Conservatives

  • The UK media routinely sabotages us

    The experience of most people in this country is now typified by the results of deep-seated cynicism.

    In our terms, this is the Journalism we’ve got used to.

    I’ve known potential A-level students turned away from Sixth Form because their form of politics isn’t liked anymore.

    I’ve known job applicants laughed at for saying they’re a conservative because the newspaper that decides for them has moved on.

    This country is populated by people betrayed by the greedy, and the negligent.

    These are the sorts that call themselves Journalists, and yet only have a Land Rover to show for it.

    The homogenous nature of Politics is designed to betray us. It helps Labour for this to be the case.

  • The Conservatives are showing signs of revival

  • Can the Conservatives control people movement?

    The Conservatives have their annual conference starting today, and the timing is apt. There is a crisis in every sphere of government. The Labour party has swept into power for a moment in time, but despite spending pledges and effort to ease it, the Dover Crossings crisis is continuing to bite at the nation’s patience.

    A graphic provided by the UK Conservative party showing a 7-point plan (via @Conservatives, X).

    The plans set out by the Conservatives now seem to show its approach is taking shape. The push for exit from international agreements and further innovations to touch base with illegal entrants into our country are bold moves at a status quo. Yet the future is a far flung thing. Its task is to either convince the government, or get in front of the country.

  • Badenoch needs to step up

    The demise of support for the Conservatives happened under a Prime Minister that sought a populist agenda. This is not the sort that is breaking news in America, but the kind that’s noticed here. It comes up in meetings and it becomes the context of government work. The trouble is it’s not popular.

    The tendency of Conservatives to come out with weird ideas hasn’t abated. The majority of proposed policy is conspiracy theory wrapped up in the moment. It’s for the crowd out in the cold. It’s for those who wish for just a slither of a vision. This isn’t real politics.

    The notion that something new is the arrival of a solution is old hat stump canvassing. It can’t live beyond the odd front door that will hear no more of it after it’s shut. The real driver of change is change itself. The message gets through that efficiency is improving and problems are resolved over time.

    This builds voter confidence. It seeds trust in politics. It makes elections winnable. The task ahead is for Badenoch to prove that she’s capable of doing something different herself. It’s not an appeal but an objective. It’s in the form of a broad directive. It’s a final notice on laziness. It’s a check on apathy.

  • Thatcher’s words are charged with promise

    Margaret Thatcher was known to play a huge role in politics before her death. Like many other Tories, she continued to encourage party members to get on through disputes.

    “The sense of opposition one feels,” she once quipped, “is too much for some.” There is truth written in that statement for many today.

    It’s an overwhelming privilege but a heavy burden that many feel after an election win. The heaviest issues of the day are on the table. It takes perseverance.

    Thatcher was overheard consoling a party member who was finding it tough to campaign. “I’m sorry they haven’t understood yet,” she began, “but they do know, and that’s better than nothing.”

    It can be a tough having to walk the streets to see no interest in your platform. Yet a party is there as a vehicle of support. Long may they all continue.

  • Thatcher’s love for the UK is noble

    Margaret Thatcher is a misunderstood, maligned figure in UK politics. There aren’t many that understand her approach to politics in the country at large.

    If on the spot she said things to unite a party together. If on her own, she supported the basics of the state stoically.

    Her support for the NHS, for example, is now lore in its quarters. She’s regarded as an intellectual for its ways and means. Many remember her cause.

    The television reports don’t do her justice, but hints of her ethic are found in her speeches.

    She warmed to crowds much different to her own. She passed away knowing she’d helped the many types of people here.

  • Badenoch is looking for the blue brick road

    The issue worrying the leadership of Kemi Badenoch is a crisis in support for the purpose of conservatism in the UK.

    Its storied history is not the only point now but its engagement with the modern world.

    Its survival relies on getting the votes to make itself into a party of governance.

    In a conservative world your base counts as your source for ideas, resilience to opposing values, views, and visions, and the strength to carry through big changes to the political system.

    While Reform UK has the potential, it falls short in having the clout. The trouble Badenoch has with her party is the ‘brand’ suffers for not being supported widely.

    The work of the party is not seen as pervasive anymore, and its preeminence is damaged by the furtive activity of others.

    It means it lacks clarity in its pitch.

