Have the Tories stopped being Conservative?

The Conservative Party are still fundamentally Conservative in that their underlying goal is the preservation of existing economic and social structures, they just seem to have largely abandoned their focus on limited government, low taxes and free enterprise. This isn't new, it is a trend that has been growing over the last 13 years.

To fill this vacuum, the loud voices that are emerging are taking their intellectual inspiration from second rate own-the-libs American conservative grifters. In a way, it is just traditional social conservative wrapped up slightly differently (the decades long fight to change attitudes on gay people is testament to this).

It will backfire. Targeting marginal groups goes down with hardcore conservatives but the majority of people are far more concerned with taxes and public services than which bathroom someone uses.

I can see Suella Braverman becoming Conservative leader once the electorate kick the party into opposition. Her policy positions and procurements over the last year having nothing to do with improving the country but are simply her attempt to put herself in that position. This will likely be a period when the Conservative are unelectable.

I'm not convinced. I don't think the average voter is that fussed about taxes. A 1% reduction in my tax bill gives me something like £30 a month extra. Whoop-de-do! It sounds good but the reality is neither here nor there.

The problem I have is the talk on immigration. I am starting to come around to the fact that something needs to happen and I as about as liberal leftie as they come. For those a little more hard line, I can see pretty horrendous policies being popular and then normalised and before we know it is perfectly acceptable to marginalise <insert minority group here> without a second thought. I am not sure I like that.

The trend we are seeing with the Conservative Party is genuinely worrying to me. They have fully embraced toxic rhetoric about immigration, human rights, etc. They have even embraced wild, ridiculous conspiracy theories like "15 Minute Cities" and something about people needing 7 wheelie bins? It's the sort of divisive, conspiratorial rhetoric that is seen in US politics.

I worry that they will miraculously claw their way back up the opinion polls and win the next election. Can we survive another 5 years of **** government and mismanagement?

The whole 15 minute cities is nuts. How we have gone from an approach to city planning centred around decentralising amenities to limit the blight of cars clogging up cities to a wild conspiracy theory about controlling our lives.

The only reason the Conservatives are leaning into this is one of many of their target voters are boomers who rely on Facebook for their politics..

I'm not convinced. I don't think the average voter is that fussed about taxes. A 1% reduction in my tax bill gives me something like £30 a month extra. Whoop-de-do! It sounds good but the reality is neither here nor there.

Much depends on what the tax cut (or increase) involves.

You are a teacher. Your profession recently engaged in strike action only to settle, in the end, for a below inflation pay increase and no guarantee of improvement in working conditions. Income Tax thresholds have been frozen until 2028. By that time, fiscal drag will have pushed very many teachers into the higher (40%) tax band, with or without any further pay increases. You'll certainly notice that.

Well yes and no. My point is that if Kwarteng had got his way I would have seen a 1% reduction in income tax. I would not be better off for that.

Oh - and point of order. I work in a 6th form college. We are yet to receive a pay offer. Just saying like. But hey ho - its ok because we are also likely to implement a total rehaul of 6th form study too! Yay!

And we are still on strike. Apparently we voted for action short of striking. So we will be making angry faces every time we see our head! Seriously - you couldn't make it up!

Isn't a good job there are people in the world who still have principals. Maybe we should be more conservative and act like economic units leaving the profession en-mass to pursue riches elsewhere... wait - that is exactly what is happening.

I don't think that is true. All that has happened is that control of running schools has moved from councils to schools themselves which on the whole is a good thing because schools can now react much faster to the needs of their pupils. Rather than having to wait for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn they can just do it. Businesses that do get involved generally buy a name but that is about it. They certainly don't govern curriculum bar a few well known left-field schools which will come and go just like educational experiments of the past.

I agree Labour won't make a huge difference but it is the arrogance of Tory education ministers that gets our back. The Tories don't give a stuff about education because they all use private schools and Rishi's noble aim to change 6th form education probably has more to do with creating more valuable economic units to work in Tory backed business that a more altruistic desire to further the ambition of our youngsters.

There was a time when you knew what conservatism was all about. Cutting services, building roads, cutting taxes and generally looking after the gentrified home counties whilst pretending to speak for the working man of the north.

But it is no longer about that. I have been following the conference and it all seems to be about ideology. It is about being afraid of "them" (insert immigrant, Muslim, wokerati, liberal leftie, trans-gender, BLM, environmentalist).

Where as on the one the one had this is something relatively new to British mainstream politics and no doubt refreshing and exciting and liberating to some, I can't help feel that as soon as politicians start preaching about us vs. "them" [undefined but scary] we run the risk of baring pitch forks and going into a very dark place. No doubt Germany didn't see this coming either?

Thoughts?

I'm afraid I can't agree with you about academisation - but that's another debate. I do agree with your statement that "Labour won't make a huge difference". The real problem is that whoever wins the next election will face enormous economic challenges and there will only be limited room for manoeuvre when it comes to public spending. I suspect that we would both hope that spending on education is seen as a top priority.

Well, having worked under the academised system and having kids in a council run school I can definitely see the difference and it ain't in favour of council run.

Teachers don't ask for much. Acknowledgement, gratitude and appreciation go a long way. The Tories don't understand any of these concepts because they don't have anything to do with money.

There was a time when you knew what conservatism was all about. Cutting services, building roads, cutting taxes and generally looking after the gentrified home counties whilst pretending to speak for the working man of the north.

But it is no longer about that. I have been following the conference and it all seems to be about ideology. It is about being afraid of "them" (insert immigrant, Muslim, wokerati, liberal leftie, trans-gender, BLM, environmentalist).

Where as on the one the one had this is something relatively new to British mainstream politics and no doubt refreshing and exciting and liberating to some, I can't help feel that as soon as politicians start preaching about us vs. "them" [undefined but scary] we run the risk of baring pitch forks and going into a very dark place. No doubt Germany didn't see this coming either?

Thoughts?

The whole 15 minute cities is nuts. How we have gone from an approach to city planning centred around decentralising amenities to limit the blight of cars clogging up cities to a wild conspiracy theory about controlling our lives.

The only reason the Conservatives are leaning into this is one of many of their target voters are boomers who rely on Facebook for their politics..