Life – Terror. Ecstasy. Fight. Denial. Flight. Failure. PAIN. Forgiveness. Reconciliation. Hope. Love. Peace – Death.
Where I come from there is no such thing as a ‘Popular Conservative’. I started to hate them during the 80’s, the Thatcher years. I despised ALL ‘Tories’ with every fibre of my human being. I really didn’t think I could despise them more. Yet 2024 and I do and much more.
The ‘Popular Conservatism’ Movement
Popular Conservatism, also known as the Popular Conservatives or PopCon, is a right-wing faction within the British Conservative Party. The director of the group is Mark Littlewood an ally of the backbench MP Liz Truss, who was briefly prime minister in 2022. The movement was founded to urge The Conservative Party to shift to the political right.
Ironically, Truss is anything but ‘popular’. Truss’s brief stint as prime minister was marred by a damaging mini-budget that sunk the pound and seriously [negatively] affected financial markets. She remains a deeply unpopular politician among the British public, which is enduring a cost-of-living crisis that economists say her budget was largely responsible for.
Truss – Britain’s shortest-serving leader, who was in office for only 49 days- announced the “Popular Conservatism” movement on Tuesday alongside former Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg. She said it was time to listen to voters and return to traditional conservative values on issues such as immigration, climate change and state regulation.
Since leaving office, Truss has urged the government to cut taxes, disregard net-zero commitments and increase the retirement age from its current age of 66. Polling shows that 65% of voters have an unfavourable view of Truss. Even among 2019 Tory voters she sits at -53%. That gives Truss a net favourability rating of -54, compared to Sunak on -27 and Starmer on -8.
Savanta’s Political Research Director Chris Hopkins:
“Our research shows that many ideas associated with free market Conservatism are popular with the UK public. One of their main advocates right now – Liz Truss – is not. It is ironic that Popular Conservatism couldn’t find a more unpopular spokesperson if they actively tried”.
“The fundamental issue is that for years and years and years … Conservatives have not taken on the left-wing extremists,” Truss said at the party’s launch. “And the problem is when we don’t know what we stand for, when we’re not prepared to stand up for conservative values, who is?” she asked.
Truss blamed her colleagues in the party for trying to be “popular at London dinner parties” rather than defending conservative ideals and challenging “wokeism” and climate narratives. Rees-Mogg attacked human rights legislation, and railed against the “international elite”, adding that the “age of Davos man is over”. Tory Deputy Party Chairman Lee Anderson, who also attended, argued that Britons care little about hitting net-zero carbon targets.
What is the Popular Conservatism movement? Yet another pressure group within the Tory Party, or something else? And if it isn’t sure, does that blur the gap between where the Conservatives end and Reform UK begins? In her address, Truss criticised the government for failing to take on “left-wing extremists”, and warned that there was a “damaging divide” between politicians and ordinary people who “think the wokery that’s going on is nonsense”.
Looking on was Nigel Farage who, though not a speaker himself, was happy to talk to just about any journalist hoping to ask a question. The former Ukip and Brexit Party leader denied that he wants to join the Conservatives “at the moment, given what they stand for,” stating “I’d rather be part of Reform, because that’s the real thing.”
Whether PopCon is a group pressuring the Tories from without or within, it is yet another one calling for the party to cut taxes, further restrict immigration, scrap net zero and leave the European Convention on Human Rights. Is that more Reform or the platform of the next Conservative Party leader?
Speaking to GB News, Rees-Mogg said of Farage: “Nigel is a very welcome visitor to the Popular Conservatism event, but he’s also someone with whom many Conservatives agree on most of the big issues, that Nigel is essentially a Conservative in most of his views.”
Such is the makeup of Tory MPs today – and whatever is left after the election – that we can expect the party to continue its rightward shift in opposition. Hotshot candidates such as Mhairi Fraser, standing in the safe seat of Epsom and Ewell and a speaker at the event, are further evidence of that. It is not inconceivable that Kemi Badenoch, no one’s idea of a wet, becomes the effective candidate of the Tory left.
On reflection, it matters a great deal how many candidates Reform put up, how much support they garner and what that does to Conservative representation in the next parliament. But in terms of the future direction of the Tory Party, that appears to be a fait accompli.
Rishi sunak launched his bid to become the leader of the Conservative Party in the summer of 2022 as a mild-mannered technocrat who would tell hard truths about Britain’s public finances. Then, as Liz Truss, his rival, pulled ahead during that contest, he switched gear, turning himself into a red-blooded culture warrior who would defend “our history, our values and our women”.
Ms Truss won that race, but Mr Sunak soon took over as prime minister and is now trying a similar sort of reinvention. A year of comparatively cautious, administrative government has only modestly repaired the damage Ms Truss’s tenure did to the party’s poll ratings.
Defeat beckons in the next election [July 2024].
Thanks for Reading
#Peace #fuckcapitalism
Dying to Live 