuff? Or make the same amount of stuff with fewer workers? If he makes the same amount of stuff with fewer workers, we now have some unemployed people producing nothing.
How does having more businesses improve productivity? Same argument. A start-up working more efficiently than an established business may but that business out of business. But that means people out of work, redundancies etc.
I think, to be honest, what you are really after is growth in GDP – just that. So, as GDP grows, you can get your hands on more tax to try to keep the balls in the air.
At the end of the day we, the people in this country, need a certain amount of stuff. Of food, clothes, energy, beer, fags, cars etc. etc. How does producing the same amount of stuff with fewer people help the economy? How does producing more than we need or use (or use wastefully – like people who only wear clothes once, or people who change their car every year) help the economy or the planet.
I think this obsession with growth is dangerous. I would definitely like to see growth in public sector productivity with more people working in the private sector, too.
Reply If we raise productivity we can pay people more so they have. Better standard of living. Donât be so negative
June 28, 2024
Conveniently forgetting that much of their large majority was from the âblue wallâ precisely because they did not want centre left policies plus of course, their superior elite view that we are âSwivel eyed loonsâ to be ignored.
Times commentators, Cameron, Osborne, Gove etc a âdespicableâ entitled thick skinned group wealthy enough not to suffer one iota from the crapp they have created.
Plus they will be ennobled so we will hear more of their pompous bolleaux plus using their vote in the Lords to continue to block anything remotely âright wingâ in the future.
This country truly needs a revolution to clean out the stables.
June 28, 2024
Sir John
The âSelf styled One Nation Conservativesâ, have never been Conservative, they have always been the Trojan Horse of extreme Left wing Socialist agitation, there to rid the Party of any concept of Conservatisms, Democracy, Freedoms. They have done more damage to the Conservative Party than even Sunak/Hunt have
They are just the Labour party in disguise
June 28, 2024
Moving the Conservatives to be part of the One Party State, managing and promoting decline at every opportunity.
Surely some in the party must have seen what the were doing, or has the party as a whole just become another lazy part of the WEF equation
June 28, 2024
‘One Nation’ whose Nation? What we are seeing is the move to control of the UK by foreign bureaucrats as is the wish by these traitors to the UK, killing democracy and freedoms. As Starmer has indicated, in his interview, WEF is his preferred create of UK Law as he doesn’t like a democratic Parliament being the UK’s Legislators
Starmer, Cameron etc are the ‘One Nation’, One Party State advocates. As long as they get to be the ones that mould everyone in their own image.
June 28, 2024
Two books that might be worth reading:
Anthony Seldon, âThe Conservative effect, 2010-2024, 14 wasted yearsâ, Cambridge Univ. Press.
Rory Stewart, âPolitics on the edgeâ, Vintage.
The first one was published yesterday and I have not (yet) read it.
But Stewartâs book, at times quite funny, often very depressing, has explanations why the Conservative MPs are sheep or why those not so sheepish (a la Redwood) have no chance to be heard (just one example, p.52-53 paperback ed.).
The chief whip to the cohort of newly elected CUP MPs: âWe should not regard debates as opportunities for open discussion; we might be called legislators but we were not intended to overly scrutinise legislation; we might become members of independent committees but we are expected to be loyal to the party; and votes would rarely entail a free exercise of judgment. To vote too often on your conscience was to be a fool, and ensure you were never promoted to become a minister. In short politics was âa team sportâ. Teamwork is vital to the manifesto to be delivered. I always try to get consensus as chief whip, and the consensus is that the prime minister is rightâ.
June 28, 2024
@ Roger – Rory will not have recognized it, but surely those words of the Chief Whip mean he was doing his job properly.
June 28, 2024
I donât understand this âOne Nationâ construct. It was originated to counter the idea that the Tories only cared about the rich. This idea must have been nonsense ever since we have had universal suffrage – how could a party that governed for the benefit of the rich (a small number) ever hope to win an election.
It strikes me that both the Tory and Labour parties, quite rightly, aim to govern for everyone. As such, there isnât a huge difference in policy. They both aim to occupy the centre and let other parties appeal to those on the far left and far right.
