My years in the Conservative party have seen several leaders destroy themselves politically through a fanatical commitment to the EU. The odd thing is they have adopted this stance when it has annoyed many members of the party and evoked strong opposition from some Conservative MPs. Worse it has done considerable damage to the country and its economy, leading to a loss of confidence by voters generally.
John Major destroyed his leadership by insisting on crippling the UK economy by putting us into the European Exchange rate mechanism. The resulting boom bust undermined the Conservative reputation for economic competence and put the partty out of office for 23 years.
William Hague refused to take us out of the pro federal EU grouping of the EPP which annoyed supporters and added to his tribulations. His slogan of in Europe but not run by it was not convincing as it was not backed by a policy to get powers back. He won back just one seat in 2001 after the disastrous result in 1997.
David Cameron argued on the wrong side in the referendum and lost, destroying his Premiership. He could have stayed neutral or backed Leave and led us out in good order after the result. I never understood why he thought Remain would win or why he let them run such a nasty and negative campaign.
Mrs May appointed advisers who clearly wanted to recreate many of the features of our membership of the EU despite the vote to Leave. Her obstinate commitment to an unacceptable lock back in Treaty which the public has decisively rejected has led to the breakdown of her authority. Cabinet members campaigning to become leader need to now create the vacancy they crave by telling her she cannot continue. She will be the third PM victim of trusting the EU too much in ways which lose the trust of the UK people.
May 22, 2019
Absolutely right, Sir John, and todayâs newspaper headlines just continue to heap further humiliation on Mrs May. Quite rightly, now that she is suggesting a second referendum could be possible. She appears deluded and incapable of understanding the disastrous situation that she has created. Has she really lost her mind?
You have been consistently loyal to the Conservative Party, so the fact that your last few articles have clearly shown your absolute frustration with the leadership and the damaging situation caused perhaps suggests that you have reached the end of your patience. Entirely understandable. You need to ensure that you, personally, are positioned so that you are not caught up in the mayhem about to strike your party. Most who contribute here recognise that you are one of the few honest and positive contributors to this, presently corrupt, Parliament.
You must ensure that your voice of reason continues to be heard.
May 22, 2019
Conservative leaders who are âfanaticalâ? I think May takes the biscuit. The others you mention are just not in the same league. She continues to get worse even when you think she is at rock bottom.
However, the fact that the party as a whole and the 1922 committee in particular have allowed her to plough on regardless for so long is just as big an issue.
May 22, 2019
Itâs far too late for trust to be placed in any member of the existing Cabinet. The honourable course would have been for every man and woman of them to have resigned. The fact that they did not has sealed their fate. They and their like-minded charade players will be removed by the electorate, enough of whom (after a degree of incredulous forbearance) have at last rightly risen in indignation to sweep them away.
May 22, 2019
Hear, hear! (But please, don’t go down with the ship!)
Latest YouGov poll:
BREX: 37% (+3)
LDEM: 19% (+2)
LAB: 13% (-2)
GRN: 12% (+1)
CON: 7% (-2)
CHUK: 4% (-)
UKIP: 3% (-)
Those 3% UKIPpers… can anyone explain that kind of cloud-cuckoo-land thinking to me? I’m at a complete loss…
May 22, 2019
Ukip voters don’t want sharia. Farage does not mind.
May 22, 2019
Really? He’s spoken out against it often enough in the past, just as an sensible person with a pair of balls would.
May 22, 2019
Julie….its the Farage implication. He’s marmite. Currently the only way out of EU is headed by Farage, like it or not. 3% of OUT voters dislike Farage so much they are sticking with the dead parrot.
May 22, 2019
@Julie Dyson
It’s their manifesto, Brexit Party doesn’t have one, but UKIP’s is rather compelling, and they’re prepared to defend free speech, which is in danger of becoming a thing of the past.
As for the polling, that says more about Joe public’s susceptibility to media mind games than it does about the parties themselves. UKIP doesn’t stay tamely within the Overton Window which is why the Establishment lackeys in the msm proselytize against them.
May 23, 2019
Is there any point in having a manifesto for the e.u. parliament? The parliament can’t introduce anything only support or reject what its masters give it, and the British contingent is heavily out voted in any case. The real power lies with the commission and the e.u. council as we have seen recently. I doubt whether most people could name one of the MEPs from their own region.
May 22, 2019
And those 7% CONers⊠can anyone explain that kind of cloud-cuckoo-land thinking to me? Iâm at a complete lossâŠ
May 22, 2019
formula57: “7% CONers⊠can anyone explain that kind of cloud-cuckoo-land thinking to me? ”
Somebody in the Tory party rank and file supports Ken Clarke, Michael Hestletine et al. Now we know roughly what fraction of the Tory voting population wants to stay in the EU.
Really, they’d be better off in the CHUK.
May 22, 2019
Some of us don’t believe in jumping on a bandwagon just because all our friends have. The British have a tendency to ooh and ahh over celebrities and let’s be honest the Brexit Party is a glittering theatre event right now.
I am not against it; I hope they succeed. True Leavers need success right now. But, rather like our host, I also am not the sort of person to abandon my principles simply because it looks like they (UKIP) are heading to oblivion.
It should be remembered that UKIP has spent years fighting the tyranny of Brussels. Yes they’ve had in-fighting; name me a party that has not. The hatred that has been thrown at them by tv, newspapers, is unbelievable; they obviously fear them even now. So thank you but I will remain in your cloud-cuckoo land and place my vote accordingly. I am mindful that meteoric rises in popularity can also meet with meteoric falls; for the country’s sake I hope that won’t happen, but we are living in unpredictable times.
May 22, 2019
JR,
Cameron’s strategist Lord Cooper stating he will vote Lib Dems tomorrow! It exposes the EU fanatics Cameron surrounded himself with: Heseltine advisor, Soubry, Ken Clarke, Grieve, Green, Hammond, Brokenshire, Boles, Morgan etc. Look at the indicative votes and Tory associations will be clear the 30 EU fanatics who they need to ousted. It should be a matter of party survival.
John Longworth explains in Conservative Woman the vile tactics used by remainers to smear and label people who voted leave for democratic reasons. BBC allowed to have bias over Brexit ruled by Ofcom! No balance from BBC required over climate change, EU has dictated policy and the U.K. establishment must make it happen! People scared to lose their jobs or promotion because intolerant remainers like Phillip Hammond smear and label people as extremists or popular right, nationalists etc. Same for the ugly character Rudd. Hammond allowed to discredit a national institution to make fake reports to scare people. Time to fight back. People can vote out Rudd, Grieve, Boles, Clarke x2, Hammond x2 from office. If they remain in your party it will be destroyed so associations need to oust them ASAP.
These people encourage other establishment bodies into group think. We saw this yesterday with the electoral commission. It should be scrapped. Its investigation brought about by Gordon Brown who smeared the Brexit Party. The same man who smeared Mrs Duffy a bigot because she was concerned about mass immigration. The same coward who broke his promise on Lisbon and sneaked off to sign away our democratic rights.
Timothy Bradshaw in Conservative Woman today highlights eloquently how the establishment, like the Rudd’s of the world, use the charade of parliament government to hide the unelected EU bureacrtic managers who really exercises power over us. People fear Corbyn, how about EU commissioner Mogherini? She used to be an Italian communist, Borrosso anybody? These people lead U.K. policy for parliament to follow.
We read the 1922 very cross so perhaps they will have another meeting. Suggest Brady and all cabinet ministers who agree her latest capitulation and 3 page begging letter to Corbyn considers their positions for allowing fanatic Mayhab to bring your party down.
May 22, 2019
Because UKIP has had a manifesto for some years, which contains items people don’t find clearly expressed anywhere else and with which they agree. Some of these are prickly issues. It also has a few candidates who have strong personal followings.
The Brexit Party is a phenomenon, very new and about Brexit, which is fine, but it doesn’t have much to say beyond that. It’s a deliberately broad church.
So the best chance of giving the present government in particular, a bloody nose, and supporting Brexit, is supporting TBP. If, on the other hand, you support Brexit and the things UKIP represents, vote UKIP.
The people I don’t understand in this are supporters of Change UK. They appear to be a stillborn opposite to TBP and people inclined to support them may as well throw in their lot with the LibDems, who have been consistent with their enthusiasm for the EU over the years.
You can ask the same question about both the Labour and Conservative Parties. What exactly is Labour’s position on Brexit – and for that matter lots of other things? The Conservative’s position of utter confusion has been amply demonstrated, and is why they have dismal poll results. Why vote for either of them?
