George Orwell was born in India, but raised in England and schooled at Eton College as a young man. His writing career began in earnest in the 1920’s and 1930’s.
Orwell said, like many of his peers, he only found comfort in thinking about socialism. He said it made him feel better about life.
However, privately, he stuck avowedly to conservative principles by himself, even if he disagreed with its ideas in practice.
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.
Lord Ashcroft is a long-running supporter of the Conservative Party in the UK, having been a significant donor and opinion former. He has his own website listing his books and self-written articles.
He also owns the Conservative Home and Politics Home websites, both popular with the party faithful, and Westminster regulars. He also moonlights as a pollster for conservative values.
Baroness May, the former Prime Minister and now Peer in the House of Lords, grew up in Oxfordshire and went to St Hugh’s College, Oxford. She has experience in finance, having worked at the Bank of England, and in politics, having served as Maidenhead’s MP for 27 years.
Her tenure as Prime Minister followed her appointment as Home Secretary, during which she had control over much of the policy that affected the UK state. Her entrance to Number 10 therefore was on the back of a greater understanding of the social makeup of the nation.
It led to her agenda-setting policy initiatives while in office. She’s also particularly known for sponsoring the Modern Slavery Act 2015. It helped frame the criminal acts over the English Channel by traffickers to transport people illegally into slavery here.
She’s known for her outspoken politics and tendency to speeches that helps to communicate her ideas and values. She believes in opportunity in particular and understands challenges as obstacles society can overcome by state-led intervention and personal initiative.
Lord Goldsmith was born in Chelsea to the Goldsmith family, known for its involvement in banking and finance. He studied at Eton before leaving early following a drugs bust by college staff. He left a sixth form college in Cambridge with four A-levels to his name.
He’s a widely travelled man, having toured Thailand, Mexico, and Italy to name a few. He also lived in California working as a researcher and in India primarily in the tourism industry.
He’s since had a strong depth of involvement in politics in the UK. He’s won the seat of Richmond in London three times, albeit for varying lengths of time. He also stood unsuccessfully for London mayor.
In his private time he’s edited The Ecologist, an environmental magazine founded by an uncle of his. In 2009 he published The Constant Economy, a short work focused on climate and economics.
Boris Johnson is a larger than life figure in UK politics. He’s occupied many political offices and has worked “behind the scenes” as it were in the journalism industry for a wide array of conservative titles.
He began his employment at The Times in 1987 before moving to The Daily Telegraph as its reporter in Brussels to cover what was the European Commission at the time. He’s since written for and edited The Spectator, a leading conservative title in the UK.
His television work made him a star in the UK and brought his characteristic wit and style of commentary to a wider audience. His appearances on the BBC show Have I Got News For You jettisoned a relatively new Johnson into the political stratosphere.
In 2001 he found his first political success after winning the election for MP of Henley, a constituency in Oxfordshire. He’s since been elected Mayor of London twice, and MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He was appointed Foreign Secretary under Theresa May in 2016 and became Prime Minister in 2019.
He is a writer at heart and his publications extend beyond his own life and times to works of a historical nature. In particular he’s written about London, Rome, and Brussels throughout his works.
The key moments in his life centre on controversies. He’s the author of his own due to multiple failed marriages. He was also at the centre of the storm of the Brexit referendum in 2016, having campaigned for the Leave vote. Lastly, his Premiership was beset by the Covid pandemic and brought him intense criticism and scrutiny of his style of leadership.
Donald Trump was born in Queens, New York City, in 1946. He was privately educated. He later attended Fordham University before graduating with a Bachelor of Science in economics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968.
He is currently President of the Trump Organisation. He owns hotels, golf courses, a publishing company, and a social media network linked to his political activities, among other interests. His wealth is disputed in the liberal press but he’s believed to be a billionaire.
He became President in 2016 after defeating Hillary Clinton in an acrimonious Presidential election. He faced ongoing scrutiny from the media, two impeachment rulings in Congress, and multiple court cases that continue to define his first term in office.
His policy agenda included eliminating illegal immigration, opposing a green agenda that harms American businesses, and ending culture wars which seek to redefine American life and culture.
Margaret Thatcher began her political career in 1959 as an MP for Finchley in Barnet, London. It was twenty years later when she became Prime Minister aged 53 and served in two subsequent terms until 1990.
In her lifetime she was lauded as the first female Prime Minister and yet her tenure took on a genderless tone as she battled foes at home and abroad.
The key features of her time as Prime Minister included The Falklands War, the Poll Tax Riots, and miner’s strikes. These were startling times of uncertainty.
In the politics of this era and later a notable characteristic is a high expectation that leads to a huge disappointment, and the UK went through many of these periods.
Margaret Thatcher lead by her voice but in spite of her speeches found herself in the midst of serious disagreements with journalists and members of the public. Her press was often negative at the time and it weighed on her and broke her Premiership.
In the event of her resignation in 1990 she felt bitter because she had to leave her party behind. Afterwards she said it felt like it was the end of a “relationship” with a party she had served for so long.
Her mainstay was Denis Thatcher, her husband, who was a sort of companion and advisor to her personally.
Lee Anderson is 57 years old and MP for Ashfield for Reform UK. He was reelected on 4 July having been an MP for the Conservative Party before he defected in March of this year.
He’s an outspoken critic of immigration and actively seeks reform in this area in Parliament. He’s also a critic of what is now termed “woke” politics, since he prefers to take a harder line on social issues.
Nigel Farage is a politician in his 60’s and has just been elected to Parliament. He represents the constituency of Clacton which is in the East of South England. He’s not a member of the Conservative Party but is the leader of Reform UK, an insurgent conservative political party that seeks to uphold similar values but with a different support base and representation in Parliament.
He’s previously cited Margaret Thatcher and even Winston Churchill as influences from “the past” but takes inspiration from living figures and the movements of the present. It’s often a feature of his speeches that he refers to contemporary events and figures such as Donald Trump, former President of the US.
In times past he’s also been leader of UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) which fought hard for a referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU and won in June 2016. While he was leader of UKIP and also an MEP he also stood in various Parliamentary elections in the UK but without success each time.
Nigel Farage is mostly self-taught but counts those he meets as his political education. He couldn’t expect a good deal of support from either of the fledgling parties he’s led but he took personal advice given in confidence and continues to seek the counsel of those close to him whom he knows well.
Outside of politics he hosts a television show on a new television channel called GB News in the UK and is a regular speaker at public events as well as a speaker overseas at other political events. He sees his media and in person work as part of his outreach to “evangelise” the masses on what it means to be a conservative.