The problem, I believe, these days is that all the main parties ignore the wishes of many of the people. Most people donât want high taxes, high immigration, illegal migration, high energy prices, the country covered with houses and having to struggle to live. However, that is all that is on offer from the main parties.
As Bill Clinton said âitâs the economy, stupidâ. And it is. It always is. We have record taxes, high borrowing, high immigration, high house prices, high rents and expensive energy. So, you will be punished at election time. The fact that it wonât make the slightest difference who runs the government wonât stop people punishing you.
In five years time, if by then you have found a charismatic leader – and the economy is even worse – youâll have a chance of getting back in again. Governments lose elections – oppositions donât win them.
Of course, nothing will change. Our political system really is the pits. 650 MPs sitting in a Parliamentbendlessly making laws. Donât we have enough law? Who could possibly be familiar with every law. What happened to Cameronâs âfor every new law, weâll repeal twoâ? Parliament should be a place where policy is decided.
What education system do we want and need? Are politicians the best people to decide? Clearly, not. There should be a group – an assembly of some sort – comprising head teachers, teachers, education experts, administrators and politicians – to devise and cost a system of education that will serve the country and its children. All the politicians need to do is raise the taxes and hand the money over.
This should be repeated for transport, energy, defence, justice etc. The present system does not work. The country is sliding inexorably towards a debt crisis and lots of people are fed up with the daily struggle. We need a better system of government.
June 28, 2024
@Mike Wilson – “âitâs the economy, stupidâ.” it always was and always will be that’s how a future is funded. Tax increases just to fund ideology is just money removed from the economy to aid decline
June 28, 2024
One Nation conservatives where/are an internal party coup to the left, theyâve successfully overtaken the leadershipâŠ.. the only counter is Reform
The same thing is happening in the EU, as Von Der Leyen is due to be re-elected for 5 years âŠQueen maker
June 28, 2024
“There were discussions with Ministers who decided it was best to run a largely One Nation policy.”
So why did they then to do the exact opposite, choosing to step even further to the right, taking the fight to TBP/Reform, rather to the more populous and popular political centre that is modern One Nation Conservatism?
The most centrist policy the party had in the last 14 was Brexit … but then failed to take any advantage because the debate became bogged down over Right-wing issues of illegal migration and the NI ‘boarder’.
Meanwhile both Corbyn and Starmer made hey, and the latter appears very likely to be strolling up Downing Street on the 5 July, whilst the non One Nation Tories cannot even be sure to have their (senior ex MPs Ed) sitting in the Commons come 9th according to at least two MRP polls! đ
Reply A bizarre twisting of what happened.
June 28, 2024
Jerry.
You really think the current Conservative party stepped to the right wing of politics.
Hilarious.
June 29, 2024
@Sam +1, they make Starmer look right wing. All they had to do was defend the centre, the Conservatives, the bulk of the Country. But, even with their big majority they blew it all.
June 28, 2024
Off topic. I see renewables are currently providing 68% of our electricity with wind at 54%. Price is ÂŁ48.96 per MWh. Which is basically 5 pence per kWh. Yet Iâm paying 24 pence per kWh and 68 pence per day standing charge.
It would be interesting to know how much it costs to build a power station, or wind turbine, or solar installation, how much power it will generate over its lifetime, how much it costs to decommission etc. – to get a feel for whether we are being ripped off or not.
June 28, 2024
Hi sir John
When the MP’S got Lizz Truss out that was the end of my support for the conservatives
I have been undecided who to give my vote to or even not to vote , but now I have decide to vote REFORM
Thank you sir John.
June 28, 2024
MPs did not get rid of Liz Truss she resigned when advised by the civil service that the UK was facing economic meltdown unless she did so, with currency collapse, gilt strike etc. she did intone the right words in arguing for âgrowthâ but was completely incompetent and unequal to the job of leader and PM. She should not have been chosen.
June 29, 2024
So why did the Not-a-Conservative-MPs make her one of two candidates to become Leader? Sunak was so dire he couldn’t even beat her, so why did they think he could win a General Election?