May 22, 2019
Looks like a remain win to me, I wonder why anyone is voting Conservative Party,
Personaly I can’t stand Nigel Farrage ;but surely one would prefer the real thing to ersatz Farrage, wannabe Farrage, lookee likey Farrage and the dispiriting Farrage tribute act
May 22, 2019
Blinkers off time NM.
You must be very biased to look at those polling numbers and actually think it is a win for pro EU parties.
May 22, 2019
What is your preference then? Perhaps you’re one of those who criticise others, but don’t like to leave yourself exposed.
May 22, 2019
So you claim all Tory and Labour votes for Remain ?
May 22, 2019
Most Labour I would have thought and about half the remaining Conservatives . That would roughly tally with steady opinion polls but as long as we have the two old Parties obscuring the facts we can only guess
May 22, 2019
All that is certain is 23% vs 40% for Leave.
CHUK has bombed.
May 22, 2019
British steel lost today because of EU Emmissin Trading Scheme (EMS) rules applying to it under its dopey environment policy that the thoroughly discredited MPs want to remain attached. Even by Mayhabs servitude treaty it ties U.K. firms to the EU rules until 2020! Again, Mayhab not telling the truth at PMQs to say it was against the law, what she meant was it was against the EU laws and rules that she wants to keep the U.K. wedded to. All those on Labour and Tory benches hang your heads in shame and stop pretending it was anything other than EU rules that caused this with a Chinese dumping of steel.
If the U.K. was out of the EU and allowed to be competitive making its own laws on state aid, energy, environment decided by parliament not a EU? Damian Green and Rudd happy to lose UK jobs for the EU one nation.
May 22, 2019
@Julie Dyson; So 55% either want no Brexit or some form of WA, whilst 40% want to ‘just leave’ (I guess the missing 5% either don’t know what they want or were not going to tell), who carried out this poll, if reputable and correct me thinks I might be backing the wrong horse in thinking a WTO exit would pass any referendum… đ
As for why 3% plan to vote for UKIP, simple, they havn’t yet realised that Mr Farage has started a new party, perhaps “First News” hasn’t covered the story yet?!
May 22, 2019
Conservative on 7% and only the fifth party – surely they can be pushed into 7th place given Theresa’s sterling efforts to bury the party with her pro EU, tax and regulate to death, socialist agenda?
May 22, 2019
Exactly.
Not only did these Conservative leaders take the wrong line on the EU they also increased taxes, love an ever larger government, push endless red tape and interventions, some took us in to counterproductive wars, they liked the climate alarmism exaggerations & idiotic energy policies, had restrictive employment laws, absurd tax complexity, love the dire NHS state monopoly that kills hundreds of thousands and many other insanities.
All (other than Mrs Thatcher) have been disasters for the economy and at the ballot box. Even Mrs Thatcher made many predictable errors (the poll tax, signing up for more EU and appointing the daft as a brush John Major as chancellor being the main one).
We need a leader with a policy of a real Brexit, lower taxes, cheap energy, no green wash, a far smaller state and a bonfire of red tape. A freedom and choice PM who is a real Conservative. You will also now need a deal with the Brexit Party as May has nearly destroyed her party.
May 22, 2019
The poem “If” springs to mind in Sir John’s case but Theresa May thinks it was written for her and her destiny calling whatever that may be in her unfathomable mind. Europe beckons or white coats and white flags all around?
May 22, 2019
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1130182/theresa-may-speech-brexit-promise-second-referendum-ten-point-new-brexit-deal
This was always the intention of May, she was installed as a remoaner PM with the pure intention of doing the work of the Eu and most of the sitting MPs and having another referendum so that it can be fixed this time to get us to remain in the corpse of the Eu , well Iâve got news for you that if by chance there is another referendum and if by chance the remoaners win the vote to stay then i for one wonât except it and fight for another vote till I get the vote I want and that is to leave end of
May 22, 2019
Iâm sitting in bed and my wife , a German, is currently giving me earache about how incompetent May is and what are we going to do about it. She is a hollow creature controlled by her Civil Service since her days in the Home Office. As for continuing the fight if Remain win well I give it 2-3 years before heavily armed Euro troops permanently garrisoned in the UK are regularly patrolling our streets doing Selmayrâs dirty work.
May 22, 2019
How could another referendum be accepted or believed when they have carped on for 3 years? Whinging and whining like cry babies. Enough we must leave. Unfortunately I can’t see any trust in the legacies anymore. May has blown it big time, egged on by her foolish Cabinet and Ministers. I won’t describe my feelings for the Leadsom/Fox sellouts!
May 22, 2019
The backstop has now become the forstop. She has only left the handing over of Gibraltar and remaining in in the CFP to complete her total capitulation.
She is treacherous and dangerous woman.
May 22, 2019
I imagine the sovereign bases in Cyprus have already been taken care of by whatever defence agreements she has made with the European Union. Who knows, ditto Ascension Island and elsewhere?
May 23, 2019
Hasn’t Cyprus just announced that it is going with France rather than the UK for a modernisation of it’s naval facilities?
May 22, 2019
Owen Patterson stated the second referendum was last promise she could break.
May 22, 2019
You underestimate the woman, Ian. Just Gibraltar?
Why not give the Falklands to Argentina and the Channel Islands to France?
May 22, 2019
Can I add vindictive, obstinate and apparently . . .power crazed. This ( ex ) beautiful country is being destroyed by the EU and it’s policies . . . and the money that is constantly being pumped from the UK into it. We are paying for our own destruction . . .while those at the top EU table will be salting millions away to ensure their own luxury.
May 22, 2019
Good morning
I suppose we could argue that the problems started as far back as Ted Heath. I seem to remember that both the party and the electorate were less than pleased with our membership of the then EEC.
Was it not Mrs.T that took us into the ERM ? And she’s too fell foul of the party when she said; “No, no, No!” to Jaque Delores proposals for the future of the EEC.
IDS was stabbed in the back by members of his own party. Enough said.
Cameron, and Hague, were very convincing Eurosceptics when in opposition but soon showed their true colours when on office.
Let’s face it, the Tory party IS the party of the EU and no matter what, they want to Remain in the EU.
May 22, 2019
@Mark B; “I seem to remember that both the party and the electorate were less than pleased with our membership of the then EEC.”
You obviously do not remember 1975…
May 22, 2019
My memory of 1975 – when I was a young housewife and mother of 2 toddlers, and also the go-to carer for 3 close relatives with physical and mental health issues – was that I voted Remain because the (extremely) restricted news and discussion sources posited that membership of the EEC was beneficial for trade.
Once it became easier in the 80’s to spend some time actively researching both the background and the many opinions that became more readily available, I regretted my Remain vote.
May 22, 2019
He remembers 1972 and as I recall Heath only got the EEC Bill through with Labour Votes. It was that decision – to drive EEC membership through whatever the cost – which injected into the Conservative Party and the Country the poison of the EEC/EU. It is the ‘original sin’ as it were. It has destroyed every subsequent Conservative Prime Minister, including the evil May. Only be leaving the EU, as our members of Parliament have been instructed to do by the People, can the poison be lanced.
May 22, 2019
@Andy; Labour were equality split on our EEC membership, it is very unlikely the UK would have joined the EEC had Wilson won a third term in 1970.
The 1975 referendum only came about because the likes of Benn, Castle & Shore (to name just three but there were far more, never mind a lot of the left wing unions) pushing the issue both within the party and parliament – and they still are. The only party that has never changed its position with regards the EEC/EU, as far as I can tell, are the Lib/Dems.
May 22, 2019
Wise words. This is the nub of it.
May 22, 2019
The parliamentary conservative party is the party of the establishment (which is ironic as the labour party is the one supported by the placemen in the establishment) and business.
The establishment and business do not like change ergo the parliamentary conservative party likes the EU
May 22, 2019
I think Donald Trump hit the nail on the head when he said, “One of the key problems today is that politics is such a disgrace, good people don’t go into government.”
Thankfully, on this side of the pond at least, it has finally reached the point where frustration and sheer outrage has provoked a new political movement spearheaded by good, decent, ordinary people from all walks of life. And the establishment is terrified, pulling out all the stops in an effort to disparage and hinder its rising popularity and meteoric growth. But to no avail.
It’s time to take our country back from those who would abuse the power we lent them — starting tomorrow.
May 22, 2019
No it was not, it was John Major who took us into ERM. Mrs T. wouldn’t, which is why major, Heseltine et al ousted her.
May 22, 2019
The noble Lord Tebbit described Heseltine on LBC this evening as a trouble causer.
Absolutely bang on!
