Quintin Jardine's blog

I have been interested in politics throughout my adult life. In the 1980’s I worked for the Conservative Party in Edinburgh, London and on occasion across the UK. In 1997 after the Scottish party did something that I saw as extremely stupid I joined the SNP, but realised fairly soon that it was just too left wing for me. I’ve been around, and I’ve seen plenty, but never in my puff did I imagine the Conservatives being where they are..The Tory Party as it stands today has been rejected at the polls twice as a result of a wholesale migration by most of its natural vote to an alternative, offered by a man who was seen as a charlatan, a clown, a music hall comedian, until he and his few friends banded together under a populist banner and staked out the ground on the Right. Farage may be and may always have been all of those, but equally, to the Tories one thing should always have been clear, that in the words of LBJ it was better to have him if not in the tent but close to it and pissing in the right direction.

What’s to be done about it? The Party to which I still subscribe is broken. Its newly minted leader is not to the job, but looking at her shrunken parliamentary party I see no credible alternative. It’s beyond repair as long as it continues to choose its leader in the way that Kemi, Rishi and their immediate predecessors were selected, from a shortlist of two sent to the voting members by the MPs. In principle that’s fine, but with the party reduced to a collection of the mediocre which does not contain a single person with the leadership quality it needs for the task ahead, what can be done? As I see it, only one thing. Yes, a new leader must be found, but not from within the current lot. Basically the Party needs to find its Obama, or wash my mouth out, its Trump. Entry to the race should be open to a wider pool of candidates. MPs who lost at the last election should be considered. Local and regional politicians would be looked at. Indeed any serious individual who sees her/himself as being up to the job should be offered a pathway.

How do they do this? Only one way. The party may be run by professionals and elected members, but constitutionally they are the creatures of the National Convention, the Parliament of the voluntary party, as it is described in central office literature. That body must meet, not as a talking shop but as a ruling body which actually it is, although the task has been delegated for decades. It must scrap the present system and choose the Leader of the Party itself. That person will probably not be a member of parliament right now, but so what? Part of the beauty of an unwritten constitution is that it isn’t written.

Will that happen? No. The present situation will continue. Kemi will carry on. Reform will continue to win councils and by-elections, and to ride high in the polls. And, as the next election comes into sight and Tory MPs see their doom approaching, the exodus will begin. A few at first but soon dozens, until Reform is no longer a parliamentary rump, but has overtaken the LibDems as the third party, until it has overtaken the Tory Party itself? What will trigger it? Possibly Siri Jacob Rees Mogg standing in the inevitable by-election in his old constituency, and finishing fourth, behind Labour, the Lib Dems and the new Reform MP.

That’s a future. Maybe the future, but what’s to stop. it happening? Nothing.

Never could spell.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/ce3qnyr7y94t?post=asset%3A21aead1e-ebc4-4f80-9dbe-d9efaa79919b#post