We are paying the price for neglect of grassroots conservatism

If Corbyn’s radicalism has the stale whiff of a Che Guevara T-shirt, Tory activism smells of death. The central party received more income from the deceased than the living last year. Yet, with a possible leadership contest looming, the likes of Lord Hague are positively shooing away new joiners, fearing Brexiteer “entryists”.

Tory activism has not always been so lacking. The party once had millions of members, and it wasn’t merely a social club. In the Seventies, they protested against the downgrading of grammar schools and Idi Amin. But in the Eighties, protest became a Leftie thing – for industrial workers and minority rights activists – as the middle class prospered. For a time, the latter thought: why change the world when there was money to be made? A myth gained ground that the Right just isn’t into activism.

We are paying the price for the neglect of grassroots conservatism today. Technocrats ignore the will of the people. Freedom of speech is sacrificed in favour of verbal hygiene. Communities are a rubble of knives and boarded-up shops.

Resistance to all this is steadily rising, but it is rarely to the Tories’ benefit. In some instances this is because it contradicts government policy. Ukip and Leave Means Leave are spearheading the grassroots rebellion against Chequers. But in others it’s because nobody has thought to organise it. While Britain rips itself apart over culture wars, the loudest voices on the Right are Jordan Peterson-style vloggers. Where is the Tory-led free speech movement?

And why aren’t Tories allying with other groups with conservative aims? “Community activism” pongs of mildewed youth centres and cardiganclad sanctimoniousness. But Rightwing people are redefining it on their terms: neighbourhood watches and anti-knife crime alliances are calling for hotspot policing and crackdowns on petty crime. Business associations are campaigning for tax cuts and action against responsibility shirkers like Amazon. Volunteer-run bakeries and art galleries are popping up in empty shops. Tory associations should be helping such movements organise and argue for helpful policy reforms.

They could find ways of tapping into disillusionment with the existing global order, too. An international movement to cut tariffs, a conservative version of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, could change the world. Free trade is not “a Brexit thing”. It’s a moral imperative: EU subsidies keep African farmers poor, and fair trade breeds inefficiency. Why aren’t grassroots Tories doorstepping about this?

The cynical answer is that the party has lost its own moral vision, that it no longer believes in conservatism. But it should watch out. People are no longer happy to sit at home marinating in resentment at the liberal elite. As they organise themselves around causes they care about, the Tories should make sure they aren’t left behind.