Are they really that dim?
June 28, 2024
Agree – Why didn’t the Tory MPs back the conservative memberships choice ….at the very least that choice should have gone back to the membership
June 29, 2024
@Glen +1, in the MsM tonight they are now saying that Tory insiders( ? One Nationists )want to change the rules so the membership can’t select a replacement when Rishi resigns on the 5th. How many members do they expect to stay? But, as a socialist one party state it fits perfectly.
On the other hand if Sunak retires from politics this week-end, the Conservatives would win handsomely. Labour under Starmer is joke, but not as bigger joke as the crowd we have now. The latest prediction is a large Labour victory with less votes that Corbyn revived when he lost
June 28, 2024
What an absolutely irrational concept, but thanks for spelling it out.
We want the Tories to be conservatives, not a light version of labour which is what they have become.
All of this goes back to the early days of Blair in government – he insisted that there was no longer a left or right in politics, only a consensus in the middle ground. The trouble is that this middle ground already encroached too far left.
With luck the ‘One Nation Conservatives’ will be kicked out of parliament and perhaps real Tories can rebuild their party on conservative lines. That is if there are enough tory MPs to make a party.
June 28, 2024
Sir John
The âSelf styled One Nation Conservativesâ, A shadowy bunch of Socialist Left infiltrators, we occasionally see signs of whom they are,when democracy and freedoms threaten their Socialist aspirations, they lurk, just show up as dissenters, then hide,
They are the ones that call the centre ground of the UK, the majority, extreme right wing and say it in distasteful manner to infer everyone but themselves is an extremist. They forget their inclination is mirroring that of the European National Socialist Workers’ Party which is the most extreme left wing grouping we have ever seen â a left-wing group that others (Soft Socialists) chose to call right-wing.
The point of Democracy is not that it is perfect, it isnât, but it protects from the extreme views and attitudes of those hiding behind warm cuddly phrases by calling them-selves the âOne Nationâ. Their Socialism, One Party State, is both a danger to democracy and basic freedoms of us all, it fights against âCommon Lawâ, it is itself extremist by nature.
Common Law doesnât take freedoms away it keeps the true authority embedded with the people and democracy, not the unelected unaccountable socialist bureaucrats that want things in their image.
You can only confer rights on people if you have in the first place been the ones that removed them, the Napoleonic/EU system, nothing is permitted until they(?) say so. Common Law only ever gets to remove rights by democratic processes, meaning it is the people that retain control, even then things can be amended and repealed. A subtle, but massive difference between, socialism and the freedoms, and democracy, in free world.
The One nation group hate it when they are asked to defend those that pay and empower them, there’s it a World of Hate and rule by decree
June 28, 2024
Dear Mr. Redwood,
“There were discussions with Ministers who decided it was best to run a largely One Nation policy. Ministers argued that the threat to the Conservative party came from Labour and Lib Dems to the left so it was important to move in their direction.”
And here was I thinking that Conservative Ministers and MP’s were motivated by a belief in traditional conservative values such as limited government, free markets, fiscal responsibility, individual freedom, perhaps a desire to improve the lot of the people of this country and such like. But no! It appears they stick a finger up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing and move accordingly in a cynical attempt to remain in power.
A party devoid of principles or beliefs, prepared to move this way and that, is not worth voting for.
June 29, 2024
+1
June 28, 2024
The reason we have eg a one nation chancellor and others such as sunak behaving in a one nationy sort of way is because of the Truss disaster. We moved from -5% in the polls the day Boris Johnson left office (having governed essentially as a social democrat) to -30% after the collapse of the Truss experiment with its panic, U-turns, inability to explain anything etc. the blob then seized control.
We will never know the counter-factual, but I think if the Conservative members had had the sense to elect Sunak, clearly the better, more competent and more articulate candidate, in the summer of 22 we would not now be looking at a decade of socialism.
June 28, 2024
He has no charisma. He is not a leader. He is filthy rich. Electing him leader, under any circumstances, was an act of self harm. I mean, for heaven’s sake, WHY have him as a ‘leader’. He isn’t one.
