The Conservative party is in a mess. At a time when we are confronted with the gravest crisis in peacetime history, we have one of the weakest Prime Ministers in all history. Europe is difficult. Resolving the Brexit question would have taxed the energies of a Churchill or a Thatcher. But Theresa May is so far below the level of events that she has not even been able to try. Nor is she alone in mediocrity. Unable to cope with strong colleagues, Mrs May has done her best to surround herself with weak ones.
As a result, the Government appears to have nothing to say on the issues which concern the public, vast tracts of whom are fed up with arguments over Europe. But what have the Tories got to say about health, education housing in particular or living standards in general? What are they offering to that bedrock of Tory support, the aspirational classes? There is a one-word answer. Nothing.
A government in this much of a shambles would normally be finished. It might stagger on, a pathetic political zombie, but the quietus would not be long postponed. If the Leader of the Opposition were a young Tony Blair, the Conservatives would be toast. Indeed, they would be the blackened fragments at the bottom of the toaster, after someone had forgotten to switch off in time.
So why has zombie-hood been kept at bay? This time, there is a two-word answer: Jeremy Corbyn. He too has strong claims on zombie status. In the 1980s, a lot of ‘isms’ became ‘wasms.’ The Soviet Empire imploded. Intelligent socialists realised that many of their beliefs had been refuted by events. Jeremy Corbyn was never an intelligent socialist. He just ploughed on, changing his mind about nothing, clinging to his copy of Marxism for slow learners. The world went through great events, great changes and dramatic outcomes. Mr Corbyn’s response: the same old cliches.
Fortunately for anyone who wishes Britain well, he is almost unelectable. But only almost. Although politics is a strange form of nature, it too abhors a vacuum. If the Conservatives continue to be a party that takes the ‘use’ out of uselessness, they will deserve to lose. Yet those of us ready to proclaim that self-evident truth should contain our anger. The country absolutely does not deserve a Corbyn government.
Nor need it have one. The resources of Conservatism are by no means exhausted. This is a party full of bright youngsters with interesting ideas. (Within a few months, we hope that one of them will have become the party ‘s Leader.) They are all ready to tackle the most urgent challenge facing their party: to persuade the public that the Tories are on their side. In modern times, the Tories have suffered under one disadvantage, but benefited from a compensating advantage. The disadvantage was the widespread belief that they were the party of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. The advantage: a powerful slogan - ‘the property-owning democracy.’ If you want to work hard and get on in life, if you hope that your children will do better still: if, as a symbol of all this, you believe in owning your own home, the Tories are the party for you.
Every bright young Tory MP whom I know is passionately in favour of a drive to advance home ownership. This would have other consequences. On the left, a destructive argument is gaining momentum. Young Labour supporters - and not just Corbynistas - are demanding action to punish the rich and redistribute wealth. The politics of envy are back in fashion. Margaret Thatcher dealt with this by insisting that a country in which no-one could become rich is one in which everyone is condemned to be poor. That argument needs to be re-stated.
Conservatives ought to point out that under a Corbyn government, there would only be two ways of becoming prosperous. First, winning the lottery. Second, fleeing the country. They should also cite another statistic, and keep on repeating it until everyone is bored. The richest one per cent of income-tax payers now contribute 27 per cent of all revenue. Forty years ago, that figure was 11 per cent. As the country has grown richer, tax receipts have soared. If Mr Corbyn had his way, they would collapse. Britain would rapidly become an impoverished and conflict-ridden society with a catastrophically weakened economy. Mr Corbyn would like to turn Britain into a cross between East Germany and Venezuela. In pursuit of this, he would defy common sense and destroy hope. In the national interest, the Conservatives must respond to his challenge.
We in Foglet will help them to do so. These pages, and other fora, will be open to the debates within the Conservative party -including leadership debates. We aim to stimulate ideas and to rebuild morale. In the late 1970s, Margaret Thatcher threw herself into the battle of ideas and used that to create electoral momentum. Forty years on, her successors ought to do the same.
Within a few months, the battle of Europe will be resolved. It will then be time to move on to the battle for Britain. We intend to provide some of the intellectual raw material necessary to win that battle. Over the next few months, GPFO will organise brain-storming sessions: Coffee with the Conservatives - but not only them. There will also be Coffee with Labour, and with the new Independent grouping. These should be productive, and enjoyable.
Bruce Anderson is a political commentator based in London
