Searching for signs of life in centre-right politics in Britain 2025 Governors Conference
Going back to the Second World War, I can confirm to Zoe Williams that the Conservative Party began to collapse long before Boris Johnson, David Cameron and company (Are you enjoying the collapse of the Conservative Party? That’s understandable – but completely wrong, October 6). The One Nation Conservative Party became extinct the moment Margaret Thatcher took office.
The real old-school conservatives were Macmillan’s generation, perhaps a one-off generation. That generation had seen two world wars (Macmillan was wounded in the first), and the Great Depression of the 1920s and 1930s, so their eyes had been opened and they were forced to question their often privileged upbringing.
They largely continued the Keynesian social democratic policies of Labour’s Clement Attlee (also public school educated and wounded in the First World War) and this continued until Thatcher instituted the Friedmannian wrecking ball, which has now had 45 years to manifest its legacy of record inequality, declining public services and the departure of our companies offshore in ever-increasing numbers.
But don’t hold your breath for a change at the party. English voters, at least, have shown a healthy appetite for masochism and self-identification. There may still be life in Thatcherism.
David Redshaw
(Saltdean, East Sussex).
Kemi Badenoch says she would scrap stamp duty on primary residences if elected (Report, October 8). The Fiscal Responsibility Party proposes to create a tax deficit while the country’s debt is 100% of GDP, and we pay almost as much in debt interest as we do on education. How is this responsible?
Don’t you understand anything about the factors that drive home prices? People’s ability to buy is limited by their ability to borrow, and part of the borrowing must cover the cost of paying stamp duty. If we stop stamp duty, all that will happen is that house prices will rise to fill the gap. The Conservative Party’s economic illiteracy continues to astound me.
Dis Senior
Aylesber, Devon
The Conservative leadership now regrets that the size of our civil service has increased in the past nine years. Did it not occur to any of them that leaving the EU would involve adding additional staff in London to deal with regulatory issues that have been managed collectively with our EU partners, as well as negotiating the many bilateral relationships with our European neighbours, which are necessary now that we are outside the EU?
William Wallace
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
And while I agree with Polly Toynbee that an adult center-right party is a necessary evil, I hope you don’t expect us to abandon the nose-binding I once advocated to go out and vote for them (I didn’t think I’d ever say this: let’s hope the Tories are saved, on October 7).
Why Bright?
Exeter
The subtitle of Polly Toynbee’s article reads: ‘Britain is in desperate need of a mature centre-right party’. Isn’t this what the Labor Party is trying to be?
Katie Jennison
(Witney, Oxfordshire).
The rot in the Conservative Party really began when Boris Johnson expelled all MPs who showed signs of shrewdness and decency regarding Brexit.
Peter Brooker
West Wickham, London