Short open letter to disaffected Tories
Today is November 5th, Gunpowder Day and Dan Hannan and Roger Helmer have resigned the EPC frontbench.
“We need a broad movement within the Conservative party that will push for referendums, citizens’ initiatives and the rest of the paraphernalia of direct democracy. I don’t just mean a referendum on Europe – though, naturally, that is the obvious place to start.
I have returned to the backbenches in order to concentrate on building such a movement. Now who will stand on either hand and keep the bridge with me?”
Strong stuff. Yes, yes and yes. It’s started and he’s not such a fool as to think others will not follow and follow they now must. Easier for an MEP than an MP but the iron is now hot and it’s time to strike. He quite rightly says that the referendum is only the first step and he needs to stop defending Cameron and get on with the job in hand. He’s not an MP – he’s an MEP and there’s a lot of bridge crossing to go.
We are, right now, at that bridge. The MPs who should lead us are hesitant because David Cameron is holding up the prospect of victory and they’re inside. I feel their dream is an illusion and a hung parliament is more and more likely. Many pundits are saying this, inside and out.
This is the time to consider carefully how best to utilize our resignations from the party too, if that’s what we’re planning to do. One can’t blame the UKIP and LPUK for waiting in the wings and now jumping in to pick us up – it’s their duty to do so.
I feel that the Eurosceptic MPs might not know their own full power just now. Rather than knuckling under to David Cameron for an illusion of victory, they should be setting sail as a group, as Hannan is symbolically doing. It needs only one or two of them to stand up, say, “Enough” and follow his lead and much of the grassroots would follow – then the UKIP and LPUK come into play.
It is on these other MPs that the future of the party rests. For if they refuse to stand up, realizing that whilst they are compliant, the party electioneering machine will cover the costs of their campaign and that people tend to vote for one of the Big Three, with positions in private life also dependent on their continuing, one can understand the reasoning, that it is a big ask for a principle but what they might not see is that much of the grassroots will have resigned by then or maybe shifted votes sideways.
EU money will be pouring in on offer to these MPs – directorships, whatever – this is how Ireland was done, with a view to them staying quiet and it’s always a huge incentive for MPs who are thinking of their immediate families’ futures.
Naturally, there’s a lot of phoning and emailing going on, including with your humble correspondent.
We need to impress on these MPs who’ve been saying these things for years, that this is the gravity of the situation, the current state of play and that it is a highly volatile situation, with members poised to resign or less dramatically, shifting the vote to one of the other parties. As a disaffected Tory, I feel that my view on this is shared by many who feel equally betrayed.
Let’s start by putting pressure on all the disaffected MPs within a one-month time frame and then see which way it goes but the plan in the wings is for a split and coalition with the other two parties, should these MPs not stand up and either take over the reins or follow Dan Hannan’s example.
Here is the original post with all your comments.
Filed under: Life issues & people, Politics & economics
Perhaps we need to set up a collective site. I´m not really a facebook fan but it seems to draw people´s attention. We could put your open letter on there, invite disaffected MP´s to the site and make the site open to join for anyone else.
It´s probably the best way to bring everyone together and is a great way for everyone to express themselves democratically!
Give it a name not associated with any party but something to stir some British Pride… I don´t know, something like Magna Carta… other people are better than me at thinking of these things
That’s the way to go. This is an evening thing tonight – have to run to work related matters now.
We need to take the electoral system into account. The problem with splits is they deliver victory to the other side. And quite frankly the country is on the edge of a economic precipise – EU or no EU ( though no EU would help the finances a bit ).
Perhaps a more US type organisation is needed like the ACU ( I noted from following the US house of representatives bye election in New York that minor parties often support other candidates, but can if they organise their alliances right challenge those parties ).
Standing candidates for Westminister against Conservtaive candidates will just deliver victory to Labour.
I’ve seen this work in reverse having lived in Aberdeen South when we won the seat thanks to a 4 way split of the vote ( SNP, Lib Dems and Labour – those who voted for them were generally very anti-Tory at the time. But they got what the wanted least because they couldn’t straighten themselves out. )
Note that Hannan and Helmer stay in the party – even though perhaps they have more in common with UKIP – because they want to have an affect as well as winning the argument.
Splits on splits just won’t deliver this.
