Every party in trouble prays for the same miracle, which is amnesia. The Conservative Party’s entire strategy for the next four years rests on the hope that the British people will misremember the last fourteen. Kemi Badenoch has said as much, remarking that it is unhelpful to churn over every incident of those years. Unhelpful to whom, one might ask. Yesterday Reform UK answered her with a website, and I want to spend a few paragraphs telling you why donotforget.co.uk matters rather more than a campaign microsite usually does.
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Samizdata quote of the day – Don’t let the Tories pretend they were not responsible for where we areJuly 8th, 2026 |
 5 comments to Samizdata quote of the day – Don’t let the Tories pretend they were not responsible for where we areLeave a Reply |
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It’s not so much a case of the whories pretending they are not responsible, it’s how many poor misguided fools might believe them!
If that is the strategy it is a mistake – only by understanding WHY ministers such as Jacob Rees-Mogg and Kemi Badenoch herself, and Prime Ministers such as Liz Truss, were defeated (and they were defeated) by the officials and experts, can there be any hope of future victory – not just for Conservatives, but also for Reform and Restore.
For example, former Prime Minister Liz Truss has important, and true, things to say about the power (the destructive power) of officials and experts – how the entire system of governance had developed in such as way that democracy has become, in large part, an illusion – with elected governments in office, but not, really, in power.
But is Kemi Badenoch listening? Indeed is Gawain Towler and Reform listening? Or are they both clinging to the false assumption that elected politicians are actually in power?
It makes little difference if the Conservatives, Reform or Restore are elected – if (if) real power remains with officials and “experts”.
We must also not assume that the right (in any form) will be elected.
For example, the Kettering area is historically right of center – and it is in the middle of England, very much “average England”.
Yet the split in voting in local council by-elections is only 55% for the right and 45% for the left – and as the left unite around one candidate (the Liberal Democrat in Burton Latimer, the Green in Hanwood Park) and the right is split between the Conservatives and Reform (with Reform actually doing badly – due to over promising in the 2025 Unitary Authority elections – they did not understand that at local, as well as national, level – elected-politicians-have-very-limited-powers), the left wins.
The left won in Burton Latimer, the left won in Hanwood Park – and if the right remains split, the left will continue to win.
In short – neither the Conservatives or the Reform Party (or Restore – the local Restore Party is based only a few hundred yards from me) will have a chance to get rid of the Bank of England and the Civil Service, and the Guardian reading judiciary – because they-will-not-win-a-General-Election.
The left will form a pact – unofficial but very real, Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens will work together – locally, de facto, they already are.
So if the Conservatives, Reform and Restore continue to fight like rats in a sack – the left will win.
It is astonishing to me that the left, with their demands for even more government spending and regulations – and their vicious antisemitism (“you would be upset about that Paul” – yes I plead guilty to self interest on that one) are getting around 45% of the vote in nice places such as the Sir Ed “Genocide” Davey supporter who won in Burton Latimer – they should be getting no votes at all, but they are getting almost half the vote.
It is astonishing and horrible, but it is a fact – and it is time that the Conservatives, Reform and Restore woke up to this fact, and stopped fighting each other.
If the right remain split, the left, which is already operating a de facto pact, will win.
Reform are acutely aware why Truss failed, why Mogg failed. They know who the enemy are: the same Deep State that’s trying to destroy Reform right now. And why’s the Deep State trying to do that? Because they know that Reform knows who the enemy are, making Reform not just a different flavour of the same old same old but rather an “existential threat” (as Perry has been saying on X repeatedly).