Even amidst dire polling for the Tories nationally, nobody seems to think a 1997-style wipeout is on the table in Scotland.
Just as after World War Two, lockdown has hugely expanded the public’s expectations of the state – but hammered our ability to pay for it.
Thirty-four years ago, on 3rd April 1989, Edward Drewett Martell, a key figure in the post-war revival of the fortunes of both the Liberal and Conservative parties, died.
On some issues, he got it wrong. On other issues, he got it right but is misrepresented by some of his cheerleaders. And on other issues, he was right in the context of the time but circumstances have changed.
Every major electoral reform for the past two hundred years has been heralded as the death knell of Toryism. Instead our party adapted – and thrived.
The former chancellor understood that the best way to kick-start growth – and increase revenues – was giving individuals and companies the incentives to invest.
“If the Government takes the view that laws can be broken, the rule of law collapses. It breaches the trust of its citizens.”
This powerful focus is too often today reserved for the separatists in the devolved administrations who aim to divide us.
On the 13th of January 1913, the last formal private army in the history of the United Kingdom was established.
There’s a perverse tendency for doomed governments to play it safe. This approach didn’t save Stanley Baldwin or John Major, and won’t work now.
Sitting back and playing safe didn’t save John Major, and it certainly won’t deliver a majority for Rishi Sunak.
His achievements as a journalist, historian, and broadcaster were immense. He should be read by all those seeking to challenge the wrongful dogmatisms of the “progressive” Left.
The current arrangements were a sop to activists by CCHQ as it seized control of selections, the conference, and so much more in 1998.
The measures would signal that we are a national community, membership of which brings particular rights and also obligations. It sounds pretty Conservative to me.
The key issue is the difference between EU codified law which prevents any action not permitted, and our common law, under which everything is permitted unless prohibited.