May 22, 2019
Yes you are absolutely right. It is odd that they should all fall into the same elephant trap. I think their collective mistake has been a failure to understand the mindset of the British People. We are not and never have been committee aparatchics. We are in the majority self employed in thinking if not in reality. We prefer steering our own ship and due to our very long relationship with democracy we have an instinct for smelling the reefs. Throughout our history Europe has been politically one of those recurring reefs which from time to time we have, at great expense, had to deal with. It is an enigma, while detesting the politics we have a love of the place and the people. It is after all where most of us originated.
May 22, 2019
Great insight
May 22, 2019
MPs openly denouncing Theresa May’s ineptitude via the media are likely to increase eventually penetrating even her own awareness that she is worse than useless on Brexit.
May 22, 2019
Has Mrs May become the new King Canute?
Can we identify the sycophants who are encouraging her to place her chair on the shore?
May 22, 2019
You mistake the point of the Canute legend.
He was willing to demonstrate to his sycophants that he did NOT have the power to manipulate the tide, and in fact he appears to have been a competent ruler at a difficult time.
Mrs May’s courtiers are Sir Mark Sedwill, Oliver Robbins and Gavin Barwell.
May 22, 2019
Her behaviour is beyond curious and I am seriously beginning to wonder if she has been pressured in some way e.g. “you gave an undertaking to deliver BRINO for us, and if you don’t deliver BRINO then certain information will be released”. Sounds incredible? I am not so sure. It is how the dirtier side of politics operates, and we are apparently in banana republic territory now after all the duplicity, chicanery and plain lying apparently led by the PM herself.
May 22, 2019
She is not inept. She has colluded with her Civil Serpents and the EU and foreign leaders to try and hoodwink us into staying in. Fortunately we have not been taken in and Sir Nigel and his team have provided an honest alternative to this rogue Government and Parliament. So it looks ever more likely the beginning of the end for the NOT Conservative Tory’s.
The following is a civil servant writing about Mayhem’s plans over a month ago. Worth a read Sir John.
https://briefingsforbrexit.com/the-real-plan-behind-the-article-50-extension/
May 22, 2019
Good post, Timaction.
May 22, 2019
So when Major lost in 1997, was his opponent Mr T Blair pro or anti EU? When Hague was slaughtered in 2001 was his opponent Mr T Blair pro or anti EU? 2005? Cameron succeeded in 2010 and even more so in 2015 by adopting a constructive approach to the EU. Then in 2017 Mrs May went to the country on a hard Brexit ticket – and the country said no. The sad truth is that an anti EU Tory party is completely unelectable. The even sadder truth is that backbench MPs like J Redwood refuse to understand that. It is an open door for J Corbyn.
May 22, 2019
What utter tosh.
May 22, 2019
Thatcher?
May 22, 2019
The biggest advance that European integration ever achieved was the rise of majority voting. It occurred in the 1980s. Who was PM then?
May 22, 2019
What are you on about?
Majority voting started centuries ago.
May 22, 2019
May lost seats in 2017 but the vote was strong.
It might have been stronger still were it not for some of the unconservative policies in her manifesto.
What that did promise, of course, was to deliver the result of the referendum, though I don’t remember it saying it would be through “a hard Brexit”. Corbyn’s Brexit manifesto was pretty much the same too.
The people’s mistake was to believe either of them.
I sympathise with MPs who have tried to stay true to manifestos which their parties’ grandees had no intention of delivering. Why should they leave their parties when it is the party leaders who have left them?
May 22, 2019
@Tory in Cumbria; “Then in 2017 Mrs May went to the country on a hard Brexit ticket”
Actually she did not, she went to the polls on a hard domestic economic policy, that is what cause the defeat. Remember her expectation that people, who have paid taxes and Ni all their working lives, would be expected to sell their homes to pay for the NHS care they though had been paid for via National Insurance (the clue is in the name…).
In some ways Corbyn’s (and his closest colleagues) unsaid but prominent long standing views on our EU membership are even harder than many eurosceptics of this parish.
May 22, 2019
The majority of the electorate was unconcerned about the EU in terms of voting intent prior to 2015. Mr Blair won landslides against a divided Conservstive party (as Mrs Thatcher trounced a divided Labour party).
Mrs May achieved more votes than Mr Blair. The minor party vote collapsed and their supporters voted tactically not the Conservative vote
May 22, 2019
Would that be the anti EU, J Corbyn?
May 22, 2019
Brian, ,, it depends on where he is, and what day of the week it is.
May 22, 2019
Fred – quite right!
May 22, 2019
@Fred H; But Brain was talking about Mr Corbyn, not Mr Farage.
May 22, 2019
And a pro-EU Tory party is electable, is it? So they were actually on the right track then, were they? Just a bit more EU, with its ‘ever closer union’, and they’d have cracked it? So the country ”said no” in 2017 by electing a party that promised to leave the EU?
The ‘sad truth’ is that there are people like you who still believe there is a status quo with the EU and that it has our good at heart.
May 22, 2019
When the people were allowed a say on the issue, after 41 years, they said ‘no thank you’. Grow up and get over it.
And by the by, if you had any honour you would have insisted that every subsequent treaty since 1973 had been put to a Referendum to obtain the peoples consent. The reason this was never done is quite simple: the people would have said ‘No’ to all of them.
May 22, 2019
May has destroyed herself not just politically, but also by utter incompetence reinforced by gross duplicity. Her failed premiership is an extraordinary spectacle, unbelievable if not actually witnessed and experienced. The sooner it ends the better for everyone. Whether she has also marked the end of the Conservative party as we know it must be an open question.
May 22, 2019
I think that Mrs May’s greatest mistake – and the that of Remain politicians and media – was to take us for fools.
May 22, 2019
I believe that way of thinking, Kenneth, has been inculcated into our civil service and many politicians by the EU. There is this arrogance that comes with power, and when the key politicians in the EU are unaccountable to the demos then they feel they have the right to talk loftily about a post democratic age. (Mandelson, that fervent europhile, apparently did too). Economic Voice quotes a eurocrat, D Avramopoulos, in 2015 explaining “democracy”:
“….We now have an unelected Eurocrat in the form of Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Greek EU Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, calling on member states to ignore the wishes of the people when it comes to inward migration. He said that politicians should “stop thinking about the political cost” when tackling the EU immigration crisis.
He went on to say that the commission just gets on with things because, as they were unelected, they donât have to worry about things like re-election so ââŠ.for us the political cost means nothingâ.
What heâs saying is that our elected politicians should ignore their electors and do what the EU Commission says because they, the Commission, know better and know whatâs good for the people. This, to me, sounds more like the old USSR than a progressive 21st century democracy…..”
May 22, 2019
A leader that has in the past expressed Europhile sentiment cannot become leader of this great party. if they do we are finished
We need an ardent Eurosceptic. A conviction politician with the aim of destroying Marxist Labour and a politician that can speak openly and directly with Labour’s core vote
Anything less would be destructive, pointless and fatuous.
The British people can smell detritus a mile away. Any attempt to try and install and a ‘fake’ Eurosceptic will prove existential for the party
May 22, 2019
The Conservative party is finished. The point at which traditional, sensible conservative people – whether MPs (there are a few!), or ordinary members, councillors, association chairs, etc. – leave the party seems very close. The Conservative party cannot be reformed; there are simply too many people within the party with influence that are not genuine conservatives. And that’s not even accounting for the vested interests and bank-rollers. Even if a principled man like our kind host or Steve Baker, for example, somehow managed to gain the leadership, they would be incapable of leading the party because so few within it would follow.
The Tory brand has been destroyed. True conservatives, if they haven’t done so already, will rally to a different flag. It can only be hoped that this party will have the necessary leadership, vision and coherent principles to make the argument for sensible, small governance – and that enough people in this country then vote for it.
May 22, 2019
Strangely no mention of Mrs Thatcher, many readers of this site often cite her lack of EU support as being the reason she was removed, an oversight by our host or recognition that it was domestic policy that caused her undoing.
How was John Major “destroyed” by the EEC/EU, or even the ERM, that fiasco was in 1992, Major went on to win a ‘back me or sack me’ leadership vote in 1995, as our host knows full well… Yes the Conservatives did loose the 1997 GE but for reasons totally unconnected to our EU membership, voters electing an even more pro EU party. Is our host suggesting that had he won the 1995 leadership vote ‘Sleaze’ within the parliamentary party would not have raised it ugly head, perhaps it would have been dealt with before details entered the public domain, who knows.
You talk about economic competence, boom and bust under Major’s leadership, sorry was there not three recessions during Mrs T premiership, certainly two, bankruptcies & house repossession etc. happened during the 1980s too.