June 28, 2024
At the time he was the most popular politician in the Country. We will never know but there is a good chance that had he not been completely constrained by the blob he would have been much freer to govern as a free market Conservative.
June 29, 2024
@Richard1, Sunak has stated he has a good working relationship with the Blob and he supports them
June 28, 2024
He married somebody who is filthy rich. Letâs be clear about that. I know women who have the same âachievementâ.
June 28, 2024
Charles Heslop came canvassing at our house. (Conservative activists will know him) He actually boasted of being a One Nation Conservative. He said he remembered my husband saying he was âpart of the problemâ. We sent him on his way.
I think British people are too polite. (Not on this blog where JR is basically a fly on the wall and privy to what we really think). We need to tell people when they are displeasing us politically. We need to reason why this is so rather than being abrasive, but we must tell them.
We were at a dinner with fellow guests who had sold their house to the Sunaks. They said âhe has done nothing wrongâ. I hesitated for a long moment and then decided to speak up. I reeled off 6 critical things he had done wrong (thank you JR – I sounded quite a lot like you from absorbing your blog posts). The men were silent and at then end each came to me to thank me and said they had learned a lot. The host said âhe was very pleased I had comeâ. I thought it might have been my last invitationâŠ.
THE COUNTRY WANTS TO HEAR THE CONSERVATIVE ARGUMENT AND UNDERSTAND WHY WE ARE ALL SO VULNERABLE AND UNHAPPY.
June 28, 2024
@ Lynn Atkinson “Charles Heslop came canvassing at our house” – I see: do you now regret not emulating your neighbour by displaying a Labour poster?
Well done at the dinner! đ
June 28, 2024
Red walls and Blue walls have done for you – Conservatism had fourteen years to galvanise the people but instead split the nation into several factions by paying too much attention to populism – typically the Boris Johnson factor “tell them go whistle” let you all down – it’s time to get back to the dreary men in grey suits the John Majors –
June 28, 2024
đ€ŻMajor was never a Conservative, we have NOT had conservatism for 14 years – actually for 35 years although I see Mrs T is still blamed for the SNPâs troubles in Scotland!
That is the problem.
Letâs get back to the elegant, cool heads of the Thatcher years. The people who wanted to be elected for a purpose and not for self-promotion. Letâs have a couple of capable women able to swing a handbag – that means selecting them on merit and not on quota.
Letâs try conservatism again âŠ. Two generation have never experienced it – they might like it a lot!
June 28, 2024
While I fully support the stance our host has taken over the years ( we are, after all, both long-established Thatcherites), I fear that we have lost the argument to the Wets/One Nation lot.
I have said this here frequently, the electorate has gone soft. This started in 1997 with the election of Tony Blair. The overwhelming majority across the country now thinks that “they” ( the government) should sort everything out for them. The whole concept of self-reliance has disappeared. The only age group that is the exception is ours ( particularly those who did well under Margaret Thatcher, largely thanks to our own hard work and dedication.) I’m particularly proud to say that we were able to raise our children without the need for my wife to go out to work, which was greatly to their benefit.
The electorate are in for a shock over the next five years. We already have Scandinavian-levels of taxation and that is only going to get worse under Labour. We can only hope that Starmer and Reeves make such a hash of running the economy that taxpayers demand a change of direction.
My wife and I, hopefully, have enough resources to outlast Starmer, whatever taxes Reeves throws at us, but that will almost certainly mean spending more of the inheritance we had hoped to leave our two children. They are already self-sufficient, so all that means is that, at worst, they will be in the same position as we were, being left very little by our parents.
It’s a fact that the electorate invariably gets the government it deserves.
June 28, 2024
The electorate will certainly be in for a shock, but come 5 years time they will vote for whoever tells the sweetest lies, just like they always do.
June 28, 2024
On the plus side, these centralist Conservative MPs â One Nation doesn’t mean much to this layman â who lose their seats will probably seek power, prestige, and better money without depending on being elected.âWhereas those ideologically in favour of sound money, low taxes, etc., with have the conviction and fervour to stick around and re-build.
