‘State of the Tory Party should be a worry to everyone’

I WAS talking to a young colleague at work who is a member of the Conservative Party.

He identifies himself as a “One Nation Tory” in doing so he connects himself with a tradition in the Tory Party that goes back to Benjamin Disraeli, pictured above, who coined the phrase.

There is a strand of liberal progressive thinking that runs through to the present day and which would include Winston Churchill, whose father Randolph was a leading exponent in the 1890s, Harold Macmillan, whose tenure of office as Housing Minister in the early 1950s saw 300,000 houses built a year, Iain Mcleod, who successfully managed the retreat from Empire as Colonial Secretary, the forgotten Edward Boyle, an early advocate of comprehensive education and Ted Heath, a keen supporter of Europe.

This strand of Tory thinking seems close to being snuffed out today.

I know I am a member of another party, but the state of the Conservative Party should be a worry to all concerned about the future of democracy.

Politics is about getting things done and not seeking some form of purity of thought at the expense of everything else.

We seem to be drifting into a modern day Salem Witch Trial when independence of action is considered by some to be damnable and cannot be brooked.

This is what happens when zealots gain control that are keen to root out alternative views rather than concentrating on the day to day issues that most concern people.

I think we need a cold douche of water to bring us to our senses.

Let us hope it happens soon Councillor Bill Cawley Leek West