Government’s track record does not back up ‘best’ values claim

THE Conservative Party once proudly asserted that it combined “the best of the old with the best of the new” .

Such a claim used to include family values. Not any more.

Is the “best of the new” the dominance of private money used to manipulate British politics? Under Johnson, as reported by City AM, there was a 14 strong Advisory Council of the super-rich who obtained a seat in this secret cabinet by donating at least £250,000. This council first came to light during Covid when some of the government contracts were set up to supply protective medical gowns. So, millionaire profit with no transparency; new or old Tory values?

That the use of money to manipulate elections is also an essential value is shown by Mr Gove’s recent raising of the limit on Party election spending by 80 per cent. Throwing money to attract votes seems the only way the May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak Party might yet win next time round.

And given this number of recent PMS, adolescent leadership quarrels is clearly a “value” as is being “economical with the truth”.

Take Ms Badenock’s “triumph” in tying the UK into the CPTPP trade bloc (April 2023). She tells us that the agreement was “worth” £12trn. A meaningless statement and one that underlines the apparent “value” of self-harm since this deal followed our quitting of the EU where we had an agreement “worth” £14.5trn.

The Government’s own figures show that over ten years the

CPTPP accord will increase our national wealth by only 0.08 per cent.

And let’s not forget the decision to allow a major oil company to grab sections of the Rosebank fossil fuel field which the Tories have presented as guaranteeing energy supplies for our citizens.

No, the oil will be sold on the world market with no direct link to British needs. And do major companies contribute to Tory funds? Any values here?

Probably the most striking “value” now exemplified by the selfstyled “Party of Government” is an apparent tolerance of racism.

After comments by Frank Hester, the individual who has given the largest ever donation to Conservative party funds, about the MP Diane Abbott, Rishi Sunak took hours to decide to criticise this statement and has no intention, at present, of giving back this tainted money.

So the “best of the new” includes condemning outrageously racist and misogynist language, not because it represents a shattering immorality, but only because of media pressure. Ethical leadership or the baseness of the “worst of the new”?

And earlier, when a Government minister initialy stated that Mr Hester’s insults were “neither gender or race based”, we saw one of the most dangerous of all “values”: voters are dunces who will believe anything.

So we have the worst of the old and of the new. Can anyone believe that there is no need for change?