Several emails have pointed out that, far from needing to adopt an all-BAME shortlist system as Labour would, the Conservative Party has been openly operating one ever since David Cameron became Leader, fully 15 years ago now.
Like all-women shortlists, in fact. In spite of which, or perhaps because of it, the Conservative Party's members in the country at large have no more ever elected a woman Leader than Labour's have.
But then, the Conservative Party has been in favour of everything from same-sex marriage to the abolition of the House of Lords since the day that John Major resigned. All of its minds had been so for at least 10 years by then.
Whereas the Blair and Brown Governments always explicitly opposed both of those measures to the very end. Still in Parliament at the time, Gordon Brown never voted for the same-sex marriage legislation that Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson all supported. Rebecca Long-Bailey continues to go beyond Labour Party policy, even under Jeremy Corbyn, by calling for the elected second chamber to which the other side has at least officially aspired for 23 years and counting.
Daily Telegraph editorials calling both for same-sex marriage (not civil partnerships) and for an elected second chamber appeared within a few days of the 1997 General Election, and it did in fact take the return of the Conservative Party to office to deliver the first of those, described by Cameron as his proudest achievement.
The 2019 Conservative intake consists overwhelmingly, if not entirely, of MPs who regard that legislation as the founding event of the party of which they are members. A good many of them would otherwise simply never have joined it, or even voted for it. And now, the Conservatives are now about to legislate for gender self-identification, with no internal dissent whatever. Well, of course. And well, of course not.
Ours is the 2020 Vision of a new political party, a new think tank, a new weekly newspaper, a new monthly cultural review, a new quarterly academic journal, and so much else besides. I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Ours is the 2020 Vision of a new political party, a new think tank, a new weekly newspaper, a new monthly cultural review, a new quarterly academic journal, and so much else besides. I will be standing for Parliament again here at North West Durham next time, so please give generously. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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