Could I Vote Conservative In The Next General Election?

Could I vote Conservative in the next general election?

No.

Blog over. Thanks for reading.

Firstly, I’ve not changed politically, at least not much over the last 10 years or so.

I still believe that Margaret Thatcher was the best Prime Minister this country had, at least since Winston Churchill – my knowledge of Prime Ministers before then is limited.

I still believe in prudent financial management of the economy – I believe in lower deficits (remember that?!), lower debt – and having more money in the long-term to spend on whatever the priorities become.

I still believe in individual responsibility. I still believe in both social and economic liberalism.

It’s Not The Me That’s Changed

So it isn’t me that has changed. Granted, I willingly identify as woke, though not too overtly, and I have compassion to asylum seekers and others struggling through life which maybe the Conservative Party has always struggled on.

It was never a perfect marriage, but even in the dark post-Brexit days there was still something to cling onto – the majority of Conservative MPs voted to remain in the European Union, it wasn’t like I was totally out of place. People like David Gauke, Dominic Grieve, Rory Stewart (who I’m going to see at the Barbican in September) – these were all politicians that spoke to me, and I could still just about justify voting Conservative, even though my belief was slipping.

And then Boris Johnson happened.

Actually, Boris Johnson was presaged by a vast influx of UKIP members as Conservative members – who were so far from my ideals and beliefs, so willing to damage the economy, so uncaring to those suffering from genocide or other forms of brutality, not to mention a disdain of facts. And that influx was at least partly responsible for bringing Johnson to bear upon the Conservative Party, and then the whole country.

He kicked out those MPs that I admired, prorogued parliament to push through legislation, lied about…well…everything but in particular the deal to leave the EU, and generally treated the UK as if it was his own fief – oh yes, shall we pay for your fucking expensive wallpaper too?

As a human, he was utterly immoral – maybe that is where we are as a country (I hope not), but it most certainly isn’t where I was.

Though, for me, the worst part was the Boris Johnson was a profligate spender – he didn’t believe in economic liberalism. He believed in Big State – economically the Conservative Party became left-wing, albeit not quite as left as Corbyn’s Labour – which is a major part of why we ended up with a filthy piece of toerag as Prime Minister.

It’s The Brexit That Changed Them

Oh and then we had Liz Truss, who actually had some reasonable ideas – but went around in a “fuck the markets” way which, given our precarious economic situation at the time, didn’t go down too well. Yes that was less than a year ago.

So, hopefully you can understand, that the Conservative Party have moved so far away from what I believe in – that they are anathema to me.

It is Brexit that is driving much of this.

Brexit drove Boris Johnson to be leader. Brexit drove the takeover of the Conservative Party by kippers. The failures around Brexit led to the desperation of Liz Truss to try to emulate the success of Margaret Thatcher without understanding the how.

Brexit led to all kinds of garbage MPs, such as Lee Anderson – and various others who seem to have disappeared post-Johnson, quite literally in the case of Nadine Dorries who is still taking her £85,000 salary despite never attending parliament since her darling was defenestrated.

Plus the country needs a change of government – and I don’t mean yet another different Conservative leader.

And forever more?

Unless there is a major realignment in British politics, or perhaps we change system to proportional representation, then I guess the only political party where a leader economically similar to Margaret Thatcher, one that truly believes in liberal economics could appear, is the Conservative Party.

So, I guess at some point in the future, I will end up voting for them again – but we are a very long way away from that.

Plus, I made a vow, I’m stubborn (honourable? please?) and I will stick to it. Except if it is to stop fascism (of which communism is a form), or we are in an active war where this country is being attacked, then I will not vote for the Conservative Party until they apologise for Brexit, and believe in at least being in the EU Single Market, if not the European Union itself.

For a political party that does not recognise that free trade with a huge trading block on your doorstep is beneficial to the economy, cannot be a political party that believes in maximising economic growth, and cannot be a political party that espouses economic liberalism, and therefore cannot be a political party that I can vote for.

I repeat – I will not (bold and underlined!) vote Conservative in any election, until they apologise for Brexit and start campaigning to re-join the EU Single Market, or we have re-joined and they fully embrace it.

But who could I vote for?! I guess there is a follow-up blog due soon…