Jacques Arnold was MP for Gravesham from 1987 until 1997.
The recent general election was a well-deserved judgement on the party’s leadership and parliamentary party, although the country at large will suffer the consequences of an unrestrained Labour Party, with a record of financial incontinence and operational incompetence.
Not only have we lost the powerful majority achieved by the charismatic Boris Johnson, but we have lost seats held for generations by Conservatives, like the Cities of London and Westminster, Chelsea and Fulham, Southend, Tunbridge Wells, Chichester, Aldershot, Bournemouth, North Somerset, Aylesbury, and seats in rural Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland, and all seats in Wales.
Where did it go wrong? It started with the choice of David Cameron as leader in 2005. From the Westminster bubble, his only professional experience, he attempted to “modernise” the Party. He vaguely thought that should be green, scrapped the party symbol of a torch held aloft by a muscular arm, and replaced it with a stylised green and anemic blue tree.
He harnessed Blair’s Political Parties Act to drag power from the Constituency Associations to the centre, with Central Office renamed grandly Conservative Campaign Headquarters, robbing them of their canvassing records, membership lists, and much of their subscriptions and other income.
Despite initial promises, they used the membership lists to raise money directly, further weakening the Associations’ resources, resulting in the loss of constituency agents, and much local campaigning. The results can be seen in the rubble.
As if that was not enough, he proceeded to tamper with the parliamentary candidates’ list. Out went the tried and tested post-1945 practice of selection by merit, which had produced titans like Ian McLeod, Reginald Maudling, Edward Heath, Enoch Powell, Geoffrey Howe, Margaret Thatcher, and Michael Howard. In came selection by quotas of gender and race, supplemented, of course, by cronies.
The creeping result can now be seen in the parliamentary party – a dearth of previous successful experience in business, the professions, the armed forces, and in farming. The replacement, drawn deeply from the ranks of gofers – research assistants and so-called special advisers. The latter was visibly imposed on Associations in the mad pre-election scramble, with inevitable consequences.
Our beloved Union was put at risk by the referendum on Scottish independence, the assumption being of an overwhelming “No” to stuff the SNP. In practice, it was a close-run thing. Nothing learnt, Cameron proceeded with a simplistic referendum on membership of the European Union, to stuff UKIP.
The assumption was a re-run of the 1975 referendum result, based on a complete unawareness of public opinion. A complex question was reduced to a blunt either/or. It tore the party and country apart, imposing long-term wounds. He abandoned the scene, bequeathing the succession to the inadequate Theresa May.
The consequences have been the parliamentary turmoil over Brexit, the extraordinary emergence of Johnson, who briefly rescued the Party and country, got Brexit done, and won a stonking majority, but was destroyed by the mishandling of the pandemic (which nearly also cost him his life). A parliamentary party of no fibre, settled scores and removed him from office and then parliament.
They then squabbled publicly over the succession. The displays of frequently unjustified personal ambition were obscene, which turned off the public permanently. They overturned the choice of the Party in the country and imposed their own choice, who, like John Major, took us respectably and efficiently to disaster.
As we sit uncomfortably amonparty g the ruins, our historic party is faced with extinction. Our future depends on the rump of the parliamentary party, the very people who got us into this mess. We need a leader of vision and charisma, who needs to appoint a Party Chairman of calibre and the experience of running a major business, to sort out the misnamed CCHQ and its management of the candidates’ list.
CCHQ attempted to micro-manage the recent election campaign, with disastrous consequences. We need to revert to the sovereign Associations which were always the hidden strength of the Party.
The elephant in the room is Reform UK. The primary responsibility of the new leader will be to achieve a settlement with them and Johnson, to unify the right of British politics. Without it, we will never see another Conservative government. We must all set aside personal ambitions and prejudices to that end.
Jacques Arnold was MP for Gravesham from 1987 until 1997.
The recent general election was a well-deserved judgement on the party’s leadership and parliamentary party, although the country at large will suffer the consequences of an unrestrained Labour Party, with a record of financial incontinence and operational incompetence.
Not only have we lost the powerful majority achieved by the charismatic Boris Johnson, but we have lost seats held for generations by Conservatives, like the Cities of London and Westminster, Chelsea and Fulham, Southend, Tunbridge Wells, Chichester, Aldershot, Bournemouth, North Somerset, Aylesbury, and seats in rural Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Lincolnshire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland, and all seats in Wales.
Where did it go wrong? It started with the choice of David Cameron as leader in 2005. From the Westminster bubble, his only professional experience, he attempted to “modernise” the Party. He vaguely thought that should be green, scrapped the party symbol of a torch held aloft by a muscular arm, and replaced it with a stylised green and anemic blue tree.
He harnessed Blair’s Political Parties Act to drag power from the Constituency Associations to the centre, with Central Office renamed grandly Conservative Campaign Headquarters, robbing them of their canvassing records, membership lists, and much of their subscriptions and other income.
Despite initial promises, they used the membership lists to raise money directly, further weakening the Associations’ resources, resulting in the loss of constituency agents, and much local campaigning. The results can be seen in the rubble.
As if that was not enough, he proceeded to tamper with the parliamentary candidates’ list. Out went the tried and tested post-1945 practice of selection by merit, which had produced titans like Ian McLeod, Reginald Maudling, Edward Heath, Enoch Powell, Geoffrey Howe, Margaret Thatcher, and Michael Howard. In came selection by quotas of gender and race, supplemented, of course, by cronies.
The creeping result can now be seen in the parliamentary party – a dearth of previous successful experience in business, the professions, the armed forces, and in farming. The replacement, drawn deeply from the ranks of gofers – research assistants and so-called special advisers. The latter was visibly imposed on Associations in the mad pre-election scramble, with inevitable consequences.
Our beloved Union was put at risk by the referendum on Scottish independence, the assumption being of an overwhelming “No” to stuff the SNP. In practice, it was a close-run thing. Nothing learnt, Cameron proceeded with a simplistic referendum on membership of the European Union, to stuff UKIP.
The assumption was a re-run of the 1975 referendum result, based on a complete unawareness of public opinion. A complex question was reduced to a blunt either/or. It tore the party and country apart, imposing long-term wounds. He abandoned the scene, bequeathing the succession to the inadequate Theresa May.
The consequences have been the parliamentary turmoil over Brexit, the extraordinary emergence of Johnson, who briefly rescued the Party and country, got Brexit done, and won a stonking majority, but was destroyed by the mishandling of the pandemic (which nearly also cost him his life). A parliamentary party of no fibre, settled scores and removed him from office and then parliament.
They then squabbled publicly over the succession. The displays of frequently unjustified personal ambition were obscene, which turned off the public permanently. They overturned the choice of the Party in the country and imposed their own choice, who, like John Major, took us respectably and efficiently to disaster.
As we sit uncomfortably amonparty g the ruins, our historic party is faced with extinction. Our future depends on the rump of the parliamentary party, the very people who got us into this mess. We need a leader of vision and charisma, who needs to appoint a Party Chairman of calibre and the experience of running a major business, to sort out the misnamed CCHQ and its management of the candidates’ list.
CCHQ attempted to micro-manage the recent election campaign, with disastrous consequences. We need to revert to the sovereign Associations which were always the hidden strength of the Party.
The elephant in the room is Reform UK. The primary responsibility of the new leader will be to achieve a settlement with them and Johnson, to unify the right of British politics. Without it, we will never see another Conservative government. We must all set aside personal ambitions and prejudices to that end.