No mention of IDS either, strange because he was the eurosceptics choice, he could not retain the confidants of the wider party though.
Mrs May has been on borrowed time since she first stepped into No.10 as PM, who ever had done so would have suffered the same fate, the EU was never going to make Brexit easy, why would they. Cameron understood this hence why he resigned and stepped away from politics. Brexiteers understood this, hence why their either did not stand up or having done so sat down again.
May 22, 2019
1. Mrs May – run by Europe but not in it.
2. Perhaps Labour will back May to leave an unpleasant present for her successor.
May 22, 2019
Clearly the country is split on the issue of the EU- 50/50 for and against as reflected roughly by the Referendum. In these circumstances it is for government to decide, on balance, what is best for the country. Your own position is a perfectly valid as a point of view but is rejected by at least half the country. Time to move on.
May 22, 2019
steadyeddie, surely it is the other way around.
Parliament is split on this subject.
Fortunately we held a referendum to decide things and we decided to leave.
What is angering many is that we are still members of the eu!
May 22, 2019
In truth Eddie, the result was Leave 51.89%, Remain 48.11%.
You lost.
May 22, 2019
When is 48% at least half or 50/50? Do you have any maths qualifications?
May 22, 2019
My conclusion from that summary is that you are in the wrong party John, the Conservatives have always been as a party pro-EU so why you have remained in a party that does not now, and never has over the past several decades, represented your views is a mystery.
May 22, 2019
You expected him to join the LibDems, Roy?
May 22, 2019
Not Sir John, but a long list of his parliamentary party colleagues ought to be in the Lib Dems!
The Tory ethos used to be ‘common sense’. The decisions taken by some of the Tories in recent times owe more to the insane asylum than a political party. Maybe with Theresa May’s forced removal, there’s a chance to get back to some kind of sanity.
May 22, 2019
Lets face it; it was a bad idea in the first place. I am sure not whose instinct and subsequent actions have sold of bits of GB over the years , but they were not on our side; they were depowering us.The second world war didn’t stop , the violence and the slaughter stopped when mankind looked at the futility and foolishness of the conflicts , but the urge to put GB down has been continuous. If this is our mother country I feel like a battered wife whose siblings cannot stop accepting that this is our lot in life.
May 22, 2019
Yes – Too much EU appreciation is not good for anybody, clearly – The EU take an interest in humiliating our leaders at every opportunity, but they keep going back for more – That is the strange thing.
Our leaders have surrendered not just the UK to the EU but their very souls – This is the real question of the day – WHY Do They Do That?
Hague and Cameron were seen as promising leaders that would grow into the role – A grave mistake… Far better to have someone who has been around the block several times, than someone out of their depth, relying on advisors, and making infantile mistakes.
The EU will continue to destroy our leaders, and us, if May is not destroyed first!
May 22, 2019
My concern is that even with another PM your party still is not committed to leaving John. Therefore I cannot consider voting for them in either the European elections or a general.
Mrs May has destroyed any faith the core Conservative voters had in the party together with the likes of Soubrey, Clarke, Morgan, Gove, Rudd and even JRM. What a sad period in history.
May 22, 2019
What is hugely worrying is that Bernard Jenkin was telling Maitliss that with a new leader they could look at getting rid of the backstop. Does he not realise that the whole WA is atrocious and represents a vassal state document? The backstop is just one poisonous ingredient. (The EU has said it cannot be reopened for the backstop to be removed).
This sort of thinking/reasoning by Jenkin just confirms to me that the Tory Party just will not effect Brexit. Boris will still go for some compromise if he was ever allowed near the reins of power. For me, it is a fresh start, fresh Party, run by someone I trust, and with whom you can be sure you get what is on the tin.
May 22, 2019
I have often wondered if the useless May was shoehorned in deliberately to wreck Brexit, in the knowledge it would kill the Tories for a generation?
Certain interested parties would love to see all political opposition to the EU done away with. I can’t say who because I’ve been warned they have a very extensive reach and are well funded.
May 22, 2019
Deluded, Desperate and Dangerous sums up the way Mrs May is behaving, and the EU negotiators and the UK population have known that now for 18 months, which is why the EU will no longer talk business with her, other than on their own terms.
What she is proposing makes absolutely no sense to anybody, and is simply delaying her inevitable demise, and our eventual leaving of the EU.
If she is allowed to continue any further by the Conservative Party, then that will also go down the drain with her.
May 22, 2019
I can’t see how anyone in the cabinet that does not resign today can hope to become leader of the party. They all otherwise condone the actions of our treacherous PM.
May 22, 2019
JR must be a very nice man indeed. Nicer anyway than moi.
All I can see in the EU âproblemâ ( disaster) are self aggrandisement, backhanders, treachery and deceit. Not a single mistaken viewpoint or naivety..just self seeking political bloodshed.
Red in tooth and claw.
Stupidly, I imagined that even Cameron, having offered the referendum, would find the implementation whatever decision as easy as all the signing up to the EU had been.
âWeâre IN!â said the newspapers circa 1975.
Why was â Weâre OUT!â any more difficult in 2016??
May 22, 2019
â Weâre OUT â has been made more difficult because :
We have a remainer Prime Minister.
We have a majority remainer Cabinet
We have a majority remainer Parliament.
We have remainer senior Civil Service negotiators .
We have a fanatical EU dictatorship.
We have a dark, shadowy committed remainer Establishment.
And…if any Leaver came close to the negotiations they were sidelined and forced out.
Democracy…RIP
May 22, 2019
Re Mr Cameron’s campaign being “nasty” – the Dennis Healy quote “Like being savaged by a dead sheep” was what best described it in the end.
May 22, 2019
Mrs Thatcher took us into the ERM, admittedly under pressure from John Major and the EUphiles in cabinet who would later force her out and sign up to Maastricht, but Mrs Thatcher it was.
The EU has had too much influence on our country for a very long time.
May 22, 2019
Narrow Shoulders
“The EU has had too much influence on our country for a very long time.”
If, like me, you are old enough to remember what this country was like prior EU membership then you could say that on the whole, it was nothing but beneficiant.
Had we not behaved so arrogantly in constantly demanding special treatment and opt outs which irritated other members we could have had more influence in shaping the union.
May 22, 2019
Whatever we had done the maths remains the same margaret.
28 members
9 pay in
The rest take money out
All have a vote.
And a rapidly reducing right of veto over various areas is another problem for the UK
May 22, 2019
So we opted out of large chunks while this munificent influence watched over us Margaret. Imagine if we had opted out of more or all.
Do you have that vision or are you too stuck in your ways?
Is progress always down to others in your mind? How pitiful.
May 22, 2019
You really do wear rose-tinted specs! Talk about a selective memory to suit your own cheap cause! Anything to make the EU look good.
I worked in the industrial midlands of the 1970s, and the reason this nation did so badly was because of the inordinate amount of power in the hands of disruptive trades unions who would strike over nothing at all. Once that was put right, the nation began to prosper.
Had pro-EU politicians not acted so arrogantly and signed the UK up to all manner of treaties without proper reference to the people, we could have been out already and done better still.
May 22, 2019
And she bitterly regretted doing so. It was Sir Alan Walters who called it ‘half baked’. The Euro isn’t even ‘half baked’ but far too many fools wish us to join.
May 22, 2019
Andy
“The Euro isnât even âhalf bakedâ but far too many fools wish us to join”
Makes you wonder how this ‘even less than half baked’ currency has managed to replace the pound as the world’s number one reserve currency after the $?
And yes, it’s been a bumpy ride on the old euro-train. Back in the heady days of 2000, it was only worth an average of 61p to the ÂŁ. Today the average value is 88p. That’s nearly 40% up.
May 22, 2019
Based on the strength of Germany.
May 23, 2019
The former Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, made an interesting point about the Euro and the forces that are pulling it apart. Lots of countries want to leave it, but the biggest danger to it is that Germany itself might want to leave it because they’re fed up with having to bail other nations out. So first and foremost, national identity is still strong even in Germany.
And as Varoufakis explains it, the thing that put the German banks under such strain (check out Deutsche Bank CEO speaks of âtough cutbacksâ at contentious shareholder meeting) was their willingness to lend to just about anyone, regardless of their ability to repay the loans.
Without writing pages of this stuff, I think even the most casual reader can see there is something wrong with the Euro’s central lynchpin economy, not to mention the other economies of nations that subscribe to it, so I wouldn’t crow about it too much just yet if I were you.
