We hear quite often now the phrase that ‘Politics is broken’, but how broken is it and where? Is it the entire system or just parts of it?
Let me first start by setting the scene and making a confession…. I have been a Conservative for over 40 years…. there I have said it, but before you decide to hate me for that fact alone, I ask you to stick with me and continue to read a little more.
Having been born only a few years after the end of the World War II food rationing in 1954, the effects were still felt in the psyche of the nation during my formative years.
And living under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan’s dubious premierships’ which were the direct cause of the 1978 -79 ‘Winter of discontent’, finally resolved by Margret Thatcher sorting out Labours mess.
We had a short appearance from Ted Heath, we suffered coal strikes, the three-day week and power cuts. And let’s not forget living under the constant threat of a nuclear attack and total annihilation from the horror of the Cold War hanging over our heads…. I for one was ready for change.
I had just started my 15 years working alongside the MoD and Police Services, when a general election was called. History was about to be made, when in 1979 a grocer’s daughter from Grantham was elected as the new Conservative Prime Minister and first woman to hold that office in the UK. As she effectively became my ultimate ‘boss’, excepting a few levels of actual bosses in between that is, I was keen to see what she had to offer.
As the first woman Prime Minster of the UK, she took us through many important times and gained some enemies along the way. Although even as a light blue centrist, I stand by my own assertion that she was the right at the right time….I liked our new Prime Minister.
The Falklands War in 1982 became quite personal for me in respect of being part of the returning of the Vulcan bombers (which were literally on their way to be scrapped), back to their base for rebuilding before they were scrapped.
They were then able to be quickly put back together again before going on to complete their epic mission, Operations Black Buck, which succeeded by the skin of its teeth, but paved the way for ultimate victory.
Even more contentiously, the miners’ strike in 1984 – 85. I do not intend to comment much on this, merely to say that for someone like Arthur Scargill, who was President of the NUM and self-assumed leader of the Socialist Labour Party, he lived in a great deal of luxury whilst his membership suffered greatly. Times were changing, but not everyone wanted to change with it.
She did not have it all her own way of course and was tempered at times by my CGE colleague and friend Ken Clarke, who was at the time her Chancellor. He often acted as a ‘pause and think’ in respect of some of her intentions.
We were then treated to John Major Succeeding her from 1990 -97 and although he was pressured by the ERG, he was more than a match for them. Eventually the job went back to Labour… well sort of.
Tony Blair Led the country from 1997 – 2007 and was what I would call more of a centrist Prime Minister, but despite the besmirching of his Premiership in certain quarters, he won much support from all sides.
With a brief and insignificant reign by his successor Gordon Brown, who despite desperately wanting the job, was never comfortable doing it, along came and new breed of Prime Minister, in the public school educated David Cameron. But for politics it was in my opinion the beginning of the end.
Pressure had been exhorted by the ERG on Conservative Prime Ministers before, but they were able to control this minority of self-interested individuals lurking on the fringes of the party. But as we know Cameron eventually gave way to them and held an EU referendum in 2016.
This was at a time when there was much discontent with politics and yes there were and still are sophisticated meddling by Russia in ways that during the cold war we could not even dream of.
People were looking for a way to ‘get back at government’ and a protest vote the referendum was an open goal. Cameron led a lack lustre and complacent campaign, he was unable to unite the various remain factions and crucially he failed to set recognised criteria, such as there needs to be a 40/60 result to change.
Something understood even by Nigel Farage, who is on record just prior to the results saying that, “In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way. If the Remain campaign win two-thirds to one-third that ends it.”
As we are now all only too painfully aware, with the help of Arron Banks’s money and Russian technology, along with protest voting, leave ‘won’ by 52/48.
In truth, this even took the ERG a little by surprise and I am reliably informed by somewhere there at the time, when John Redwood heard the result, it was all he could do to stop himself ‘creaming his pants’.
So Cameron stood down and in effect walked away from the mess he had created and up steps Theresa May. If ever someone was out of their depth, she was the prime candidate. With phrases like ‘Brexit mean Brexit’ she came over as a puppet of the hard right, inept and incapable of doing the job. It was her ineptitude that eventually led to her downfall when the hard right forced her out in order to install someone they believed would ‘get Brexit Done’.
Boris Johnson had always wanted to be Prime Minister, but he was never really prepared for the responsibility or to put in the hours. That is mainly why he has been away from his desk more than at it. And why he has relied so heavily on surrogate and unelected Prime Ministers such as Dominic Cummings.
The morally and in effect actually bankrupt ERG had completed their coup. I am not the first to use such terminology in this regard. My colleague, former attorney general and soon to be former Chair of the CGE Dominic Grieve described Brexit as an “unBritish” Revolution in 2017.
In recent times I have been chided for comparing aspects of the current government to those of 1930’s pre-war Germany.
But the facts are clear to see, Remainers although they are from a cross section of society, they were and still are demonised as the ‘Metropolitan Liberal Elite’. When in reality it you should take a look around at the millionaires and public school attendees now pushing for a ‘no deal’ Brexit. They have only one intent in mind and that is to broker deals which better suite their own self-interest and further increase their respective wealth.