We need something like the ACU or Tax Payers alliance as a mass movement which people of all parties and none can join who wish to oppose the EU super state.
If nothing else, if we get MSM recognition, it may just stir the Conservatives into action. That has to be a good thing!
Everyone is just so frustrated at the moment. They have nowhere viable to turn and as I said before, the alternative for ordinary people will be the BNP and we really can´t have that!
I don´t think ordinary people respond very well to organisations which look like they have been set up by “more politicians”… you won´t get your average man/woman in the street joining an ACU like movement and if we really are about democracy, it has to be mainstream stuff that everyone recognises. Remember, we´ve had a generation of bad education, Big Brother (on TV and the reality) and X Factor (God help us)…
I didn’t mean this, MiaS. I agree with you that delivering victory to Labour would happen if we stood against the Europhiles. I think the MPs just stand in their own constituencies as normal but they have mentally moved to the new bloc which will have its policies in place at the election.
Combined with UKIP and LPUK, I’m sure the numbers are there for the Queen to call on Dan Hannan in 2010.
Sue, it needs more. It needs organization now and it has to be elected MPs in it because they are already in there, with party backup. Dan Hannan would need a constituency with a weak Labour candidate in place at the moment and not much of a margin.
I agree it would be better with no pollies in there at all but we must be practical. We are here now. We want to be there then.
Maybe I’m a kind of salt the earth guy but I think that concern on splitting the vote is what cameron is relying on. I’d rather remove that concern from the table and cause the wheel to speed up in its turn towards revolution than give cameron a PMs salary based on what he wants to do. He doesn’t deserve it. A tory win with cameron at the head is not going to be that much different from what we have now.
We want a real tory at the helm and Hannon would do nicely. That would ensure no split votes and we would get some changes, not more of the same.
No politician is going to move unless he knows he has support from a good number of the electorate first.
I realise that little people like us have no power but quite honestly, I can´t just sit by and do nothing and hope that someone else is going to do the job. They won´t. There´s been far too much complacency already, that´s why were are living in a Police State within an authoritarian superpower!
I think Lord T is right, once Cameron´s in power, we´ve already lost.
Dan Hannan would have no trouble winning a bi election and even PM, there are some that even want him for President in the United States!
None of can be sure what David Cameron will be like at PM. That’s politics. There’s evidence for whatever view you want to take and people tend to project their hopes and fears onto leaders before they are in office in irrational ways.
The UK will be far far better off with a Conservative Govt lead by David Cameron than a Labour one under Brown ( or any of his non entity hangers on ). Any vote that isn’t a Conservative vote makes Gordon Brown winning his first contested national election more likely.
This idea of wanting this to get much worse so the revolution will come is the council of despair and is more at home with the Trots and Socialist workers.
Note that Hannan co are staying in the Conservative party to win over its soul. That’s what matters.
If the Eurosceptics leave the Conservative party it will have the same impact on us as the moderate Labour wing leaving for the SDP – 10 more years of the opposite party.
The left are desperate for us to fall out amongst ourselves just before victory – its their last chance. That’s why Chris Bryant is on TV these days crowing away, rather than now Lady Kinnock.
The lesson from Labour is that it is possible to win over the whole party – but not if you leave.
ManinaShed,
If the tories want my vote they will need to put someone in I want to vote for. If the UKIP and the LPUK work strategically and only compete in areas where there is a proEU candidate then that would work. AntiEU tories would get in and if tories lose overall then so be it. That is camerons decision knowing the publics view. He is playing on the fear of more labour because we split our vote. This is playing a stategic game when he should be stating his principles and sticking to them. By the time we get to the election the guy will have changed his policies so many times we won’t now what he is supporting because he is just following the crowd. Just like gordo.
Cameron is finished. He needs to go and be replaced. I bet there is more AntiEU tories than there are ProEU and they should take over. Then the tories would be worth voting for.
I think all Tories should be disinfected…
@Lord T
A tory win with cameron at the head is not going to be that much different from what we have now.
I have been saying for some time now that the two parties were virtually the same but nobody on here was listening! Or perhaps they just didn’t want to see the truth.
Any vote that isn’t a Conservative vote makes Gordon Brown winning his first contested national election more likely.
