exchemist
Veteran Member
I have just watched an hour long interview with Dominic Grieve, who was for 4 years the UK's Attorney General in David Cameron's government. He was chucked out of the Conservative party by Bozo, after he opposed Bozo's attempt to prorogue Parliament and subsequently got deselected by his local party and thus lost his seat. As I listened, I felt the way in which the Tory party changed, turning him from a mainstream One Nation Tory into a rebel outsider, reflects almost exactly what I feel has happened to me politically, over the last few years.
In the video from about 19:00 to 20:40 or so, he articulates fairly accurately my own political position. He references respect for existing institutions and for tradition and proposes pragmatic intervention to improve the way society works. Here is the interview:
The curious thing is that today, without having changed my views in the least, I find myself a Labour supporter! (By the way this is also true of my brother, who has aways been to the right of me - though in his constituency it makes more sense to vote Lib Dem than Labour.) On this forum, with its heavy US influence, I am seen as definitely left of centre. This is rather an odd experience for someone approaching 70.
The conclusion I draw from Grieve's experience and my own is that Tory politics - perhaps Western politics in general - has been captured by a new radical Right that is not in fact in the least bit "conservative" in the true meaning of the term.
I've always had a lot of time for Dominic Grieve. He is highly articulate, speaking with clarity and precision as befits the senior barrister (KC) that he is and I've always found him to talk with honesty and sense. (Curiously as well, though, I discovered from this interview that Grieve, who is 2 years younger than I, went both to my school and to my university and that, like me, he has family connections to France. We have more in common than I had realised.)
I suppose in a way this post is a lament for the death of moderate conservatism.
In the video from about 19:00 to 20:40 or so, he articulates fairly accurately my own political position. He references respect for existing institutions and for tradition and proposes pragmatic intervention to improve the way society works. Here is the interview:
The curious thing is that today, without having changed my views in the least, I find myself a Labour supporter! (By the way this is also true of my brother, who has aways been to the right of me - though in his constituency it makes more sense to vote Lib Dem than Labour.) On this forum, with its heavy US influence, I am seen as definitely left of centre. This is rather an odd experience for someone approaching 70.
The conclusion I draw from Grieve's experience and my own is that Tory politics - perhaps Western politics in general - has been captured by a new radical Right that is not in fact in the least bit "conservative" in the true meaning of the term.
I've always had a lot of time for Dominic Grieve. He is highly articulate, speaking with clarity and precision as befits the senior barrister (KC) that he is and I've always found him to talk with honesty and sense. (Curiously as well, though, I discovered from this interview that Grieve, who is 2 years younger than I, went both to my school and to my university and that, like me, he has family connections to France. We have more in common than I had realised.)
I suppose in a way this post is a lament for the death of moderate conservatism.
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