Ian Duncan Smith, John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Nigel Farage, Arron Banks and many more, were all terrified of the EUs newly introduced financial regulation, as it would curtail their border line legal and nefarious investments.
Another 1930s Germany comparable was the elimination of all opposition. When over 20 long standing and honourable Conservative MPs were ‘taken out’ by Boris Johnson, including Churchill’s grandson. Whilst those still calling for moderation, are ignored, dismissed and treated with contempt
Lies and hypocrisy seem to be the new normal and Johnson has taken to them like a fish to water. I will not here go into the terrible Covid-19 deaths cover up by the government, as I will leave this for the time of reckoning, but suffice to say they are considerably higher than those declared and are actually well into six figures.
It is clearly time for another ‘Coup or Revolution’, a complete refresh and different way of working.
What we have at the moment is a quasi-dictatorship, that has already caused near immeasurable self-harm on the country and will stop at nothing to achieve its self-interested objectives.
They are not in the real sense even Conservatives and Margret Thatcher would not recognise them as such nor be amused in the slightest by their antics.
They use the party name as an inferior piece of plywood, would use mahogany as a veneer.
This will cause the country further harm for generations to come. Even farmers are now waking up to the fact that to the government they are nothing more than a sacrificial lamb.
The current incarnation of the (in name only) Conservative party does not represent me, my interests, or beliefs. In fact, it is positively contemptuous towards them and when my businesses stopped party donations in 2017, I effectively became as marginalised as those MPs expelled from the party.
What can be done? The Renew Party.
Politics as a whole requires to be restructured from the ground up. But clearly this cannot be done overnight and would need to be phased in over many years. But we are taught that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and I see no better time than now to start that journey.
I see following as the first stage with other changes to follow. But how to achieve this is the question. And as it is evident that this will not be currently achieved from within the Conservative Party, but where then.
The first thing therefor to accomplish is to find a mechanism to do this. One which has an appropriate infrastructure already in place and similar belief system and policies.
Starting a new party from scratch has been tried many times in my lifetime and none have really ended well and I am convinced that most of the existing parties are too heavily invested in the traditional approach and self-preservation. That is to say with the exception of quite a new kid on the block.
I moved to South Lincolnshire for semi-retirement in 2016 shortly after the referendum. I joined the local Conservative Party as well as continuing my National membership as a party patron and donor.
What I was greeted with, was a closed, insular, nationalistic and yes racist fiefdom, presided over by ERG MP the now ‘Sir’ John Hayes.
As I looked at the bordering constituencies the picture was no better. The referendum had taken place and these people were emboldened and flaunting it.
This to me was nothing short of a nightmare and prompted me to act. I was not prepared to stand by and let this go unchallenged. I joined the local branch of the European Movement and together with others we formed a plan.
We decided to hold a series of events under the banner of ‘The Brexit Dialogue’. And I began appearing on panels when attending similar events in neighbouring counties. These were to involve high profile Remainers from all parties and open up fact based debates.
The largest of these we held was at Spalding and was attended by over 400 people as well as amongst others on the panel were my CGE colleague Ken Clarke, Amelia Womack, Tom Brake MP and Renew Party Co-Founder James Torrance.
It was then that I became interested at the fresh approach Renew were bringing. But at that time their lack of policies beyond stopping Brexit and my personal lack of faith in the survival rate of newly formed parties, meant I would simply remain an observer for the next three years.
Things have changed and Renew have stood the test of time. They contested Parliamentary seats in the last General Election and have added a whole raft of new policies to their manifesto.
I believe that they have positioned themselves well and could fit the appropriate infrastructure criteria I mentioned earlier.
I believe that there is a need for quite a radical coalition based solution and I have invented the term ‘Coalescent Politics’ as a starting point.
The first phase of this should see the removal of the ‘career’ MPs phenomenon. Their role in parliament is to do what is right for the country and its people.
The party system does not encourage this hence the need for ‘Coalescent Politics’ as ultimately an alternative must be found. Otherwise we will be left with a bunch of yes men and women doing so out of self-protection and career motivation.
The Whip system should be should simply be abolished and free voting must take place as this better represents the constituents who both elected them and who can vote them out next time.
The horrific stories emanating from the Whips office in recent times, makes this a change that should be made as soon as possible.
Changes would in time follow where exclusivity of candidate selection was taken out of the hands of the local party committees.
And lastly in the first phase, a workable version of proportional representation should be introduced, this will also better represent the beliefs of the people rather than the party.
As it is incompatible for me to be a member of the CGE and a member of political party other than that of the Conservative party, I will be resigning from the CGE at the upcoming AGM in order to join the Renew Party, where I hope to contribute further to its growth and success.
It is my belief that the Renew Party offer the opportunity of change and have a strong and growing infrastructure of likeminded people to achieve this. They are inclusive, in touch with the real and current world and I believe capable of making a difference.
For now, I will end with a quote from Winston Churchill, where he states a prime tenant from which the current government has totally detached itself:
The first duty of a member of Parliament is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgement is right and necessary for the honour and safety of Great Britain. His second duty is to his constituents; of whom he is the representative but not the delegate.
— Winston Churchill, Duties of a Member of Parliament (c.1954–1955)
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