Conservative Party

Should Eurosceptics Just “Get A Life” And Learn To Love The EU?

Samuel Hooper4 Comments

Euroscepticism - EU

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Conservative cabinet members are now openly insulting eurosceptics, as the Tory rift widens

Who cares about the European Union? What’s all the fuss about? Eurosceptics should stop making fools of themselves, get with the times, and stop embarrassing themselves by articulating their pesky concerns about democracy and national sovereignty.

Or at least so says the Conservative Minister for Small Business, Anna Soubry. While speaking at a Conservative Party Conference fringe event organised by European Movement, Soubry had some choice words for seemingly anyone who does not faithfully adhere to the “in at all costs” mindset.

The Telegraph reports:

Speaking at a conference event hosted by European Movement and other pro-EU bodies, Ms Soubry told campaigners they must not “underestimate” the emotion of “those who want us to leave”.

“That is a very difficult thing to begin to debate with, to engage with, and it’s difficult often to beat because they do have this passion that is an obsession. They live it, eat it, drink it, sleep it,” she said.

“I don’t just mean a few people in our own party but obviously all those other people who’s name we’re not going to mention”.

Ms Soubry went on: “It means that they have this obsession that they will do almost everything and anything, they will devote all their time in a way that really is not healthy for them in this run-up to the referendum.”

“Because as I say, they live it, they eat it, they drink it. You want to say to them: For God’s sake, get a life. But they’ve gone beyond that. That makes it very difficult for us.”

Yes, that’s us: swivel-eyed, obsessive cranks who are unreasonably fixated on a single issue to the exclusion of supposedly more important matters. Ideologically blinkered and impervious to facts, that’s us, unlike the enlightened pro-Europeans who are so famously open to dissenting ideas.

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Hatred Of The “Tory Scum” Will Not Save The Left From Creeping Irrelevance

Samuel Hooper3 Comments

Conservative Party Conference - Protests - CPC15

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Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party promised the return of genuine ideological difference and the end of stale consensus in British politics. But it will all come to nothing if the Left are first consumed by their anti-Tory hatred

The hate-filled mob currently besieging the Conservative Party conference in Manchester – though only a part of a larger, peaceful protest – may not be representative of the wider British Left. But they are the only ones being noticed by the country, and their chosen man is now Leader of the Opposition.

Like it or not, when people think about opposition to the current Conservative government they no longer think of people like Andy Burnham or Chuka Umunna – often glib and superficial, but at least committed to the democratic process, working within the framework of Britain’s institutions and respecting the will of the people. Now, they think of something quite different.

Ask someone what opposition to David Cameron’s Conservative government looks like now, and they will more than likely conjure images of the hate filled protesters in Manchester, driven mad by electoral defeat and pathological loathing of the Evil Tories, willing to say anything and do anything to make clear their opposition to a relatively mild-mannered centre-right administration. They will think of young anarchists in hoodies and middle-aged women wearing pig masks in broad daylight.

This is not the kinder, gentler politics promised by Jeremy Corbyn. To be fair, it is not all Corbyn’s fault – Labour’s new leader has gone to some pains to discourage violent and abusive behaviour among his followers. But many on the Left do shoulder a great deal of responsibility for what is now happening.

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Tory Party Conference: The Left’s Ugly Side Reveals Itself In Manchester

Samuel Hooper12 Comments

Tory Conference Protest Egged - 1

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Welcome to the New Politics, brought to you by the sulphurous, black heart of the modern British Left

Well, it was inevitable.

After spending the entirety of the general election campaign and the months following Labour’s defeat screaming hysterically about the Evil Tories and their supposed persecution of “the vulnerable” (funny how almost everyone in Britain is now in a state of permanent vulnerability, according to the Left), some of those protesting the Conservative Party conference in Manchester are now taking matters into their own hands.

From the Manchester Evening News:

Tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered at lunchtime near to All Saint’s park on Oxford Road to protest against the Conservatives as the the party conference kicked off down the road.

As the rally reached Portland Street, a breakaway group surged to a fence that had been erected to close off Oxford Street and screamed ‘Tory scum’ repeatedly at a small group of delegates standing on the other side.

One of the delegates was speaking to the protesters when he was hit by the egg.

Bear in mind: this was not a government minister. This was not a Member of Parliament. This was not a fat, self-serving member of the hated establishment. This was a young person doing something which more of us should be doing, quite frankly – taking an interest in the future of his country, and participating in our democracy by joining and being active in a political party.

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Will Left Wing Rage Lead To Violence At The Conservative Party Conference?

Samuel Hooper3 Comments

Students Protest - Conservative Party Conference

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The Corbyn-loving Left may talk about a kinder, gentler politics, but mention the Tories and the thoughts of some quickly turn to violence

The problem with being so utterly convinced of your own moral superiority is that it tends to have a dehumanising effect on how you view those who think differently, making you more likely to say or do things that most people would never ordinarily countenance.

We saw this back in May, when the British political Left – which had insulated itself in social media bubble of their own making for the entirety of the general election campaign – exploded with rage upon discovering that the wider British electorate simply didn’t buy the endless retweets and alarmist infographics which the Milifandom accepted as gospel, and preferred to re-elect David Cameron and the Conservatives.

(I extensively covered the snarling, dark side of the British Left in the aftermath of the election here, in my Left Wing Hate Watch series).

And now, as the Conservative Party prepares to gather in Manchester for their 2015 party conference, an assortment of very angry individuals are also wending their way north to make their Tory-hating views known. Hit-and-miss campaign group The People’s Assembly issued the rallying cry before the dust had settled from the election, in typically hysterical terms:

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The Moral Case For Conservatism

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

Conservatism - Moral Case 3

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In the Age of Corbyn, conservatives must be unafraid to promote and defend their ideas in clear moral terms

Who dares to make the moral case for conservatism?

The parties of the political Left shamelessly portray themselves as virtuous warriors in the titanic struggle between altruistic socialism and selfish conservatism, and are adept at debating political issues using the language of morality and “social justice”. It comes naturally, never sounding forced or contrived – websites like the Huffington Post, Left Foot Forward and LabourList are full of earnest articles penned by young writers who take for granted that theirs is the only legitimate moral perspective on the world.

Not so conservatives. We conservatives have tended to shy away from the moral discussion, afraid to set out our strongly-held beliefs in moral terms and preferring to focus on dry and often negative arguments about the risks posed by the Left. But by debating the issues on the Left’s terms and focusing on pragmatism above all else, we have largely ceded the moral high ground to the Left.

This did not matter so much when Ed Miliband, a thoroughly uninspiring centrist, was in charge of the Labour Party. But in the new age of Jeremy Corbyn – when the Labour Party is on the brink of re-adopting genuinely left-wing policies – it is disturbing that Corbyn’s ideas are given the weight of moral imperative while right-wing rebuttals too often sound technocratic and uninspiring.

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