Most people of my political disposition wrote off Kemi Badenoch from the very beginning. In the absence of viable alternatives, though, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. She at least deserved a shot at reshaping her party and she was at least making all the right noises.
By that, I mean that she didn’t simply rattle off the usual policy tropes and instead committed to a policy process. This, I thought, was the correct approach and refreshing change from the way the Slop Right does things. I was certainly pleased that she took the time to properly investigate the ECHR matter even if she didn’t give it the proper consideration in terms of political feasibility.
As such, I was expecting a good deal more from the party at this conference, which has been lacklustre to say the least. I’m away from home this week so I’m not as tuned in as I might have been, but in any case, nothing has cut through the noise. All I’ve caught wind of is a car crash interview in which Badenoch appears to have no idea about the specifics of her missile defence shield policy.
I didn’t expect her to have a full command of the mechanics of it since it is a conceptual proposal but it’s clear she doesn’t even have a conceptual notion of what she’s talking about. As much as anything, it tells us that she is not on top of her own party’s policy agenda, which is pretty important when you’re the actual leader.
That’s not the only problem either. The party has published a pamphlet outlining their broader policy approach. While it contains some of what you might expect to see, it’s mainly remarkable for how threadbare it is. It contains a short chapter on immigration and asylum but it’s not going to win over any Reform voters.
What’s conspicuous by its absence is the interim report from Badenoch’s Culture and Integration Commission, which was supposed to be launched at the conference. Perhaps I missed it, but it’s the one thing I’ve been waiting to see for months - to see exactly how serious they are. It appears that all we’re going to get on that score is more burbling about Birbalsingh’s Michaela Community School where teaching kids all the words to Jerusalem is supposed to make them fully integrated citizens.
Taken in the round, with the party having cleared Penny Mordaunt to run again, and Badenoch’s appointment of Tom Tugendhat and Ben Obese-reJecty to run foreign policy and defence, the new Tory party is starting to look a lot like the old one. As one tweeter remarks “Ideology aside, one of the great mysteries about politics in the 2020s has been the relentless promotion of Penny Mordaunt as a somehow substantial figure to whom we need to pay attention”.
I now get the sense that whatever image of policy competence and seriousness Badenoch was trying to project has no actual substance, and if ever the party did reflect on what went wrong and why, the lessons have already been forgotten. The tough rhetoric of six months ago abated, there is no sign of this intellectual renaissance, and there’s no real sense of the seriousness of our predicament. This is the party of half-measures.
I think I’ve been fairer than most in at least giving Badenoch the time to find her feet, but in the final analysis she doesn’t have what it takes to build something presentable with the raw materials she has. She was always going to struggle if she followed Reform around like a lost puppy, so that demanded a different tack. Substance over presentation. Instead, she’s simply leaned into her party’s One Nation tendency, making it very much a tone deaf metropolitan liberal party. Exactly the kind we kicked out in 2024.
The Tory section of the Uniparty establishment just want their turn at the taxpayer filled trough.
They had 14 years and 80 seat majority and still managed to not do anything they promised and were elected to do.
As the donors and top bods of CCHQ are exactly the same people, i have no reason to believe that will change.
That they think globalista Penny 'dreadful' Mourdant is a contender tells you everything you need to know about the modern Tories.
Reform and Restore have no solid plan outside of the soundbites and outraged tweets on X they post over events they will not be able to manage.
The person who leads us out of this mess has not appeared on the political stage yet.
Buckle up, it is going to be rough.
And by rough, i mean shit.
LOTO needs to do the following (but alas will not).
1. Declare the first Day of Humble National Prayer and Repentance (Christian prayer) since April 1944. There were 7 in WW2 called by Churchill. This will make many Bible believers and prayer groups rethink. At the moment Reform have a lead her.
2. She needs to apologise and be contrite of betraying British Jews after October 7th 2023 by the limp response to the marches expressing hatred of Jews so that it became normalised and trendy - see the Green Party since 2023.
As a sign of the sincere apology and commitment to change she must announce the ringleader in this, Rishi Sunak, loses the Conservative whip and can not stand at the next election. She has to take the heat of the backdraft and follow through with determination.
Sunak will not join the Lib Dems as other expelled MPs may choose to do. If he steps down and there is a by-election it is one of the few the Tories can hold and be seen to defeat Reform in an English Westminster by-election.
If she pulls this off, she can at least have back channel negotiation with Farage about a 'Coupon election'.
3. She needs to apologise to Israel for the last government failing to support Israel. She must pledge to visit Jerusalem and repeat the apology.
4. She must praise President Trump, First Lady and family FULL STOP. To evoke a response from Trump and damage NIgel Farage's usp - he has the ear and trust of the US President.
5. She needs to apologise for the last government criminalising silent prayer in public and for the many arrests of street evangelists.
6. She needs to state that the Russia-Ukraine war is not our war and she will not repeat the Charge of The Light Brigade of 1854 (in Crimea against Russia). She must state that Europe's wars, Germany and France's wars are not our wars. We will trade with both sides in any war not in our interest to commit blood and treasure to. We will take cheap oil and gas from anywhere and get fuel bills down.
7. She needs to lay out her right of centre policy pledges and insist her MPs must sign them and do a video of public agreement. If they do not, then they can not stand at the next election.
My guess is that she will repeat that she intends to get rid of Stamp Duty and maybe Inheritance Tax. Given Burnham wants your family home to pay for social care (of others) there will be few inheritances anyway.