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.

Can Tories prosper?

Baroness Davidson and the former West Midlands mayor Sir Andy Street have launched a new political project designed to provide a home in the Conservative Party for the politically homeless: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93v7nnk3vlo

Is KemiKaze listening?  No, she is determined to do battle with Reform on their territory as it becomes the party of failed Tory retreads.   Never mind all the moderates in southern England who voted Liberal Democrat.

There was a time when the Conservative Party had a strong One Nation element.  Clearing out some files recently, I came across some correspondence with Sir Ian Gilmour who was the intellectual doyen of the One Nation tendency.   The story of their elimination is partly the story of Thatcherism, although it is more complex than that.  When I get time I might write about it in more depth.

Indeed, Ian Gilmour and myself had a number of interesting conversations in his room at the Commions and ar White's and we provisionally agreed a plan for me to write an intellectual biography of him as a way of tracing Conservative history, but other more fundable projects got in the way.

The essential argument of Street and Davidson is that the Conservatives should be a (not uncritical) pro-business party which adheres to fiscal responsibility (which KemiKaze also claims to favour).

When I first went to uni in 1965 I was stlll very much influenced by my school friends (although they saw me as rather left wing).   I joined the unfortunately named FUCUA (Federation of University Conservative and Unionist Associations).   With some fellow students we joined an internal Conservative pressure group called Pressure for Economic and Social Toryism.

Going to FUCUA events, I quickly learnt that the Conservative Party was dominated by privately educated Oxbridge types.   I was also radicalised by the Vietnam war and was part of the big demo outside the US Embassy in March 1968.

I wish Davidson and Street (whom I have met and was impressed by) well, but I am afraid that they are too sensible to succeed.