Here's why I'm resigning from the Conservative Party.

Nothing works. Absolutely nothing!

 

In recent months, how often have you overheard this comment? Or perhaps you’ve been increasingly muttering it yourself?

 

It seems that Britain is entering into a state of entropy, where the collective will and energy to grasp opportunities, and make things happen for the better, is slowly and steadily bleeding away.

 

The public sector, in spite of record numbers of people employed, offers increasingly poor services, from planning applications to education.

 

Nationally, Government seems to be in complete retreat, incapable of taking the long view in terms of infrastructure investment, and obsessed with short-term posturing and posing, not least regarding the worsening crime and immigration situations.

 

Public discourse, with one or two honourable exceptions, has become obsessed not with the major issues of economic and social importance, but with set piece battles in the so-called culture wars.

 

As the economy grinds to a halt, and businesses and households come under increasing pressure to keep their heads above water, not least due to historically high taxation levels, the two main parties blend into each other offering similar world views with only the merest rhetorical differences.

 

Some readers may recall the term ‘Butskellism’ from the 1950s. This portmanteau was associated with the almost identical policy platforms being espoused by the then Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rab Butler and Hugh Gaitskell, Labour’s leader at the time.

 

Today’s equivalent term might be ‘Hunarmerism’ (Hunt/Starmer) or ‘Reevakism’ (Reeves/Sunak), or any other silly combination.

 

Either way, all these ‘leaders are quite lacking when compared with our post-war political beasts. 

 

After it’s drubbing in 2019, it was to be expected that the Labour Party would return to the so-called centre ground. What has most appalled me is that the Conservatives have done exactly the same thing, in spite of an overwhelming majority and a clear mandate.

 

I believe that Boris Johnson’s administration was a forthright riposte to the establishment ditherings of his awful predecessor, Teresa May. I was devastated when he was deposed by disloyal Conservative MPs, but even I felt he partly deserved it for his support for the appallingly draconian, and mostly unnecessary measures imposed on society during the COVID19 pandemic.

 

I supported Liz Truss for leader, inspired by her recognition that the low growth rates and productivity of recent years could only be addressed by huge supply side reforms and tax cuts. Imagine my frustration, when her lack of clear communication, and the over exuberance of her chancellor, holed this policy ship before it had left port.

 

Once again, the ever-disloyal Vicars of Bray in the Parliamentary Conservative Party did for her, installing her defeated rival without the courtesy of a further vote of the membership. An own goal if ever I saw one!

 

And Rishi Sunak’s Government has turned out to be everything I feared: slow-moving, anti-small business, pro-taxation, pro-state meddling, and captured utterly by the caution and miserabalism of the Treasury, and the sleepily destructive and out-of-touch Bank of England.

 

Which is why I am using this column to announce my resignation from the Conservative Party, a party that I first voted for in 1979, and I have been associated with for decades, including in senior positions within my local constituency and across Suffolk.

 

I believe that it is sleepwalking into an avoidable electoral defeat, taking with it the support of many hard-working citizens and businesspeople like me.

 

Is there any alternative? Not really, and not yet.

 

I like the Reform Party’s broadly libertarian instincts, including standing up for free speech in the face of woke cancel culture activists, as well as it’s no-nonsense approach to crime and immigration. But its present leader, Richard Tice, is no Nigel Farage, and lacks the charisma and intellectual rigour to cut through to bereft right-wing voters.

 

There may come a point, once the Conservatives are defeated at next year’s General Election, that there will be a realignment of the right, combining libertarian Conservative, Reform and Laurence Fox’s populist Reclaim Party.

 

But for now, for me, it’s #NoneOfThe Above. I cannot in all conscience support any party or candidate, as I feel such a deep level of disquiet and contempt for the whole political system.

 

I know that I am not alone. But what to do?

 

To not vote would be a tactical error as our electoral silence would be taken as consent.

 

And so, come the next General Election, I would urge as many readers as possible to vote, but spoil their ballot papers with the words #NoneOfThe Above.

 

Your protest will be included in the turnout figures and will be included in the numbers of spoilt papers not allocated to any candidate.

 

Without this action, the establishment in Westminster, and also in Whitehall, will turn a blind eye to the negative consequences of their incompetence and controlling ambitions.

 

Without this act of electoral disobedience, nothing in this great country will ever work properly again, and our freedoms will be eroded even further.

 

Remember, vote #NoneOfTheAbove!

First published in the www.suffolkfreepress.co.uk on Thursday, August 31st, 2023.