This is why, MiaS, I wrote that we need to stick to our parties for now and why disaffected Tory MPs would do better doing what Dan Hannan is doing – staying in but organizing a bloc.
Cameron, now that he’s put the stake in the ground, will only preside over a minority government in a hung parliament – people just ain’t going to vote for him. With a new leader and the Eurosceptic bloc combining in coalition with the UKIP and LPUK, we have a chance of victory and of dragging the country back from the brink.
Cherie – look at this:
Here, here, and here.
What’s with the “but nobody on here was listening! Or perhaps they just didn’t want to see the truth”? I’ve been saying it for two years.
Is there a plan of action here?….
Yes – doing job things and then I’ll put together a post.
Excellent….good effort James!
Guido refers to something interesting that Dan Hannan is alleged to be up to. This looks like the genesis of a very good plan to me.
Remember remember the SDP and what it did to Labour’s election chances for a decade …..
Folks the only choice on offer is a Labour Govt or a Conservative one and that Conservative one will need as many of the candidates it stands elected as possible.
Five more years of Brown … think about it.
Yes perhaps this is a form of cynical manipulation by David Cameron (though I don’t rule out the idea that he is a genuine practical Euro sceptic ) – but lets face it even if it is he does have everyone over a barrel.
Protest in the local elections if you want that registered. Protest in the Euro elections ( as many Conservative members do ! ). But aim your fury at Brown, the traitor and destroyer of our nation, in the general election in the best way possible.
ManinaShed,
Cameron doesn’t have us over a barrel. He just thinks he does. When none of us vote for his party he will be out of a job. So once the spineless gits sees which way the wind is blowing he will bend.
Man in a shed. I think Edward Heath is as much a traitor as Brown, maybe more so and he was a Conservative.
I thought and thought about the election.
Maybe the first thing to do is get rid of Brown, even if it means electing a cardboard dummy. Like putting on a tourniquet to stop bleeding to death, buy some time. Then look to make a really big un-ignorable comment in the Euro and possibly local elections, plus lots of steady pressure. Treat them like a referendum.
I figure if you could basically eliminate Liberal, Labour and Conservative Euro MPs wholesale by ballot that would surely send a message.
Maybe a single issue pressure group to counter the massive Euro money/bribary/propaganda machine we saw work in Ireland. But not something that bangs patriotic drums and sounds more like the BNP.
Lots of Sceptics sound like they hanker after the days of empire… and those who so want to surrender up sovereignty to a European state use that to make them just look like racists, nut jobs and flying saucer chasers.
Tho hammering local councils is not necessarily ‘fair’ it might get the message over.
If I was looking to spread fear into MPs in general I would run a random campaign on two term MPs where each general election say 3 MPs have a peoples candidate out up against them and their constituencies flooded with activists.
They would be eligible for this treatment is they had voted against any of their party’s manifesto promises in the previous election in parliament.
It wouldn’t be a party political campaign, but a peoples honesty campaign. ( With a flavour of the Kidderminster NHS hospital trust campaign ).
It would catch both the anti politics mood of the country and exert great pressure on all MPs (because what they really fear is getting a new job ).
It would make MPs sitting in safe seats think twice before selling out their voters.
What Man in a Shed said. Absolutely cool idea! Claa them on their own lies.
Excellent addition to the debate. Needs to be thought through first but action is still needed and needed now to counter Cameron’s stance and Brown’s disgrace. The trick is to take sound opinion into account but not to be blunted.
ManinaShed,
Excellent idea and it also puts the ball in our court. If we go out and actively persue this then it will send a message to all politicians of all parties. If we don’t get enough supporters to do this then it shows what the public thinks. Then another term of Brown should bring about enough of a change for them.
Maybe have a website a bit like “they work for you”? But publishing lists of names by how many promises they have broken and listing their party and constituency.
Does one already exist even? I figure there must be some clever bloggers about could make on if not. It would practically a public service. ^_^
Maybe if this impeach your MP thing ever comes off then use that too?
Man in a Shed – superb idea!
It seems to me that the rebellion the sceptics are threatening could take the form of a Vote of No Confidence in Cameron, threatening to terminate his PMship if there’s no progress on repealing Lisbon within 18 months of the start of the next parliamentary session.
Moggs and all – suggestions will be taken on board via the forum when the site’s up on Wednesday. Thanks for that.