    To see success and return to real influence in UK politics, the Conservatives need to drive enthusiasm for more of what they did before, marking out large schemes for the entire country.

  • Profile: Rishi Sunak MP

    Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, born of parents of Indian descent, was educated at Winchester College and later the University of Oxford, where he studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lincoln College.

    His role as an analyst at Goldman Sachs, and with two hedge funds, prepared him for his later work in politics. His Chancellorship during the Covid-19 crisis brought out his shrewd side, in making public spending manoeuvres.

    His Premiership began in October 2022 and drove home his ambition to be a modern leader. He addressed issues such as AI, international trade, and crime. His loss in 2024 showed deep fissures in the Conservative party.

  • Why MAGAn’s still watch current events

    It’s a myth in rural America that elites do anything wrong. At least, it’s what I was told. The lady was urgent, and sincere in saying it.

    She was beset with life problems, but she felt compelled to worry about what she’d heard these selfsame elites do.

    It was before a Facebook-inspired era of paranoia over fake news and false influence. It was prior to Donald Trump and before the Jan 6 attack. It meant more than it does now.

    It was symbolic of an emerging problem among ordinary Americans who felt that as bad as things got, there may still be answers to find out.

    It’s this belief – to seek the truth to conspiracy theories – that motivates most who fit the bill of a MAGA advocate that loves Donald Trump to watch news coverage.

    I was once told that they see him as an “engine” at work that drives to make news happen in their interests. It can work both ways.

  • Profile: Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg

    Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg is a former MP for Somerset. He anchors a show on GB News, a smaller, UK-based news channel. He’s got over 7,000 subscribers to his Substack, Letters from an Englishman by Jacob Rees-Mogg, which has multimedia posts.

    Sir Jacob is known as a vibrant character, and showed it in and around Westminster. He’s often fronted traditional causes, and likes to provoke controversy. He’s a devout Catholic. He often speaks about his moral convictions in political discussions.

  • Tories voting problem

    The Conservatives have made some progress because of the PR mishaps of the present Labour government. Kemi Badenoch MP (North West Essex/Conservatives), its new leader, has shaped a hard campaign against its farm tax.

    The overriding allegations of sleaze, corruption, and mismanagement have also not gone away, and prove useful to her.

    However, her main problem is a stubborn one. The party lost a significant vote share to Reform UK, who got 14.8% of it back in July. It shut the door on government for the Tories to some extent, and it’s not likely to get it back.

    Badenoch has to win over her voters to compensate for the loss, and find some more to fill the gap.

  • Johnson makes his remarks (National News Report)

  • Boris gets a book out

    It’s a tumultuous time for the Conservatives, so why not bring a book out? Boris Johnson has done just that, and it’s a big one.

    Waterstones in Piccadilly, London

    It packs in over 700 pages, and covers most things in his life during his many iterations as a politician – and public figure – in the UK.

  • Sharma now a Lord

    Sir Alok Sharma, a former MP for Reading West, took his place in the House of Lords on Monday after being made a life peer by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

    He’s now Lord Sharma, which is a boost for the public profile of a Conservative heavyweight. He has 14 years experience in Parliament, with senior positions under his belt.

  • Is Churchill our hero?

    Anti-Churchillian sentiment in the Conservative Party exists, but what is its opposite form? It’s a sense of things needing to be put right.

    Is there nothing wrong at our southern coastline? Is the footage real or fake? It’s not “fake news” that counts here but a mentality that doesn’t accept facts as they are.

    The facts are used by politicians and we deal in our feelings, surely?

    The feeling the Left has a monopoly over speaking leaves conservatives to feel it’s only Parliament that’s left to solve problems. It’s a false feeling, of course.

    The fact is only Parliament leading to government can solve a problem that is in its remit. The fact is also leftist groups oppose the normal functioning of a government. They are sometimes vociferous about it.

    Those on the Conservative right feel a need to challenge such a shift in emotion as unrepresentative and a distraction from a real work of a democratic state.

    These are the tugs of war – tussles in the halls of power – we see today. It plays out in neighbourhoods and it shows itself in public squares. It’s a challenge and a need for representation that’s felt.

    The notion of having a Churchillian response is for a Tory government to juggle. It’s not a remedy but it’s a patch on an issue at times. The fact of a Labour government makes life more difficult for us.

    It’s time to leave feeling behind and rely on our understanding, or we’ll get left behind.