Just what is a conservative and what is conservatism?
I wager that conservatism is more of an attitude/instinct to question and resist change and also to preserve, i.e conserve what is considered good, than a precise prescriptive ideology.So is the current Conservative party actually conservative? I would say most certainly not, especially under PC liberal leader Dave Cameron. Peter Hitchens, as a columnist for the Daily Mail, asks some questions that DC has refused to answer. Here they are in their effervescent glory. True blue conservatives weep, you have been sold out. In fact true blue Tories would probably identify more with the BNP’s social policies, but I left that for another article.
“You say you like Britain as it is, not as it was. Yet you also say that it is a broken society. How can you square these two positions?” Mr Hitchens asked. “Surely Britain was broken mainly by the cultural revolution which swept away stable marriage and respect for the law, and encouraged the spread of drug-taking and drunkenness? And surely it was better as it was rather than as it is? One or the other. But not both.”
You have strongly condemned the misuse of Parliamentary expenses by many of your MPs, and quite ruthlessly forced the early retirement of several of them on these grounds, though some others who are friendly to you have escaped this treatment. You have made it plain that the fact that a claim was ‘within the rules’ does not excuse greed. Yet you are by any standards a wealthy man. Your constituency is within commuting distance of London, and many who vote for you make this journey daily. So how can you justify asking taxpayers — teachers, school dinner ladies, bus drivers, nurses — to give you £20,000 a year in mortgage relief, close to the maximum permitted claim, to help you pay for what you yourself described as ‘a very large mortgage’ on a spacious country house worth around £1million?
Do you believe that, by holding a poorly-advertised lunchtime meeting in Witney, when most voters with jobs could not get there, by stationing officials at the door with lists to give it the appearance of a members-only gathering, and by cramming it with your own supporters, that you properly exposed yourself and your expenses claims to public scrutiny?
You frequently say you are in favour of decentralising power in this country. How do you square this with your increasingly centralised control of the Conservative Party and above all of the selection of candidates?
You favour the selection of women and ethnic minority members as candidates and have even toyed with the idea of women-only shortlists. Do you believe that women can only be properly represented by women and members of ethnic minorities can only be properly represented by members of the same minorities? In which case how can you, for instance, speak for the women and ethnic minorities of your Witney seat? Or are you, in fact, just Politically Correct?
You refuse to support those who want to restore selection on grounds of ability in state secondary schools. Yet you must be aware that most alleged comprehensives select on other grounds — mainly by catchment areas which close the better schools to the poor, who cannot afford to live in them. Your own child attends a heavily over-subscribed primary school which selects partially on the basis of religious commitment. When your children reach the age for secondary school, it is most unlikely that you will send them to bog-standard comprehensives. In that case you will presumably have to use wealth or faith to save them from this fate, routes closed to most people. Surely ability is a better and fairer basis on which to select pupils, in which case why not say so?
You made a ‘cast-iron guarantee’ of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. You must have known that there was a strong chance, verging on a certainty, that this treaty would be ratified by all EU nations before you were in a position to fulfil the pledge. Yet when this predictable event happened, you had no serious alternative policy. Weren’t you pretending to be tough on the EU, while in fact supporting the ‘ever-closer-union’ which is a condition of our membership?
You once said you were the ‘Heir to Blair’? Isn’t that exactly the problem?”
The last point sums up the current situation perfectly, DC is just another Tony Blair and that is a nightmare we must never ever have repeated in this country. Peter Hitchens’ unanswered questions support my view that the Tory party is no longer Conservative. What do you think?
I totally agree that Dave is a Tony Blair type – and therefore not a good choice of leader for the Conservative party. Very good points Harold / Mr Hitchens.
Great post- just saw it on Twitter. How long have you been {blogging|writing}?
Great article Harold, there are some issues I have with the modern Conservative Party. But I think a big reason for the ‘modernisation’ is to try and shed this ‘nasty party’ image. If they go down that path again Labour will just milk and the sheep will run back to the Liebour flock. Peter Hitchens is a fantastic columnist, he’s not afraid to speak his mind and he is excellent when he’s on Question Time. I also like him because he jokingly referred to UKIP as a ‘dads army’ party I couldn’t agree more.
But I agree completely we don’t want another Tony Blair; all style and no substance, a waxwork PM full of spin, soundbites and empty promises.
I am also a fan of Peter Hitchens.
The points about education are also spot on. I feel we should restore grammar schools. Labour has done everything it can to impede aspiration and success because socialists are bitter and jealous people. It makes my blood boil hearing people (well Labour supporters) say Labour has made it easier for people to get to university, no they haven’t. It was Liebour that introduced tuition fees meaning I face crippling debts if I return to university in a few years time to pursue my dream of being a doctor. Comments like ‘why should the binmen (or overpaid BA cabin crew) fund the doctor’s training are completely off the mark. Yes they should fund the doctor’s training. Because when the binman has a heart attack it will be the doctors that save his life in hospital and and at the same time the doctor will pay much more tax in his lifetime than the binman as well. Its like once I felt like punching the TV screen watching Question Time and there was a question about higher education. That smarmy smug little toad Andy Burnham was pathetically defending Liebour’s record on education claiming universities were ‘elitist’ under the Conservatives. Let me see this coming from a working class lad from St Helens who attended a bog-standard comp and still got to attend Cambridge, all under a Conservative Government, that’s elitism is it? What a fucking hypocrite he really is. It is Labour that has made education elitist with these unfair tuition fees that smarmy cunt Mandelson wants to rise (when he and all the MPs enjoyed a FREE education) and this obsession with targets and ‘equality’ over ability. Labour has destroyed the education system. LABOUR OUT 2010!!!!
Sorry to change the subject,but someone has told me that the council are signing the contracts to buy the Tower,Winter Gardens ect, tonight at 6.00 and that they have already rubber stamped the deal to have the tower ballroom roof fixed as it is leaking, at a cost of £3 million. Six large entertainment operators have expressed an interest in running the place,one been the Disney operation who decided it was not for them,anyhow I have been told that Merlin Entertainments are likely to take over. Off course this could all be a load of rubbish,you know how rumours spread within the work place, but it was someone high up in the operation who told me. I guess we will have to wait for Callow to announce it to the gazette if it is true.
Personally I WANT to vote Conservative but feel the need to tatically/protest vote via the BNP,some of whose policies are really aimed at conservation/preservation, albeit via the vehicle of their own brand of National Socialism.I feel the BNP are occupying the space of issues that the conservatives would have once tackled, alas no more.If Cameron tackled the PC culture/law & order/welfareism and immigration etc,he would get massive support; it would show who the nasty party really is: LABOUR, who are the nastiest ,unfairest, deceitful,wasteful, lying party in my living memory.
I believe that the conservative party needs to do some serious soul searching.One could only hope that once in power DC does deal with these issues, so that voters dont have to feel that they have to resort to the BNP etc.
Reading Peters article was like reading my own shopping list, lol,it was that familiar.