![]() Margaret Thatcher might have mistrusted people like me-liberal Tories whom she perceived as “wets”-yet she always included some of them in her cabinet. Of course, I was aware of other traditions of Toryism: I had colleagues who still supported the death penalty, tough restrictions on immigration, and draconian laws on crime. Read: Why would anyone become a politician? When later, as a government minister with responsibility first for prisons and then for the environment, I moved to reduce the number of people incarcerated and double the U.K.’s expenditure on tackling climate change, I did not feel any friction with my party. We campaigned and voted together not only for localism, but also for gay marriage, net-zero emissions growth, and far more spending on international development. I became a member of Parliament in 2010, when Cameron led a coalition government of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties. But perhaps because I had been a civil servant, I still largely viewed becoming a politician as a practical administrative challenge, rather than an exercise in party politicking. ![]() I was drawn to David Cameron’s Tory Party because I felt it better reflected my instincts about tradition, country, the wisdom of local communities, restraint abroad, and prudence at home. I was once a Labour Party member, but my years working in Iraq and Afghanistan alienated me from Tony Blair’s technocratic triumphalism. I can hardly claim to have found a formula, but I am beginning to believe that conservative populism can be defeated and that there is a route back to the center ground of democratic politics, where I believe most voters naturally are. Reckoning with Johnson’s legacy has made me very conscious of Donald Trump’s takeover of the Republican Party, and I often wonder what general lessons can be drawn about alienation from a political party as it shifts from the center-right to the extreme. The party that I had served in Parliament for nearly a decade, and latterly for several years as a government minister, disinherited me. He was true to his word: We all lost our seats. The new prime minister threatened that MPs who tried to block his hard-Brexit proposals would be expelled from the party. Almost overnight, the liberal-centrist tradition of the Conservative Party, which I had championed, was replaced by a right-wing, anti-immigrant platform for populists who reveled in stoking culture wars. Four years ago, Boris Johnson became prime minister. I had thought that I was reconciled to my break with Britain’s Conservative Party. ![]() When I step in to join my other colleagues, a large man in a tailcoat intercepts me, indicates courteously that this place is no longer for me, and escorts me out. Passing beneath coffered ceilings, Gothic wallpaper, and sinuous brass work, I arrive at a marble version of the debating chamber, in which I can see my sometimes-antagonist, the Conservative member of Parliament Jacob Rees-Mogg, lying in what appears to be a bishop’s surplice on one of the pews. I am walking into the British Parliament, which seems to have become a cathedral. F or three years now, I’ve had a recurring dream.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |