Our acting editor joins Katy Balls, Gavin Rice, and Paul Scully MP to be quizzed by Alain Tolhurst on what the post-election future holds for the Party.
The shirkers-versus-strivers narrative around cutting the welfare bill fails to recognise the reality that a quarter of Britons have a disability, and one third have unpaid caring responsibilities.
Efforts to deepen the purse of patronage are, at least in part, understandable. But yesterday’s headlines perhaps illustrate the downside risk for prime ministers who indulge too freely in so doing.
Next week will see the launch of an online vote on their design. Four options will be given to members to vote on.
Tensions between the rights of Party members and the essentials of Parliamentary democracy can’t be smoothed away altogether. The question is how best to manage them.
Individually, it may make sense for a constituency to pick a known local candidate. But collectively, the party needs some constituencies to think outside the box, so as to make itself collectively more electable.
“There’s been a clear trend, over a long time, for MPs to be local champions, rather than distant representatives of capital or labour in Westminster.”
Bear in mind that if a week is a long time in politics, 16 months is an eternity. A lot can happen between now and October 2024, surely the earliest date for the general election.
The purpose of the Conservative Party is to win elections, form a government, and deliver calmly and carefully considered Tory policies for the benefit of the nation. It is not merely to be a voice “making the argument” for conservative ideals.
The Conservative Democratic Organisation is grateful for the opportunity here to outline some of our proposed reforms to the party that it wishes to see in more detail.
Forty per cent say they do, 33 per cent say they don’t – and 28 per cent say that they don’t know.
The broad consensus needed for constitutional change is at odds with the factional spirit in which they have launched their campaign.
The current arrangements were a sop to activists by CCHQ as it seized control of selections, the conference, and so much more in 1998.
MPs hardly have a great track record of selecting suitable candidates – and the current system allows for coronations when needed.
I believe with every fibre of my being that whatever criticisms might be levelled at the current government, our country is infinitely better off under the Conservatives than Labour.