CSM EDITORIAL It is depressing that only 30 percent of people think the Tories understand rural Britain. A recent poll sponsored by the Countryside Alliance found in addition that only 8.5% of people thought rural life had improved under the Tories. The key question that follows is does this mean that voting patterns could change in the countryside? Traditionally rural seats have backed the Conservative … Continue reading The Tory Rural Deficit
CSM EXCLUSIVE Mark King has been a Conservative Councillor in Torbay, Devon for 4 years. A serving councillor who was disciplined for misconduct and fled 7,000 miles to the Philippines, he claims he fears for his safety if he returns. King was accused of multiple breaches of the code of conduct by a woman he developed a personal relationship with. He fled to Manila in … Continue reading The Councillor Who Fled to Manila
BY JON ALEXANDER With European and Local Elections just on the horizon, realisation is finally starting to dawn on the “it’s fine” brigade of the Conservative Party. Nigel Farage’s week-old Brexit party is now in the lead in polls and expected to win a landslide in Europe. Meanwhile the Tories are expected to suffer heavy losses in council elections. I’ve seen a lot of frantic … Continue reading May now Erdogan
CSM EDITORIAL Once Brexit is over, what do the so-called Independent Group have in common? How can Anna Soubry, who defended George Osborne’s austerity packages one after the other, sit in a new party – if that is what the TIG becomes – alongside profligate Labour MPs, whose default position is to drain dry the public coffers? Allen and Wollaston are oddballs and how they … Continue reading Poor Little Tiggiwinkles
CSM EDITORIAL The Conservative Party is split by Brexit – to the extent that Soubry and Wollaston may jump soon. The Government is an odd mix of Remainers and Brexiteers and so hardly the meritocracy of days of yore. Perhaps that can be excused in the run up to Brexit – which dominates everything political these days – but afterwards the Government should take care … Continue reading Vegetarians Don’t Eat Fish
BY ANNE RUTH For the first time in a long time, this Conservative Party Conference shall be attended by many furious exurbanites and rural folk. What the Conservative Party must start doing is begin engaging with these people – the people – who have been forgotten about. These are the millions of people across the UK who don’t stand out because of what they wear, … Continue reading A Message From the Countryside
BY JOHN ISMAEL Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has a serious antisemitism problem. That is a fact. Its bigots’ widespread hatred of Israel, its loathing of religion – and yet its Muslim block votes – make the political party’s antisemitism problem one that will not go away, save for mass expulsions of Momentum members and Corbynites on the far left of the party. So, what do … Continue reading Smear Bingo
BY TIM DAWSON The local elections are over and – although I was naturally shocked at not overturning the mere 1464 majority in inner-city Hulme that would have swept me into Manchester Town Hall – the picture across the country was rosier than many predicted. Despite the prattling from Owen Jones et al, Labour did surprisingly poorly, and the Conservatives remain the largest party of … Continue reading What Next for the Conservative Party?
BY SAM HOOPER It’s great that Universities Minister Sam Gyimah is embarking on a tour of university campuses to spread and defend the Conservative message in traditionally hostile territory. Now we just need the government to come up with a conservative platform that’s actually worth defending. Sam Gyimah appears to be on manoeuvres. Writing in the Times, the Minister for Higher Education announces his intention to take … Continue reading Conservative Platform Required
BY MANDY BALDWIN We thought it had been consigned to history, but the Class Divide is back with a vengeance in terms of political groupings. As before, it is all a matter of labels, but this time, the labels have been lost in the shuffle, which can be confusing for the uninitiated. As a general guide, just think of the labels being attached in the … Continue reading A Class Act
BY MANDY BALDWIN I love men, and I’m so glad I’m not one at the moment because they are being fenced in with such a wall of hateful trivia, they must wonder if it’s safe for them to leave home without being accused of sexual harassment for smiling at a woman in the street. Belittling the real, devastating crime of rape doesn’t do real, devastated … Continue reading In Praise of Men
BY SAM HOOPER After Brexit, attracting more exceptional citizen politicians and fewer mediocre career politicians is the next crucial step towards democratic renewal in Britain. A worthwhile article by new Labour MP Laura Smith for LabourList underlines the urgent need for more politicians who look and sound like contemporary human beings rather than cautious clones who have been training to become MPs their whole life. Laura Smith writes: … Continue reading Resurrecting The Citizen Politician
BY SAM WHITE Younger voters want change, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Pushing on and looking to the future is how we get men on the moon, and carry smartphones that can change our photos so we look like cats. And what’s wrong with shaking things up and pissing off stick-in-the-muds anyway? It’s one of the pleasures of Brexit. But in Britain, Corbynism has … Continue reading The Conservative Cataract
BY DAVID EYLES Open letter to the Rt. Hon. Michael Gove, Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 2nd October, 2017 Dear Mr Gove, As you are aware, Lynx UK Trust has recently submitted an application to Natural England for a licence to release Lynx into Kielder Forest. Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that Lynx died out in Britain sometime in … Continue reading An Open Letter to Michael Gove
BY ALEXIA JAMES To the sensible and sound, the General Election last week was a simple question of mathematics and a totting up of negative facts around the judgment of Jeremy Corbyn and his Labour leadership. The IFS statement about Labour’s manifesto not adding up and documentation showing Corbyn, Abbott and McDonnell supporting the IRA in the past would have been enough to secure a … Continue reading Tories Must Outcool Labour Celebs
BY ROB BROWNE Paucity of Talent Since the Gordon Brown Premiership there has been an exodus of quality from the Labour Party. In the past Labour could call on safe hands like John Reid or wordsmiths like Jack Straw to face the music when a crisis hit. Now? The Shadow Cabinet is an abuse of the historical eminence of its offices. Titles like Shadow Foreign … Continue reading 10 Reasons Why Labour’s Doomed
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN When this week Prime Minister Theresa May’s childhood sporting hero – the cricketer-turned-commentator Geoffrey Boycott – affectionately described her as “like Margaret Thatcher”, many of Her Majesty’s Opposition supporters found themselves in a tricky position. While such opponents of the Government love to denigrate May and the Tories at every opportunity, they know that Geoffrey Boycott has become a much-loved British national treasure over recent … Continue reading May Plays Boycott Bingo
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Britain has become too accustomed to cycles of Big Government splurge under Labour followed by Tory Governments cleaning up the mess – only for Labour to eventually get voted in and spend the country to oblivion again. Now we have a chance to stop this senseless cycle. Imagine if – instead of Labour coming to power after the Tories have swept up … Continue reading New Opposition Required
