Badenoch's purge

I wrote recently about Burnham's purge, but Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has been conducting one of her own.   New Conservative candidates have to sign up to agreeing to exit the ECHR and to oppose 'Net Zero'.

This marks yet another step in the end of the 'One Nation' tendency which was at one time prevalent in the Conservative Party, exemplified by 'Rab' Butler, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath.   I must plead guilty myself as I was active myself as an undergraduate in PEST (Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism) within the unfortunately named Federation of University Conservative and Unionist Associations (think about it).

The ascendancy of Margaret Thatcher saw the beginning of the end of One Nation influence, she liked to call them 'wets'.  Willie Whitelaw continued to represent this tradition, although he seemed to put loyalty to the leader first.

John Major was 'One Nation' in at least some respects, his deputy Michael Heseltine more vigorously so and he continues to make interventions on Brexit in particular in his nineties.

However, by the 1990s 'One Nation' intellectuals like Ian Gilmour or pragmatists like Peter Walker had seen their time in the party to come to an end.

Some of the few remaining moderates have lamented the fact that one time minister Sir Grant Shapps has been barred from standing.   However, I must say I thought that he was not impressive, indeed my heart sank when Dave Cameron entrusted him with implementing the city mayors initiative.

Former West Midlands mayor Sir Andy Street tried to make the argument last year that the Conservative Party did best as a broad church that appealed to the political centre, but he didn't get much traction.  The Conservatives seem prepared to lose votes to the Liberal Democrats if they can win votes from Reform.

In a recent interview, Badenoch said that her values were 'Yoruba values' (as distinct from Nigerian values which has caused some debate in Nigeria).   I am not really sure what those are, at least in a UK context, but they are probably a long way from 'One Nation' Conservatism.   Apart from anything else, they imply a much smaller state whereas the 'wets' were broadly accepting of the post-war economic and social settlement.