Matt Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent, spoke for Reform UK at the recent UnHerd Alternative Debate.âHis argument in the allotted five minutes was a Reform vote wasn’t wasted, but would build pressure on Farage to deliver a competent front bench in five years’ time and help it attract talent.âWorth watching; I’ve set the starting time at Matt: https://youtu.be/h0a5SPJwGzA?t=880
June 28, 2024
Reading a lot of these comments every day especially those related to Covid, Lockdown etc it is well seen that many of those individuals making these comments now are what are generally known as S Aâs, always wise after the event!
June 28, 2024
I think you can read past articles and comments right back to the plague era.
Didnât take long for many of us to cotton on.
June 28, 2024
The âOne Nationâ Tories should be called âOne Worldâ Tories. Some are communists, some are WEF feudalists. They both work for a single world government and concentrate their thoughts, beliefs and efforts assisting the world in general and care not for their own nation. This is evidenced by such policies as unilateral Net Zero to zero our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions and uncontrolled immigration, both legal and illegal. This ideology extends to the very top and includes all the existing Parliamentary parties. Consequently any voter voting for any existing Parliamentary party is a turkey voting for Christmas.
June 28, 2024
One Nation Toryism? What is understood by it?
Reading you’re comment, I’m total confused!
In my mind; it was a move to the Left, explained as the Center, but with Remainers wanting to align with a EU Customs Union and Single Market Rules! You would remember the motive of those that wanted the ERM!
A deliberate move away from a Free Market, and the inherent Freedoms (Self Determination), with an efficient Price Mechanism (Now we have inflexible price mechanisms – e.g; the Universal Credit is a direct attack on labours ability to bid up Wages, with the State subsiding big company’s)!
Another example of an attack on a Free Market, the Prices Mechanism, is the restriction on self employment (IR35), it restricts the movement of People, and Capital moving back to the home regions (pay mortgages)!
And, we have all the regulations, etc,… and heavy Taxes on Business Activity – Corp, VAT/VAT Thresholds, Fuel Duty, …
All about the EU alignment!
My reading of Disraeli was not that he was of the Left, more like he recognised that we need for an Economy that works for everyone, open to everyone – the Employed (State taxes) and Self Employed! Also, he recognised that Capital was being Hoarded! But, our Banking System was still very poor at distributing the Price of Capital, driving interests higher then competitors, and other competitor markets, and not supplying capital for startups,…
To this day, Politicians drive/hold interest rates higher for our Financial Markets, but no one is looking into the Banking System! Which undermines our Manufacturing sector, which need lower, stable, interest rates!
One Nation Toryism, that I understood it, was based on Localism and stopping the movement of People, a structured Economy (as in a Customs Union), and high local Taxes! Policy’s like anti Car, anti Road building, expensive energy, etc,…
And then, add in Devolution, and competing administrations and local councils, competing ideology’s, and Power bases, and you end up with no growth, no investment in growth potential, and restrictions on individual wealth generation! Stagnation, lower supply of produce, and higher inflation!
The internationalisation of our Law just undermines our Sovereignty? If an International was so important, then why was it not incorporated into British/Common Law? So, why are they allowed to use it to block British Policy? Their outlook is Internationalist, but not necessarily Right for GB (e.g EHCR)!
They seem to be using it as an excuse, but not putting it up for scrutiny or challenge?
And, so on,…
I could go on, but there are so many competing aims, I don’t know where to start!
For me; More back to a Free Market model, Supply-side Reforms, De-regulation, higher Business Activity rates (Taxes, lower interest rates for the Regions and manufacturing), and relay on Self Employment (Self determination), and the movement of capital and People! Reform UC, Banking, IR35, Self Employment rules, … Help the Poor and Working Poor take Opportunity’s (move, housing), and create an Enterprise Cultural (again). I Wales we don’t have access to Recovery Loans or suitable Start up finance (All regions need to be based on the Self Employed, and the movement of their capital)!
Hope this helps?
Regards,
RDM.
