We face an unprecedented number of ex-prime ministers trying to spin their legacies, and an unprecedented number of outlets in which they can do so. This will not be helpful.
Those who have their doubts or feel uncomfortable with this new potential Tory coalition must accept the political reality that the party needs these new supporters.
On the face of it, the plight of the Government today is much, much worse than was David Cameron’s in 2014. Yet few people can think that Reform UK poses anything like the threat to the Tories that UKIP did ten years ago.
Private security guards will soon be deployed at constituency events. MPs most at risk will be able to apply for 24/7 protection. Funds “will also pay for increased security such as CCTV, alarms and sensors required at MPs’ homes or constituency offices.”
Fifty years ago, the battle between government and the National Union of Mineworkers fatally undermined the corporatist model by which both parties had governed Britain.
To make progress over the coming year, the Party needs to reach out to more voters and the danger is that fighting culture wars just puts people off.
His Bill may be held up in the Lords as he continues to insists that his Government will stop the boats. The only means of squaring the two would be an election with illegal migration centre-stage.
He cannot be blamed for his political colleagues’ personal affairs. But making this speech revealed serious political naivete, and the effect was catastrophic on Conservative credibility.
82.5 per cent of all jobs in this country are in the private sector. Of these, 61 per cent are in the SMEs – small and medium-sized enterprises. In other words, over 50 per cent of all jobs in the United Kingdom are now in small businesses.
There is simply no good reason to suppose that public ownership would lead to better management and higher investment when historically it has produced the opposite.
Individually, it may make sense for a constituency to pick a known local candidate. But collectively, the party needs some constituencies to think outside the box, so as to make itself collectively more electable.
The joint One Nation Caucus and Tory Reform Group conference last weekend, following the recent National Conservative Conference, are pointers to the shape of a possible future.
He rose above his aristocratic pedigree to become the ultimate servant of his Queen and Country, and ensured that the Conservative Party had a strong foundation upon which to build in the Twentieth Century.
Over the last 50 years of British political history, there have been precisely two occasions when the established order was challenged and defeated: the Thatcher revolution, and Brexit. In both instances, the agent of change was the Conservatives.
It is an absurd caricature of Tory philosophy to pretend that our Party must unthinkingly defend whatever the status quo happens to be, no matter how poorly it serves the nation.