With our public finances buckling under the strain of out-of-control healthcare spending, the least that our citizens can do is not eat and drink themselves into chronic morbidity. If a tax helps with that, then fine.
Right now, it feels like we’re living through a time of extraordinary political disruption. But never forget the first rule of conservatism: things can always get worse.
A ‘lawful’ or ‘chaotic’ binary will shape the fraught relationship between the Conservatives and Reform UK. The reason why Reform is doing so well is that it is a party of pure, if controlled, chaos.
So, what of the future and purpose of the Conservative Party? When it comes to AI and what a true tech revolution might provide there’s a vacancy a slot for a cautiously optimistic pro-AI party. I wonder who might be willing to fill it?
A Conservative economic policy that hankers not for investment but for tax cuts we haven’t earned isn’t merely out of date, it’s downright pathetic.
At heart, Anglofuturism’s challenge to us is this: what if the great limiting factor of our national life in the 2020s isn’t slow growth or escalating debt or even demographic decline, but a smallness of vision?
For the record, I’d prefer — on balance — that we strike a deal with Reform BUT – The blue and yellows have teamed up before and even if the idea of doing so again is utterly outrageous to both right now, I’m suggesting that it could become less so the closer Farage gets to power.
There are several options potentially available. How likely are they to succeed? And what role should the Conservative Party play, if any, in making that a reality?
One can hardly deny the chronic instability at the top of our party, but for the most part this hasn’t been caused by the rivalrous presence of an oven-ready successor.
Farage needs to realise that for all of his performative rejection of coalition politics, his party is about to be auditioned as a coalition partner for national government.
During 14 years of Conservative government, ministers tried to cut the size of the state but, for the most part, left it unreformed. It’s instructive that the few exceptions to this pattern delivered impressive results.
Among the under-40s we’re already a minor party. That wasn’t always the case. As recently as 2015, YouGov had us on 32% among the under-30s. There are some senior Tories — a few of them close to the leader — who get just how much trouble we’re in with younger voters.
It’s certainly a case for the nations of Europe to take full responsibility for the defence of their own continent, but the very last thing we need is for the EU to lead the process. In fact, it’s hard to think of an organisation less suited to the task.
How did Reform end up with such a ridiculous energy policy? Perhaps they should blame the Tories. Conservative policy on these issues has lurched so far to the Right lately that, in an attempt to outflank us, Reform may have gone overboard.
Farage can outflank Badenoch. Demand a crackdown and he’ll say he’ll crackdown harder. Offer a tax cut and he’ll double it. Unlike the official opposition, no one’s checking his homework so he can promise the earth and howl for the moon.