Conservative Party Archives

True Colours V

12 September 202012 September 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

One notable side effect of the Brexit referendum has been to force everyone in public life to show us their true intentions, hence the title of this blog series. If the last four years have achieved nothing else, they have demonstrated beyond any doubt exactly what we’re dealing with both at home and on the Continent.

Publication of the Internal Market Bill this week seems to have shocked many commentators, although it shouldn’t really be a surprise. While the amended Withdrawal Agreement was less egregious following the re-drafting of the hated Irish Backstop, it was still a fudge that couldn’t square the circle of the EU’s internal market and the provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. However, despite its manifest shortcomings, the Withdrawal Agreement served its political purpose and made Brexit a reality.

Anyone who thought the matter of Northern Ireland wouldn’t rear its head again was being extremely naïve.

To put it simply, it was never possible to reconcile the EU’s single market requirements with the Good Friday Agreement. The first demands checks at the border while the second makes them illegal.

Both Remainers and Brexiteers have played fast and loose with this inevitable legal paradox when it’s suited their ends. However, from the perspective of having left the EU, the UK’s decision over which treaty to favour is a very simple one.

Politics

The Viciousness of the Good People

13 November 201929 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

I know I won’t be the only one switching off his social media feeds when the polls close on December 12th. If current election projections are borne out, I have no desire to drown in the torrent of abusive bile and wailing lamentation that’s certain to swamp the internet when the people of the UK choose the next Parliamentary intake.

The inevitable outpouring of Leftist rage on Friday 13th will also be very revealing for those with eyes to see. When confronted with their failure to convince the masses of their own best interests, the mask of many a meme sharer will slip to reveal these caring, compassionate and concerned citizens for who they really are. It won’t be pretty, but it’s always instructive to watch these enlightened souls fly into a blind fury when they realise that the people they claim to champion are not so easily moved by some clever soundbite about tolerance and compassion. They are about to discover that the average voter is actually smarter than a ten year old child. Who knew?

Politics

Who’s Afraid of Boris?

28 July 201929 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Don’t believe the hype.

Despite all the tall talk and the set-piece protests, a general election is the last thing the Labour Party wants right now, or at any time in the foreseeable future come to think of it.

How do we know this? Well, they could’ve supported Jo Swinson’s pre-emptive confidence motion, tabled the moment Johnson took office, but they didn’t have the nerve. The embarrassingly low turnout at the recent national rally also shows that Corbyn fatigue has well and truly taken hold.

Whatever Boris Johnson’s faults may be, his first Commons session as Prime Minister shows that he’s willing to go there, as our American friends say.

The look on Jeremy Corbyn’s face said it all as Johnson stood at the despatch box and went through the list, beginning with the Labour leader’s paid appearance on Press TV and ending with his now viral Invasion of the Body Snatchers jibe. John McDonnell didn’t escape the blonde whirlwind either, with a reminder of his sacking by Ken Livingston now part of the official Hansard record.

Within the space of five minutes, Johnson tore up the cultural rulebook and exposed the hollowness, vacuousness and moral bankruptcy of the Labour front bench. Their preferred weapon of virtue signalling class politics was neutralised at a stroke, leaving them all but defenceless. I might’ve felt sorry for them, were they not such a dangerous and downright vindictive group of people.

Brexit

Boris Can’t Miss

21 June 201930 April 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Barring some unforeseen calamity, it seems pretty much certain that Boris Johnson will soon be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He owes much of his popularity with the Tory party and the wider public to his easily understood and uncompromising stance on Brexit. He’s made it clear on numerous occasions that Theresa May’s disastrous withdrawal deal is dead and that the United Kingdom will be leaving the EU on October 31st, with or without any kind of trade deal in place.

The pundit classes have been at pains to point out how the problems of Parliamentary arithmetic persist regardless of who occupies Downing Street. There have already been dark threats from the likes of Dominic Grieve to vote with the opposition and bring down the government if Prime Minister Johnson attempts to take Britain out of the EU on WTO terms. We may yet see if such people have the courage of their convictions because that scenario is entirely possible.

However, in common with Donald Trump across the pond, Johnson is not nearly as dumb as the chattering classes like to think he is, and he’s had more than two years to plan his strategy. His uncompromising stance on the biggest issue in a generation shows that he is not the slightest bit scared of Parliament or the mainstream media class.

In other words, he knows he can’t miss.

Politics

A Tale of Two Idealogues

15 April 20191 May 2020 - by Charles Naton - Leave a Comment

Whisper it, but there’s an alarming degree of similarity between the leaders of our two biggest political parties right now.

It’s a matter of some conjecture as to whether this situation is pure happenstance, or the inevitable result of party machine politics backed by big donors and special interests. I’ve written extensively on how the dual pressures of Brexit specifically and rising populism generally have forced many special interests to finally show us their true colours. In some ways the results have been entirely predictable, although probably a lot worse than many of us would’ve liked to guess. Perhaps one of the biggest scandals emerging from this whole situation is the startling similarity between the two party leaders, who claim to be implacable enemies.

Jeremy Corbyn’s distaste for the modern capitalist West is well documented, so there’s no reason to regurgitate the rap sheet in this column. Suffice to say that whenever there’s a conflict of interests, his gut instincts always align with those who wish to do his native country harm. Support for a controversial cause like Irish republicanism could be excused as principled if it were a one-off, but when it’s part of a decades-old pattern of behaviour, we must conclude that some overarching world view is informing Corbyn’s thinking. In short, the leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition believes that 21st-century Britain is somehow an enemy of freedom and a threat to the rest of the world.