Be patient to win
What conservatives across Britain should do to restore constitutional order and get the centre-right politics they want
If you’re a Conservative activist, candidate, or keen supporter, know this: the decisions you take now will shape the future of the United Kingdom. The old regime has flunked its historic calling and you must now take a considerable role in restoring constitutional standards to the most successful and influential country in the modern era. You’ve spent years committed to a fair-minded politics, putting aside concerns over some leaders and election campaigns because you knew that the fiscal management, defence, and public services on offer from the Conservatives were often better than the alternative.
But there’s no point in hiding what we all know: Theresa May is Britain’s worst prime minister in centuries, and the leadership of the Conservatives is responsible for putting the country in the position of servitude to the European Union and rejecting the result of the 2016 referendum. Britain could have left the EU in March, but the prime minister chose not to.
What to do now?
You’re about to be asked to campaign in May for the elections to the European Parliament. The request is bad enough, but being active in the elections will suggest to the voters you meet that you’re not clear in your own mind as to whether you want Brexit. What you decide to do will push right-of-centre politics one way or another. You have leverage. Use it.
The Brexit Party is going to wipe the floor with any party that stands against it, and rightly so. Again and again it’s going to say ‘You voted, they didn’t listen, now’s your chance to show who is in charge.’ That’s what Brexit is now — a fight over who governs us and whether some people aren’t allowed to take part because they’ve been deemed too stupid. Handing out leaflets for, tweeting about, or standing to represent any other party is a great way of suggesting that you don’t quite know whether the people or political parties come first.
Be patient and let the Brexit Party do its work. It’s going to send the Fear of God up the leadership of the Conservatives, forcing them to finally choose between committing to democracy, the people, and the referendum result; or continuing with its attempts to re-negotiate Britain’s position in the EU. There’s no point in the party if it does the latter. The former will lead to a realignment of rightist parties that will fuse being out of the EU with a conservatism that knows how to cut taxes, boost growth, and give people responsibility over their lives — that’s what you always wanted, right?
If you’re a candidate, you’ve got a life-defining opportunity to jump the queue into parliament. Voters will soon be looking for people that were honest about their Brexit views, stood up for them, and paid costs for the cause when folding would have been easier. All parties will soon be on a mad scramble for candidates that can stand on doorsteps and look the electorate in the eye, and there are lots of ones out there on the right who have been too quiet about Brexit. Those people will soon have to accept the consequences of that. Keep your powder dry now and move when the time comes. It’s called leadership.
Use your opportunities, make the right choices, and you’ll recreate the conservatism that Britain needs.