May 23, 2019
Margaret,
It is quite obvious that you know nothing at all about economics and precious little about currencies. If you think the Euro has been such a rip roaring success then I suggest you go and live in Athens, probably in abject poverty. I assume you think that the destruction of a third of the Greek economy, mass unemployment and wide spread poverty is of no consequence, but this is all down to your beloved Euro.
May 22, 2019
If the Brexit Party wins the next GE what are the Remainers going to do ?
1) Blockade Parliament
2) Start a 2 year investigation of Farage
3) Tell us we didnât know what we voted for
4) Throw milkshakes
5) Ask for a recount
6) Refuse to leave Downing Street
7) Remove the vote from Leavers
8) Remove Leavers from the internet
May 22, 2019
9) All of the above.
May 23, 2019
Javelin,
We can be sure they will use any dirty trick in the book, including the employment of useful idiots who spout interminable pro-EU nonsense on blogs, or wave blue flags in front of the houses of parliament.
I was most interested when a Sunday Times columnist approached that noisy rabble recently to ask their opinion on the EU, yet nobody would talk to him. They turned away every time. He simply couldn’t believe that a campaign group didn’t want to get their message across in the media despite yelling at the top of their voices.
There has to be something wrong with these people. Who pays them to dress like clowns and strut about in all weathers? That could be indicative of a wider expenses issue and worthy of investigation.
May 22, 2019
Re David Cameron (‘he could have stayed neutral’) – it is my strong view that some of the government’s campaigning in the 2016 referendum did not comply with the guidelines for referenda set by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission about government neutrality.
May 23, 2019
Agreed! Most emphatically!
May 22, 2019
It appeared that Cameron was so arrogant he thought the plebs would swallow project fear.
He allowed the left wing mob to bully and harass Leavers and blamed Leave for every ill under the sun.
He just used the age old formula ..put the wind up âem and theyâll let you drive them anywhere . ( To Flanders perchance?).
But this time we had the internet and he wasnât fooling anyone.
The powers that be will get rid of the internet sooner than theyâll pull out of the EU.
May 22, 2019
May has reached new lows with talk of second referendums and customs unions. Might it be possible that the conservatives plunge even lower than 9%? I know there is a loyal core of supporters who would not switch their vote for fear of Marxists, but the reality is at this point a vote for the conservatives is a vote for brino Customs Union etc. which may well make a Marxist win more likely in the inevitable backlash
May 22, 2019
Off topic – does anyone have the number of the 3 or 4 million EU27 nationals in UK who are choosing to vote in the UK EU elections? (I had heard some had been moaning about having to fill in form to confirm they were not voting in another country)
May 22, 2019
Sir JR,
Good analysis about the Conservative leaders and the reasons , why they fell.
I am not sure about the consequences of the Economic analysis and EU membership.
thank you
May 22, 2019
The economics of the bloc is a binary choice. The EU has to be a full federation/nation to function in an effective way or be disbanded. The likes of Verhofstadt are quite correct in that approach. If the EU27 are unable to commit to it, disbandment it must be. Something that the EU machine cannot countenance under any circumstances.
May 22, 2019
You must be getting worried now the end game is in sight. The voters have the measure of May being an EU sycophant and the party will be thus punished.
We may very well tumble out of the EU at the end of October and that will be down today, Hammond and the civil service colluding with Brussels to colonise us.
Bring it on.
May 22, 2019
Ian,
Did you actually read what you wrote?
May 22, 2019
Mrs May is not a bad person but she has shown herself not to be up to the task of leading the country out of the EU. Her determination to deliver a form of Brexit (any form as long as it can be badged as Brexit) has led her astray.
Her latest misstep means the 1992 Committee should take a firm stance and tell (not ask) Mrs May to stand down for the good of the party.
May 22, 2019
John S……not bad? just devoid of any sense of morality, honesty, good intentions. So lies, misrepresention, taking the party and country into years of doom are not bad? Then I’m left with unhinged.
May 22, 2019
T. May is a bad person, evidenced by her deceitfulness in handling Brexit, both as regards colleagues (four Brexit Secretaries!) and the public (the frequent mismatch between words and deeds).
Her stubborn stupidity in pursuing her failed strategy also points to a warped mind.
May 22, 2019
Spelling is not so good on the above ! I mean to say ‘daughter of a Vicar’.
May 22, 2019
I was with you all the way until you said âMrs May is not a bad personâ.
Any individual who seeks to deceive another individual, can hardly be described as good! Honesty in a politician, especially a political leader, is a prerequisite. But this one hails from a religious background and should therefore have been the epitome of virtue. She has proven herself to be anything but virtuous!
May 22, 2019
The temptation to play amateur psychologist with Mrs. May is becoming
overwhelming. Is it her intention, after resigning, to have a career
making lucrative speeches? Is her projected worth based on a proven ability to
manipulate Parliament? She is trying everything in the book to get MPs to
yield to her will.
May 22, 2019
Kevin…..I should think psychiatrists will be queing up to interview her, attend her lectures etc. Fascinating material they never found when in training.
May 22, 2019
Was never impressed by Hague or Major. Nondescript and never recognized what they stood for.
I remember listening to the leadership challenge debate between Cameron and Davis on the TV (when I had one). My children in their mid teens happened to be in the room at the time. Out of curiosity I asked them what they thought. My daughter said Cameron was a very good orator, but Davis wasn’t and the former would make a good leader and her brother agreed. I then asked them what they were telling us they would do. Both gave the points raised by Davis, but when prompted they couldn’t say what Cameron was going to do. Out of the mouth of babes…
I said to my children, it is not about able to get on a rostrum, strut and talk without notes that counts, but the clarity, honesty and sincerity those words are delivered, and that my little chucks, is your first lesson in politics.
Needless to say, I refused to vote conservative whilst Cameron was leader and subsequently had a number of rather heated debates with my then constituent MP Haslehurst disputing the direction Cameron was taking the party.
May uses the right words but cannot deliver with honesty and sincerity and it shows., especially when she reneges on her own previous utterings.
If your party wants to continue, it is time for some patriotism and honesty in the top job. Perhaps you should consider putting your name forward?
May 22, 2019
There is also leadership obsession with the grossly exaggerated issue of climate change – the Australian election should be a warning that climate hysteria is electorally unpopular.
My disillusionment with the Conservative party arose when David Cameron sacked the outstanding minister Owen Paterson probably because he stood up to the Green Blob, the dismissal perhaps spurred on by Greenpeace activist Samantha Cameron. It added insult to injury when Paterson was replaced by a minister so pitifully out of her depth (but now touted, so help us, as a future leader).
May 22, 2019
Owen Paterson would be my choice. He comes across very well and most importantly, he seems trustworthy. He also articulates the argument in an easily understood way.
Anyone taking over the helm of the Conservative party will have a lot of damage to put right, so it could be a thankless task to try to make them electable once again. The underlying danger is, the most suitable people might not want the job.
When I stand back and look at the ship that is the Tory party, I see a lot of rotten timber with woodworm all over the place. Any new leader has to disinfect the Tory party to get rid of all the pro-EU maggots before new wood is spliced-in or the condition will just come back again.
To kill the disease off once and for all requires local constituency parties to deselect all those remain MPs who have cheated this nation and treated its people with such contempt. There’s no time like the present, so the Tories clearly need to take this time to rebuild. It’s just a question of who would want to take it on, and for wholly altruistic not selfish reasons.
May 22, 2019
The Green New Deal is disastrous and based on flawed “science”, yet our foolish government has decided to call the situation a climate emergency. The doom mongerers need to be thrown out fast, and true expert opinion brought in and subject to rigorous scrutiny. Push back all the lobbyists. It is the lobbying in Brussels which has done the greatest damage and the irony is that they get funding from the EU to promote their flawed science. It just goes round in a circle, and they apparently get unbridled access through their lobbying to the lawmakers in the Commission. The whole system needs reforming, but hopefully we will be free from the EU soon, and we will then have a chance to examine the whole climate debate claims (on which our current policy is based on) and the “science” behind it.
May 22, 2019
You are right Chris.
The Green Deal if implemented in the UK or USA would put millions out of work.
May 22, 2019
Ask British Steelworkers!
May 22, 2019
Exactly, Timaction. Richard Tice of Brexit Party was also able to make this point in channel 4 (hostile questioning) interview tonight.
May 22, 2019
Those party leaders have all been seen to be untrustworthy when it came to matters relating to the EU. In fact they all give the impression that they care more for the EU than for their own people in the UK. It may well be that Mrs May has destroyed your party with her duplicity and mendacity. The fact that most Conservative MPs were not prepared to remove her but allowed her to continue to wreak her damage has made them complicit and equally untrustworthy.
