Maybe rumours of their demise are exaggerated, but when ConservativeHome starts speculating about splits in the Cornerstone Group (who I affectionately call 'Tombstone') you know there's trouble at t'mill. Edward Leigh's article in the House Magazine, where he has a right old go at David Cameron, seems to position Cornerstone at the headbanging fringes of the Party. It's so deliciously ironic that most of their thirty five strong members actually voted for David Cameron. The ConservativeHome article concludes with these words...
The Cornerstone group is not necessarily united in its concerns about Project
Cameron, however. One member of the group resigned last week and
Cornerstone's co-founder - John Hayes MP - is known to be much more
favourable to the party's direction.
I understand that the MP who has resigned from Cornerstone is Andrew Selous. I also hear that there are disagreements between John Hayes and Edward Leigh over the future direction of Cornerstone and that Hayes is increasingly fed up with Leigh being described in the media as the group's "leader". Their next meeting up at Highgate cemetery should be a joy to behold. I gather it's a dress down event. No uniforms necessary...
Footnote: Last week Nadine Dorries MP outed herself on her blog as a member of Cornerstone. What timing!
Iain,
ReplyDeleteWhy are you so contemptuous of the Cornerstone Group? At least they’re in party politics for right-wing principles and not just their careers. Europhile or Eurosceptic, pro- or anti-marriage, market enthusiast or moralist – each of these quarrels is fundamental and cannot be settled by “bad mouthing” the Other. To refuse to resolve them is to ask to be dragged, by events beyond our control, into places we never decided to go.
And here is the core of it. The Tory party does not know what it is supposed to be opposing. In fact, in general, it has either supported or failed to oppose all the most important actions of New Labour. On the great battlefields of marriage and the family, education and culture, morality and law, the Tories have been utterly outmaneuvered and bypassed. Because they did not fight, they co-operated in the destruction of their own electorate. To this day, they have no idea why it is that they are so despised by the young, and their wretched attempts to toady to the “centre ground” manage to offend their supporters while simultaneously failing to convert their opponents.
As a result, you sound increasingly out-of-touch with the conservative movement. On 18 Doughty Street tonight, for example, you had the audacity to compare the brave and original paleoconservative thinker Peter Hitchens to that warmongering banshee Ann Coulter. (And yet, paradoxically, you praised Richard LittleJohn for harboring “sensible” opinions... the mind boggles.) Erroneously labeled a “far-right extremist”, Hitchens is in reality one of the most thought-provoking and intelligent commentators on life in contemporary Britain, and someone with whom the traditional Left can find much common ground. He’s a lot more articulate than your newfound libertarian pals – I’ll say that much.
The Conservatives can't buy publicity like this. It's like Blair sinking Clause 4 or Kinnock denouncing Derek Hatton.
ReplyDeleteThe more the Edward Leigh rants from the fringes, the more floating voters will return to the Conservatives. Yes, they might lose some voters to the UKIP but the Farage-Kilroy-Silk outfit is in a state of flux, it's hard to keep up with their demise.
Besides, apart from EU Parliament elections, voters know the outcome is either a Labour or a Conservative government. Voting UKIP or staying at home could mean Gordon Brown using his tartan MPs to foist unpopular legislation on the English.
Finally, snubbing the CBI is nothing new. They represent big business and monopoly power, any free marketeer would be instinctively cautious of such vested interests. Thatcher, Howe and Lawson sometimes snubbed the CBI and other producer interests in the 1980s.
Didn't someone once say something about "news of my death etc,etc
ReplyDeleteGive us a bit of background on Edward Leigh. I keep seeing the face of Edward Garnier, the PAC rottweiler, when the former's name is mentioned.
ReplyDeleteWhat does he look like, is he a good bloke, what team does he support,...
You get far too worked up about trivia Iain - get out more to Northern England and you can see faded footprints on the ground.
ReplyDeleteWhile you are all getting in a fizz about whether to follow Blefuscan or Lilliputian policy on eggs you might consider the diminishing impact of Conservatives in Northern England where it resembles a new product launch rather than a national political party.
Highgate Cemetery is a monumental cemetery matched by Bradford's Undercliffe Cemetery (where Bob Cryer MP is buried inter alia) but either could serve as the place the Conservative Party finally died...
That you can indulge in ideological spats with Edward Leigh suggests that winning voters in Northern England is not a priority
I enjoyed your chat with Nadine Dorris on 18 Doughty street a couple of weeks back. Must admit that after watching I just knew she was a tombstone member.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8.42 asks "What does (Leigh) look like?"
ReplyDeleteThe answer is that he looks and sounds like the worst kind of Tory stereotype.
The Times journalist Alice Miles described the man as she saw him on a train returning from the last but one Tory Conference. He was standing red faced in the corridor bawling into his mobile, completely oblivious to fellow passengers.
As I remember Miles suggested the Tories had to do a lot to lose such a vote-losing image. The fact that she seems approving on the whole about Cameron is quite important. The Ladies who Write have a big opinion-forming role.
bebopper - thanks, Leigh is the guy I was thinking of. [Garnier is another person entirely - think he has a lab in Paris specialising in costly face cream].
ReplyDeleteWhatever his faults, I will say this - Leigh is masterful at exposing the waste and incompetence when it comes to this administration's handling of public money, which they seem to think of as 'their money'.
Like Dave, Alice has a big following oop north and they hang on her every word in Leeds and Bolton.
ReplyDeletePresumably Cornerstone types fell out of love with Cameron when it became clear he will say anything to get elected and then do whatever nulab thinks is a good idea. How ideological of them.
ReplyDeleteMichale -Why are you so contemptuous of the Cornerstone Group? At least they’re in party politics for right-wing principles and not just their careers. ...
ReplyDeleteWhat is he suggesting ?Tsk tsk
Hayes is speaking at our Annual dinner so I will be hoping to ask him a few things about what he thinks.Sounds like it might be quite interesting.
Karl Marx is buried in Highgate cemetery.Her majesties oppposition seem happy with the current arrangement whereby our money is taken away and the state provide us with sub standard sevices in return.
Seems like a good place for the Cameroons to have meeting then...