June 28, 2024
What they did not factor in was that the English are centrists, not lefties.
They forgot to represent the majority.
June 28, 2024
For your attention, Sir John:In your fourth paragraph a glitch has renamed Suella Braverman as Stella.
Thank you for continuing your excellent articles.
June 28, 2024
Sir John, you perfectly encapsulate in your summary of One Nation Conservatism why the Party has lost the goodwill of its supporters or, indeed, made them hostile to the Conservative Party.
June 28, 2024
There is a problem here. Blindly following the apparent wishes of voters is not always right. Before consensus or decisions are reached there needs to be informed debate. Therefore politicians must make their case and ensure that voter opinions derive from a full grasp of the facts. That simply doesn’t happen. Voters tend to follow social media that reinforces pre-conceptions. The Tories on Net Zero seem to have followed opinion polls without both making their own informed assessments and ensuring the voters are well informed. It is not good enough just to follow opinion polls and social media.
June 28, 2024
Sir John gives an excellent summary of all the reasons why the ‘Conservative Party’ is no longer the Conservative Party. There is nothing One-Nation or d’Israelian in agreeing to have the country and its people pushed around by the EU, the UN and WHO. Perhaps after July 5th its elected representatives (if there are any) will reflect on the self-inflicted disaster of reversing the policies of its only popular leader, espousing globalist equality-obsessed mumbo-jumbo, and finally ditching its members.
One thing they should not do, is imagine for one moment we do not see through this ‘One-Nation’ nonsense, which is just a feint for their own convenience, not for the Nation at all.
June 28, 2024
How about a government that :
Listens to the people.
Gives feedback on the issues concerning people.
Consults with truly experienced professionals on each issue .
No touchline academics shouting in.
Some decisions will be tough love decisions .
In all walks of life if you feel you have been listened to you have a better relationship.
My number one concern is security of supply of electricity and energy in general .
June 28, 2024
The Conservative Party in Westminster are going to be stuffed. However, what seats that are left will be occupied by One Nation MPs totally at odds with the Membership.
Hopefully those MPs of a Thatcherite demeanour that do survive will join Reform adding a greater degree of experience to their MPs.
Those MPs not elected should also move to Reform.They can build a credible alternative to a Labour Administration that will not achieve growth and will continue the incompetence we have seen in the last three years.
June 28, 2024
In other one nation news –
Just got a text from my GP saying that due to the junior doctors strike theyâll be closed from Thursday till next Tuesday, theyâre not employees, theyâre self-employed private business âŠ.why didnât someone in government included âstrikeâ as a breach of contract when funding GPs âŠGPs should not be allowed close to support NHS strikes, doesn’t anybody write contracts in favour of the taxpayer
No doubt labour will give them 30-35% rise
June 28, 2024
….and the text was a day late, typical NHS
June 29, 2024
and for so many of us, will we notice the difference? Like Westmonster – what comes out that the people see with their own eyes?
June 28, 2024
A poll taken for the Express by Whiteside after Farageâs Ukraine/Russia war comment. Reform has had a bounce because the British nation do NOT want to go to war with Russia, or pay for Zelensky.
â Reform UK up one point to a whopping 21 percent compared to last week.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives have dropped another percentage point to just 18 percent.â
We really hate these off-balance-sheet activities – we consider them illegal.
June 28, 2024
Conservatives should just stand aside to let Reform win
June 28, 2024
The main issue facing the Tory party is that they don’t believe that there’s a issue ….the policy of one-nation remains
June 28, 2024
âIt is true there have been important debates in recent years over lockdowns, money printing, migration levels, Brexit wins, ways of controlling small boats, tax levels and other issues of great interest to voters.â
And you lost every single one of Jose debates and the One Nation crowd won.
June 28, 2024
In the ‘jargon’ of the day – A vote for the Conservatives is a vote for Labour. Well done Sunak & Hunt you have trashed a party and created a one Party State.