May 22, 2019
I used to believe in the EEA solution. Now that is gone, I agree with Sir John – leave, just leave.
For heaven’s sake, please don;t allow the WA(b) to get through! It would lead to “colonial status” from people who despise us and it would go on until they – not us – got fed up.
May 22, 2019
đ
+1
May 22, 2019
Not since the turbulent reign of Aethelred the Unready ( the Battle of Maldon, the St. Brice’s Day Massacre, the Danegeld etc,etc ) have we seen anything like it. As our present leader’s reign draws to a close I wonder what title history will accord her. After yesterday ” Theresa the Lost ” seems apt.
May 22, 2019
“The Loss of Conservative Leaders”
I think there is a much broader problem than just the Conservative leaders who have been brought down by their willingness to grovel to the EU, and that is the lack of Political Leaders per se!
There was a time when, on both front benches, political heavyweights sat shoulder to shoulder. Today their modern counterparts sit on the front benches looking as though they are fresh out of Lilliput! – Seemingly worried to death that they might slip between the seat and the backrest, rather than having the gravitas and guts to confront the issues of the day themselves!
Could it be that the centre left/centre right coalition, together with political correctness, is a 21st Century variant of the Midas Touch whereby everyone is turned into mediocrity?
May 22, 2019
Somehow this has been posted in the wrong place. This was a separate post, not a reply to Jacey.
May 22, 2019
Surely once the Withdrawal Agreement is passed by Parliament there is no second chance or going back. A referendum to accept or to overthrow the Withdrawal Agreement is no longer valid ,it is too late.
This is what Labour wanted not realising or ignoring they have to vote for the WA to enter the Political Declaration and start the never ending negotiations.
Corbyn’s Unicorn – I want us to get a good deal and then to have a decision in the Public after that, is going nowhere.
He misses the point that to talk to the EU about his desired deal he has to sign up to the WA. This he has rejected three times.
With Labour itâs opposition politics, they can promise unicorns without worrying about having to deliver them.âÂ
The most controversial aspect is Mrs May’s concession that MPs will get a vote on having another referendum if they back her bill.
Read that carefully, it is an offer to have a vote on another referendum, which will still be too late.
This Bill is not going anywhere, as Labour will vote against it once again. The time wasted before it comes before House only increases the problems of the Conservative Party.
The in-fighting over the leadership may well break it. The remainers are lining up against the leavers.
At the moment I cannot see any candidate I would want to vote for.
May 22, 2019
“He could have stayed neutral or backed Leave and led us out in good order after the result. I never understood why he thought Remain would win or why he let them run such a nasty and negative campaign.”
I agree with this and if he hadn’t had Mr Osborne as his mentor and partner it could all have been different.
May 22, 2019
Get behind the court case that is trying to prove that under UK law May’s extension was illegal and therefore we left the EU on 29th March. They need all the financial and legal help they can get. If we have already left it will put the 2 main political parties out of their misery by taking the decision out of their hands so both can save face and we can all get on with our life’s. Worrying economic times are ahead and our country needs to put business uncertainty to bed.
May 22, 2019
‘All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee…’
(Obadiah v. 7)
May 22, 2019
In one way May has been good for Britain. She has exposed the hypocrisy and lies that permeate UK politics. She has made it obvious that the British people are not served by the political class and merely serve as tax cattle for an elitist gang that serve only themselves and their patrons. Some of us have known this for many years but now she has suceeded in highlighting it to such an extent that only the most brain washed (or bought) can possibly ignore it. If this current debacle results in a draining of the Westminster and Whitehall swamp then the British people will owe her a debt of gratitutde for her incompetence and stupidity.
May 22, 2019
The common denominator is they were third rate.
May 22, 2019
I may be wrong but on my current appreciation it has largely been her desire to pander to the CBI and similar big business lobby groups that has done for Theresa May.
She should have politely told Leo Varadkar to stop trying to make a mountain out of a molehill on the Irish border, but instead she chose to go along with his strategy.
We should recall that “Victory in Dublin, chaos in London” headline run by the Irish Examiner on November 15th 2017:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/ireland/brexit-victory-in-dublin-chaos-in-london-after-draft-brexit-deal-reached-885515.html
“Brexit: Victory in Dublin, chaos in London after draft Brexit deal reached”
“Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has claimed Brexit victory for Ireland after a day of drama saw a deal guaranteeing no hard border and all other Irish demands formally backed by the EU and Britain.”
Why did she do that? In my view it was because there was a very large measure of overlap between what Leo Varadkar wanted, and what Carolyn Fairbairn of the CBI wanted, so the former could provide Theresa May with a pretext for giving in to the latter.
I wonder whether the next Tory leader will see it like this.
May 22, 2019
https://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/articles/cbi-response-to-prime-ministers-new-brexit-offer/
“CBI response to Prime Minister’s new Brexit offer”
“The Prime Minister introduced a new Brexit offer to go before Parliament
Carolyn Fairbairn, CBI Director-General, responded by saying:
âBrexit has left the economy stranded in no manâs land.
âThe Prime Ministerâs offer provides a way forward, but only MPs can take it.
âBusinesses urge them finally to find the spirit of compromise that has eluded them so far. Jobs and livelihoods depend on it.â”
May 22, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
On the topic of Conservative leaders, what are we to make of the present sorry bunch of political chancers and would-be Prime Ministers who currently hold cabinet positions?
I am thinking of Gove, Javid and Hunt in particular but not exclusively as I understand there are some 15-20 other ‘talents’ who are ‘not ruling out’ a leadership bid. Did they back May’s bold, new offer including a customs union and a second referendum? If they didn’t why haven’t they resigned? Presumably, they cling on in the knowledge that the PM will soon be history and they can launch their leadership bids. Shortly, no doubt, we will hear of their profound objections to May’s deal all along and how they battled valiantly against it.
I am coming to the view that no present Cabinet minister should get anywhere near a cabinet post in the next administration. Not only have they promoted this inadequate and woefully unpopular deal, they have propped up an incompetent Prime Minister, with potentially existential consequences for the future of their party, and badly let down those voters who put their trust in the Conservatives.
Nor am I particularly enamoured with other leading lights such as Johnson and Raab who, at the time of maximum pressure, caved in and voted for the deal in MV3 and who now say they will revert to opposing the deal should MV4 happen. However, they did resign from their cabinet posts when the PM’s duplicity finally dawned on them.
The Conservatives deserve to be thrown out of office for a period of time so that they could reflect on these last 3 years and consider what their offer is to the British people. What a pity for voters that there is no real alternative but perhaps even that may be about to change.
May 23, 2019
An interesting piece Alan, and I for one thank you for putting it so well.
The sentiments contained in your last paragraph are indeed perplexing. Whilst I understand your feelings, I have reservations about what amounts to apportioning guilt by compulsory association.
I wouldn’t pay most so-called ‘Tories’ in washers and would kick the bad ones out tomorrow if I could – May (still in post at the time of writing) Hammond, Liddington, Stewart, Rudd, Gauke, Clarke, Grieve et al.
Conversely, I could name a lot of Tories who are honest and decent and are always worth voting for. People whose principles and moral code was never in doubt and each one an uncompromising Brexiteer to boot. Not least, Sir John himself, so why punish the good ones for the actions of the bad?
True blue pro-Brexit MPs could only ever watch from the side lines and comment on these duplicitous events and acts of deplorable chicanery, but were powerless to do anything to stop the errant ones (one might even say corrupt ones) because those same errant MPs were in the majority.
Worse still, a lot of remainers masqueraded as leavers to get elected, then turned their coat as soon as it seemed safe to do so, and I have first-hand experience of that. This is why I largely blame the selection process for giving us so many bad ones.
The nucleus of the Tory party must therefore henceforth consist of solid Brexiteers. It is down to the Tory party to deal with the remainers and see to it their replacements are no longer self-serving and sub-standard, but one thing is for certain, the damage remainers have done to the party is sure going to make it difficult to sell the Conservative brand from here on out, so I don’t rule out a split.
We must also bear in mind the remainers will stop at nothing to get their way. No underhanded trick or ploy is beneath them, so it is best they were cast into the wilderness to rot.
May 22, 2019
Our PM failed to at every level, her heart was never in making a clean break with the EU (WTO first DEAL later).
She was late with publishing Art50, allowed âremainâ argument to develop, produced her own plans, alienated her executive team, and wasnât transparent on neither negotiations nor message. Not leaving on the 29th March was a big mistake.
