A party leader can use his or her control of front bench appointments, candidate lists and membership rolls to crush internal dissent. But that won’t work on the people who matter most: the voters. Winning them over — or at least enough of them — will require so much more than a one-note performance.
The party that has long proclaimed itself to be the champion of free speech has undergone something of a transformation. Morphed, it seems, into a slapdash politburo.
Tim Montgomerie, the founder of ConservativeHome, has today been suspended from Reform UK, high placed sources within the party have confirmed.
He does not write well, but there is a large public for his message.
But Starmer could exceed the very low expectations now held out for him.
It’s the right pitch to carve out a Conservative niche that says ‘you might not want to hear what I have to say, but you’ll always know it’s the truth’.
The bad news for Boris supporters is those who support him coming back (18.7 per cent) and those who’d strongly support it (20.3 percent) are outweighed by those who’d oppose (16.2 percent) and who’d strongly oppose (30.3 percent) by a margin of 7.5 per cent.
The Government has repeatedly brushed aside calls for a national inquiry into grooming gangs. About 15 years ago, similarly dismissive police officers in Rotherham waved away a youth worker’s concerns about child exploitation. She was allegedly told: “Stop rocking the multi-cultural boat.”
All voters should be less concerned about the mythical black hole than about the ethical sink-hole that is opening up around the Cabinet table in Number 10.
Anyone who wants to understand modern conservatism, and its debt to Christianity, should buy this book.
Trust the people is a good Conservative maxim. That should include trusting our members.
She was not an easy person to contradict and no one in her circle made the argument against unfunded tax cuts.
The founder of Conservative Home declares that “a lot of Tory MPs want to get rid of the PM but felt a couple of weeks ago wasn’t the right time.”
Conservatives need to persuade decent Reform supporters that they should vote for the Conservative Party. Some good people will not be persuaded and that is regrettable but there are no lazy, counterproductive shortcuts. The battle must be fought and won.