June 28, 2024
Please take note: CCHQ, this version of Uni-Party (Calling themselves Conservatives) and the wider Conservative Party, no one else was/is going to win this coming election, its you guys alone that lost it for all the UK’s Conservatives. Call yourselves ‘One nation’ if you must, but be clear you are One Nation Socialists
June 29, 2024
Absolutely not – quite the reverse. One Nation Conservatism has unfortunately held the Party hostage efffectively for the last time and things will never be the same again.
June 29, 2024
The point on Foreign Secretary is interesting. I read that William Hague was approached first to be Foreign Secretary before what we have now in his place. Both these characters have never done a ‘proper’ job being researchers/PR employees of government. I think a Foreign Secretary ought to have some experience of war so Ben Wallace might have been a better choice if he had not been sidelined by the Dutch character we now see appointed to NATO chief. When will we have people in jobs that they have talent for? That is the problem as I see it. They might not get it right but they have some experience to start with which the lot we have now do not.
June 29, 2024
From the POV of Conservative-minded psychologists such as the great Carl Jung, people over-focused on the Market Economy are the ‘wets.’
Jung loves to focus on the selfish child in the adult. The economy is about money and money can be a great thing. But we have to discipline the child in us not to just focus on money and to acquire money as easily and quickly as possible (it’s not just wrong but will lead to so many unintended tragic consequences).
Adults who have failed to reign in this, are like children who haven’t reigned in and disciplined this desire for thing in general. And so childish. WET.
Socialists are wet – childish too. But in a different way. They have never grown out of the need to rebel (against parental figure). So they are still living this childhood hurt when they rebel against society later on in life.
Jung would argue, that a properly balanced and mature and integrated masculine man needs to have 4 main traits.
1) Leader (to be childish in over-focusing on money or rebelling is the opposite of a leader)
2) Warrior (being childish is not being a warrior)
3) Lover of life (someone who loves life in general not just focused on money or rebelling)
4) Magician (in Prospero Shakespeare sense – a man who loves his profession and good at it but who also understands others, has other healthy interests and passions in life).
Something like that.
And we are now seeing the disastrous results of Western Civilisation overly focused on market economics (just as socialism / Marxism and related WOKE is equally dangerous to Western Civilisation).
For Conservatives, this means returning to the principles of Edmund Burke.
June 29, 2024
(This all comes from the psychology of the great CarlJung – or interpretating things through the spirit of Jung’s psychology).
And the main reason for dysfunction in our world is due to people who have never grown out of their childish ways. At an extreme level, Hitler (right-wing) and Stalin (left-wing) were living through their childhood traumas – by projecting their hurt onto others. Narcissism (which affects us all from one degree to another) is all about the wounded child who we have never healed / reconciled with the adult in us.
Being childlike (as opposed to childish) is a great thing (it leads to humour, spontaneity, fun, adventure, creativity etc – things that you actually need to be a great entrepreneur as well as having happy relationships with others outside work). But being childish is toxic. And childishness can subtly manifest itself in the most powerful in the world but with deadly consequences. Just because you have been ‘successful’ in this or that doesn’t mean you’re actually grown up. Being grown up is about doing well in lots of things (not just in how fast and easily you can acquire money) as well as being in touch with the healthy child in one.
And so the dangers of Free Market Conservative Capitalism.
And there are dangers too in One Nation Conservatism, as well, where everything becomes academic and ideological and not rooted in reality (entrepreneurs are rooted in reality – and boy do we need entrepreneurs in our economy / county).
So it’s like getting a health balance between both approaches – and more.
June 29, 2024
Ministers argued that the threat to the Conservative party came from Labour and Lib Dems to the left so it was important to move in their direction.
Did they now? And did nobody point out how unsuited that comment made them to the role of minister of state?
If they don’t know the old priority of “Country before party before self” then they have no business being in government.
That sentence I quoted shows that they are prepared to trash the country’s culture and ambience via immigration on a massive scale for their own party’s electoral chances – and nobody pointed this out? Shame on you all.
All these career freeloaders sicken me. They read that mantra backwards – self, party, country – it makes my blood boil.
June 29, 2024
I can see Britain is going to be well out of synch after July 4th with Right Wing parties coming to the fore in Europe and then Trump in America –