But the main thing is that she didnât get the pulse of the people (The people who won the referendum)
May 22, 2019
So the spineless and gutless 1922 Committee (vice the spinless and gutless Cabinet) might be about to act decisively, probably – certainly in the fullness of time, at the appropriate juncture.
Do they not know that every extra hour of T. May’s tenure corrodes further their Party and the country?
May 22, 2019
They resemble your remarks. My thanks to Mrs Malaprop.
May 22, 2019
It shows that they were and are only interested in international institutions in the world making all the decisions and leaving their own parliament redundant and the people without a say, in other words shutting the people out altogether while they and others make the decision behind closed doors and times they are not even there when the decisions are made.
EU is not a country it just an international institution like the rest and that what most politicians in this country believe in and how they want to be governed and what they want for their people with no say.
The people of countries pay for these people in these organizations, their rent, pay, travel, everything, the people working for them pay no taxes anywhere in the world on there pay, on goods they buy, they get back the sales tax from every country ie VAT and are encouraged to bank offshore, UN EU IMF NATO just name a few and people in gov think they should be treated the same and on it goes.
May 22, 2019
All of the Prime Ministers since Mrs Thatcher (Including Labour and LibDem, Clegg, as Deputy PM) have been pro EU.
I still cannot understand why the leader of the British people decides that we, the British citizens, are best served under the rule of an unelected and unaccountable cabal of Foreigners based in a foreign country, when these leaders have been elected by the people to Govern from Westminster and who are always accountable to the electorate at the end of their Parliamentary term of five years.
NOTHING is more important than National Sovereignty (Go ask the Rest of the world) yet these Prime Ministers would prefer they transfer their own powers and those of our own elected Government and Parliament to the “Kings” of the Empire of the European Union so that Britain could become a subservient part of their Realm, leaving the British people without a say in who Governs them.
Now why would they want that? What vested interests do they have?
Or is it just as simple as their persistent desire to join “The New World Order” and damn the plebeians? UN Agenda 21 refers.
May 23, 2019
Canaries in a guilded cage.
May 22, 2019
You will recall I have been saying May should go for far longer than most on this site. For me the sheer amount of lying when she was home secretary about immigration, about intra company transfer visas, about stop and search were more than enough to mean she should never have been allowed in as PM. The fact that the political elite let her become PM despite those many and obvious lies is a big problem for that elite, because it shows they support a lot of this two faced liar style politics, and dont actually believe what they tell us at election time.
Core principals are missing, support for the British people is missing, decency and honesty are missing. Sure we want a proper Brexit but we need these other things too.
The cushy public sector, political and journalistic bubble cannot continue like this.
And a lot of what the white working class say and think about the lack of integration in society and the problems caused by massive amounts of immigration are correct, and bias and discrimination against the white working class, their accents, their culture, their views is going too far. The supposed politically correct “equality” agenda needs to be modified to mean equality for them too.
May must go. WTO Brexit is fine. Reform the political candidate selection process to allow people closer to the views of the people to get into parliament.
Things are going to change one way or another.
May 22, 2019
And now we have British Steel going bust, on top of Toyota and Honda and a string of banks stopping investment in the UK, while Mr Fox continues to come back empty handed from trade talks, and hate crimes figures go through the roof. But of course what really matters is that we get a Conservative leader who will secure blue passports for us. Even if they are made in France
May 22, 2019
I hope British steel gong into insolvency is about restructuring the company and its debts,
and getting it out from under its current owners, for if the Conservatives let the last remaining bits of our heavy industry go then they deserve to be finished for good. I realise the British establishment has no faith in our country, and prefers to outsource all production to China or the like, funded by an ever growing pile of debt, and leaving us beholding to China , but some of us don’t believe in our country being finished, that is why we voted Brexit.
You cannot let British Steel go to the wall , especially when many of its problems are due to the screw ups in Parliament messing up Brexit and prolonging the uncertainty. The screw ups in Parliament with their expensive energy policy putting our industry at a disadvantage. As well as the screw ups in Parliament putting the EU in charge of whether we can protect our industry from China dumping steel on the world market.
May 22, 2019
And you, Sir John, with others, need to walk out when she rises at PMQs today.
May 22, 2019
Looks like not many bothered to turn up.
May 22, 2019
I appreciate your continuing efforts on my and others behalf to secure brexit, while frustrating it is coming finally to a head. It is incredible looking at the various leaders who keep on doing the same thing expecting a different result, but I never really understood the pro-EU logic.
The latest poll from Yougov should be blowing away any delusions in the conservative party, the people want brexit, it is as simple as that. The EU will not offer us a good deal, so WTO and be firm but fair with them.
The conservative party also has only itself to blame for the brexit party, they could have taken a WTO brexit, but didn’t. They could have cancelled the EU elections but instead gave the brexit party recognition as the largest party in the land. A lot of senior people in the conservative party clearly failed.
We need someone like yourself or Boris as PM to deliver WTO brexit, we need someone like yourself as chancellor and a very good three years in government. The alternative will be political oblivion thanks to May’s antics.
As a voter I’m optimistic about the future, I’d rather the conservative party delivered now, but I’m sure if they fail the brexit party will succeed in getting us out in future.
May 22, 2019
Mr Warren – as a traditionalist, I agree. I believed in the Conservative Party. I believed in Mrs May initially: I believed that she’d pull something amazing out of the hat, and that she was playing the ‘long game’ and was cleverly manipulating the EU.
Unfortunately, it’s been like believing in fairies.
Now – reality. And I’m not happy about letting go – but I’m afraid that it’s the ‘Brexit and Beyond’ Party for me and mine (so they tell me!)
May 22, 2019
Well, if any good comes from this we will get a proper brexit delivered with the (now exposed as) deadwood cleaned out of the conservative party. Few voters wanted to be taxed to pay charities and foreign aid, yet these very unpopular policies continued.
Either way the remainers have so massively fouled things up that there is no longer ay hope for compromise, we shall see how much desire for brexit there is tomorrow.
May 22, 2019
The EU wonât agree another withdrawal agreement unless no deal is an actual threat. Will you set out the means of achieving no deal (as promised) soon? Without a means of achieving no deal in this House of Commons, we may well end up with a GE where the brexit vote is split and then brexit doesnât happen.
May 22, 2019
The loss and damage to the Conservative party has been achieved through people like you sniping from the sidelines and undermining your leaders. It wrecked John Major’s career. What did he call these people?
“I called them bastards because they were.”mar
Reply Not so.The damage done by Sir John Major was serious economic damage from insisting on our entry into the ERM . We fell in the polls badly long before I took up his offer of a change of Leader for the party
May 22, 2019
margaret…. so when did telling the truth become sniping.?
May 22, 2019
Remainer = never a comment without an insult.
Thank you, Sir John, for allowing such rude and ill-informed comments to appear. It only shows up these people for the ill-informed oafs they are. Andy’s mum included.
May 22, 2019
British Steel moves into insolvency as the politician reaches for their climate change book to see the pollution levels saved and then ponder the victory they could have if Tata Steel shut in Wales as well.
Honda is going, ford is laying off workers, in fact, the whole of car and van manufacturing in the UK is on the way out, most will be gone in the next 6 to 9 years if not sooner, yes it will be imported cars and van only.
It’s the UK politician dream come true with their international mates if only they can get rid of food manufacturing, that would be the ultimate feather in their caps.
May 22, 2019
The way farm land is being built on we won’t be growing much food in future. This country is in a real mess.
May 22, 2019
The Conservative Party is an anachronistic throwback to the 1950’s. It has no part to play in a 21st century democracy. We need wholesale change in our political systems.
1) We need to directly elect our PM
2) We need idemocracy & direct democracy
3) House of Lords should be scrapped
4) We need far fewer representative politicians , there are 102 counties in the UK 2 representatives from each is enough ie 204 MP’s ( FPTP top two elected)
5) An English parliament
May 22, 2019
Libertarian: “3) House of Lords should be scrapped”
The appointed payroll caucus in the House of Lords should be sent packing. Stripped of their pension and allowances.
We could reasonably turn the HoL into a second federal type chamber with ‘senators’ from the regions.
Or democratic vote from the Peers of the Realm. We only need 100 or so. And the Bishops can return to the Synod.
Libertarian: “4 We need far fewer representative politicians , ”
Yes.
May 23, 2019
I whole heartedly agree.
May 22, 2019
Sir John,
Met you only briefly on the tube last week where we debated whether TM could survive much longer. This week we see a further âfudgedâ deal being tabled by TM that has received many dissenters across the house even before its formal presentation to members.
This continuing lack of inclusiveness within the Conservative party (and might I suggest that she checks the dictionary for what âpartyâ actually means) makes it impossible for me to continue my lifelong support for the Conservative party.
