The task of changing public opinion falls to the wider conservative movement – to pressure groups, think-tanks, columnists, and associated auxiliaries. The trouble is that, at the moment, most of the people in those categories are training their fire on the Conservative Party.
If some horrendous human rights abuse were uncovered in Dubai, and the Telegraph or Spectator neglected to cover it fully and frankly, competitors would be gifted the ultimate competitive advantage.
The Peronist client state, which defeated the only previous president to have spoken of reforms, will fight furiously to defend its privileges. Milei, who has had mental health problems in the past, and who lacks organised support, will come under almost unbearable pressure.
The intellectual heft of figures like him will be vital in ensuring that it moves forward, rather than languishing in the same ideological dead-ends that sunk it in the first place.
Muhammad’s mercantile savvy showed up in a host of other pro-business provisions. The most consequential one was price deregulation, which helped launch Muslims on a dynamic economic trajectory, as it did Jews and Christians who copied them.
The eighth article in a new series on ConHome about how government might be made smaller, taxpayers better off and and society stronger – through strong families, better schools and good jobs.
We once again need to make the case for free markets, free speech, and free people. We need to particularly reach young professional people and get them to join our cause.
The Tories of the 2030s will need to make a complete clean break with the 1980s. We can think new ideas – and return to older ones to conserve and protect the institutions that make up the social fabric of this country.
The Government should work to diversify supply chains to increase resilience by making it easier and less expensive for UK supermarkets to import produce from all over the world.
The tax-cutters have tested their established strategies to destruction. When they got their woman into Downing Street, it took just 45 days for their agenda to crash-and-burn.
I cannot think of a time when market confidence was plummeting in both the Chancellor or the Governor of the Bank of England at the same time. If neither is up to the job, both should go.
What voters need is a clear case for reform in ordinary language; what they’ve been getting is a wonkish seminar.
If the Telegraph started, even subtly, to change its position on, say, foreign affairs, or tax, the world would look very different for the Conservative Party and the wider conservative movement.