The PM has led the party headlong into a now unavoidable train crash throughout a process that has virtually killed parliamentary democracy. The PM needs to go quickly now, before tomorrowâs EU results are known, such that the Conservative party will retain a modicum of respectability upon which to rebuild credibility thereafter.
May 22, 2019
Well that`s one way of looking at it…….. One sees there are irreconcilable differences between different sorts of Conservatives and the Party should be allowed to split between its Brexit Party supporters and the more traditional Tory who is no longer welcome.
The name Conservative must surely be retained by those who are “conservative” ie those to whom radical, and especially ideological, change, is always viewed with skepticism.
Change UK would appeal to me more if they were called ,” Don`t change” UK but then I am clearly out of step with these awful dark times
May 22, 2019
You’re right there, Newmania – though I don’t often agree with you. Dark times indeed. One day we shall look back (supposing we’re allowed to, as long as the Fat Controllers are not monitoring our every move) and understand how it all happened.
May 22, 2019
Pfff!
This country has changed radically in the last 20 years…. increasingly since the Tories returned to power.
WHAT Conservatives !
May 22, 2019
May is apparently going to publish her WAB on Friday (Laura Kuenssberg tweet). Is this real?
May 22, 2019
Apparently she is due to make a statement today. Given her effect on the polls, I think the Conservative party are exceptionally brave (or misguided, or self-sabotaging) to let her anywhere near a microphone on the eve of an election.
Unless she is stating “I resign” and that is all.
May 22, 2019
03/05/1997 to 11/05/2010, I know it was a long stretch, but that’s only 13 years.
May 22, 2019
JR
Your question to the PM in her (official) WA statement address to the HoC was to the point, but the deluded response rolled smoothly off her tongue with any blame directed at those, who voted against her WA and against serfdom (yourself included).
Tomorrow will soon be upon us, and the results out on Sunday.
Sadly, the future of the Conservative Party is at risk. The electorate will quickly spot any rebranding to a new party name with the same anti-Brexit career politicians.
The best scenario would be that the legal challenge about the WA extension is proven to be unlawful and that we have already left the EU.
The Conservative Party would then be forced to deliver the real Brexit for which everyone voted.
With, of course, Bill Cash as PM and yourself as Chancellor. None of the MPs jockeying for the PMs job should get it.
May 22, 2019
The ‘third’ PM? I counted 4 in your list (Hague, Major, Cameron, May).
Boris is probably the only one who could save the Tory party now, but can he be trusted to deliver a real Brexit? It’s worrying that he couldn’t convince the DUP that he’s a unionist. That said, the demographics of NI suggest that they will vote themselves out of the UK around 2030 when there’s a catholic majority.
Personally, I don’t care what NI do; they are a money-sink for the UK and since they will be leaving anyway, why agonise over them now? I do care about them being used to block Brexit though and I am concerned over what Boris would do. Someone who came to Brexit so late in the day… it’s not 100% convincing.
But, as I say, the only candidate who might deliver a proper Brexit and could actually win back the electorate by doing so. I suspect the remoaner argument around ‘compromise’ will be that remainers will not accept WTO, but I think they would accept that they lost and in a democracy a single vote win is as good as any other win – no need to compromise in any scenario.
We’ve had years of spin around compromise, it’s time we had a PM with a positive message that WTO on Day One is not WTO forever (while educating people as to what WTO really means and why it’s actually a good thing – for us, not the EU).
May 22, 2019
As long as you refuse to destroy the ‘broad church’ and expel/deselect all Conservative Remoaners, you will continue to have problems of this sort. The solution lies in your hands (collectively). You shouldn’t expect third parties to solve your problems for you.
May 22, 2019
The P.M will be gone by Friday. She had a difficult task but didn’t believe her own promises, the EU as well as the people of Great Britain sensed the fear every time she opened her mouth. She should have been forced to go earlier, biggest mistake by her party.
May 22, 2019
The prospect of a member of the present cabinet becoming PM is a horrible one. The nightmare will continue.
They have been propping up dangerous May for so long they have disqualified themselves. I wouldn’t believe amything they might say.
Fundamental change throughout government with a revolutionary and clean Brexit leader is needed.
May 22, 2019
Have just read in the Daily Mail that the government will do nothing to assist British Steel as it would be against EU rules and that Macron wants us out in October. Is it any wonder that Conservative leaders lose their jobs over Europe when we clearly don’t really fit with their ideas?
May 22, 2019
If we are to have David Lidington instead, plus Sedwill and Robbins, won’t we be out of the frying pan into the fire? Can he revoke Article 50?
May 22, 2019
Whoever is the new PM they have to immediately withdrawal the art50 extension and leave the EU under WTO rules
May 22, 2019
The Prime Minister.
Mrs. Theresa May, MP.
House of Commons,
London.
SW1A 0AA
Dear Mrs May,
You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately … Depart, I say; and let us have done with you.
In the name of God, go!
Yours sincerely.
May 23, 2019
Bravo !
May 22, 2019
Stephen Reay
Exactly.
It really angers me that despite us ‘the electorate’ requiring – demanding even, the removal of Theresa May, we are ignored and they only act when they decide it’s in their interest to act.
Things have got to change – in future if the people see defects like ‘treason’ and ‘lying’ in a PM, we should be able to sack immediately.
Additionally no future PM should be allowed to swan off without permission to foreign countries signing things behind closed doors.
The HoC has got to be made to do as we bloody well say in future, or else. We’re not their paymasters just so they can do as the hell they like.
Lets hope TM is gone be Friday – thoroughly humiliated following the EU elections, then given the sack. I think time has long since run out for the woman to deserve a dignified exit quite honestly. Instant dismissal is the only appropriate way to terminate her employment.
May 22, 2019
I wrote to the PM just after her putrid Treaty was magically pulled out of her hat (substitute any preferred object) and dumped on the Cabinet at Chequers. Utterly astonished then (as now with red line REF2 crossed) I asked her if she was delusional or batting for the other side…. no reply of course…
We all expected experienced/competent MPs in the Cabinet and 1922 committee SHOULD have been alot lot quicker and dealt with this excruciatingly embarrassing slow motion aircraft carrier size crash…. aka a cl2sterf7ck as our cousins would say.
Those Tory MPs with a shred of credibility left now amount to a handful, whether they can rebuild their party is now a moot point…
During which time the voters will likely have elected dozens of Brexit Party MP’s and potentially 2 MPs in by-elections, with 650 candidates being recruited for a GE. Whilst the ‘current’ government hold a summer leadership contest the Brexit Party will complete their democratic ‘contract with the people’ with supporters asked to vote directly on future policy.
Andrea Leadsom – well done for resigning tonight, but you held on too long imho.
May 22, 2019
As is well known the Tory Party was manipulated into declaring war on Germany in 1939; those patriots who did not see an upside for us were sidelined and as a consequence the Tory party become for all time a party with weak sentimental leadership, controlled by hidden forces, which daren’t ask the question, “what’s in it for the English?” That is why we and the Tory party are now in such dire straights where at every turn the indigenous people are being consistently sidelined to appease one or other special interest group.We used to be a great country: not any more. We now are nothing more than a production unit in support of globalist neo-liberal economics. Is there anything more pathetic than the sight of a British Foreign Secretary shaking his fist at some country or other but only after it has been appointed adversary-du-jour by the neocon nutters in Washington?
May 23, 2019
Regardless of whether it was wise or not,we were treaty bound to uphold Poland’s western(but not it’s eastern) borders.
May 23, 2019
What is your point?
May 23, 2019
It should be obvious-we weren’t manipulated,we(whoever was in government) were bound by treaty to declare war once the Germans invaded Poland.(We were not,however, bound to do so by a Soviet invasion of the East.
May 23, 2019
The treaty to which you refer was signed on august 25th 1939 two days after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact was signed and a week before Germany attacked Poland and presumably well after it had mobilised and its intentions were plain to see. The agreement contained promises of mutual military assistance between the nations in the event either was attacked by a “European country”. Chamberlain was manipulated into signing the treaty by supporters of the Bolsheviks.
May 22, 2019
At least Andrea Leadsom had the good sense to resign rather than be forced to present the latest version of May’s discredited proposal to the House on Thursday.
We must surely be in the end game now ? For the PM to refuse to meet the Home and Scottish Secretaries this evening has to be unprecedented.
Perhaps she has tendered her resignation to the Queen this evening ? If not she will surely be meeting Her Majesty again in less than a week.
May 22, 2019
Apologies for multiple identical links posted in my above comment. Something strange went on!