The health of the Conservative Party

Last week I attended the Executive Council of my local Conservative Association and along, I suspect, with most Local Conservative Associations we discussed the state of our membership and the number of "lapsed members" who had failed to renew. One member had not sent his subscription in after 40 years membership apparently over the Prime Minister’s support of Gay marriage.  Sadly this is symptomatic of the state of the Conservative Party on the ground. The ever loyal membership and activists many of whom have not recovered from the removal of Mrs T 20 years ago are passionately anti Europe , pro a crackdown on Immigration, think benefits should be cut quicker and deeper than IDS is proposing and would cut Overseas Aid . Oh and they hate Liberals with a large or a small "L".

Many Councillors (increasingly the backbone of Conservative Associations) are dismayed by the lack of the promised freedoms of the Localism Act and the constant snipping at them from the DCLG and the Taxpayers Alliance. The proposed changes on planning rules around extensions has for many Councillors, ever mindful of the views of their local residents and amenities Associations led to despair.

The members do not feel any “ownership” of the current Government. Whilst Cameron’s popularity declines amongst the middle aged and older activists, they feel nobody is listening and they do not know what to do. Often their entire social lives revolve around the Conservative party and they therefore have no intention of defecting to UKIP (even if their cross goes there in the next Euro election). They love Boris, especially in London , although unlike say Jeffrey Archer or Norman Tebbit whom they also adored in their heyday, Boris refuses virtually all speaking requests from Associations and indeed often suggests his Father!

Most activists had no idea who Baroness Warsi was when serving as Party Chairman and long for the return of a Cecil Parkinson type figure with charm and charisma.  

What is to be done? The Prime Minister needs the membership and the middle classes to fall in love with him as they did with Lady Thatcher 30 years ago. It can be done, just concentrate on those issues which every Tory MP hears month after month raised at their Executive. 

As published in House Magazine – Conservative Party Conference supplement

Come fly with me!

So the Cabinet reshuffle has been and gone and the good news for London and the potential economic recovery is that Her Majesty’s Government seems to have shifted in its’ opposition to expansion of Heathrow Airport .

Anyone who has flown into Heathrow in the last 15 years, and I suspect that is most adult residents of the Borough of Barnet, cannot help but to have been annoyed by the time wasted and fumes generated circling over North London and Hertfordshire whilst stacked before being able to land and then the huge distance walking to the arrivals area from one’s plane. The only time I have arrived early at Heathrow was when I shared a flight from Inverness with Princes William and Harry, who were returning from Balmoral and surprise surprise we were 10 minutes early landing at Heathrow.

The Conservative Party opposition to Heathrow expansion (never shared by me) seemed to be driven by the quest for votes in South West London and a supreme form of Nimbyism not worthy of serious Politicians. Anyone who has bought a house in the vicinity of the Airport over the last 50 years knew what they were getting , indeed many acquired property because it was near Heathrow and convenient for overseas business commitments or there own employment. Heathrow is undoubtedly the economic driver for much of West London and East Berkshire. In my years on the Assembly having lost the argument with my fellow Conservative Assembly members I always found myself taking an “urgent phone call “ when votes took place on Airport development.  Colleagues who thought their seats vulnerable to Liberal Democrats, used to lose all sight of the strategic issues around international air travel and go week at the knees worrying that the four by four brigade of Ham and Twickenham would have their summer Barbeques disturbed by aircraft noise .

The attitude of Boris Johnson has always been quite bizarre on this issue. Having achieved Mayor al office he suddenly produced a vague Norman Foster or was it Richard Rogers , the two seem interchangeable , inspired plan to build "Boris Island" or "Fantasy Island" out in the middle of the Thames Estuary . A film of him and Deputy Mayor Kit Malthouse on a particularly grey and misty day wearing life jackets and looking rather pale bobbing about on a boat somewhere off Gravesend did nothing to promote the plan as a viable or safe option. Indeed although nobody has any memory in Politics these days you only have to ask for the files from the National Records Office on the proposed Maplin Sands Airport from Ted Heath’s time to know the project was a non starter. The vague talk of “Arab money” funding the project seemed to disappear as that great supporter of Britain the Emir of Qatar rescued Barclays Bank instead. As David Cameron said to me soon after Boris’ election in 2008, “I am too worried about the North Kent marginal’s to go for an estuary Airport”.  The Mayor’s office did no serious work on looking at the raft of other airports looking to expand, there was little interest when I arranged a meeting for the excellent Thanet MP Laura Sandys who was keen for investment in Manston Airport in her constituency and Northolt and Biggin Hill seem to be dismissed without a thought. Far be it from me to think that Boris was only interested in personal prestige in encouraging an expensive floating aircraft carrier.

The attitude of Conservative Ministers to Heathrow seemed odd to me as a supporter of the free market. I began to suspect that some female Ministers had gazed into Zac Goldsmith MP’s eyes and had immediately succumbed to his very obvious charms.  Zac is one of that new generation of MPs of all parties who behave as though they were glorified Borough Councillors and worry about the trivia of their constituents rather than the overall strategic picture and their duty to assist in Governing the Country. Zac' view on car parking fees in Richmond Park was one of the contributing factors that wrecked sensible reform of the Royal Parks (but that is another blog entry).

Likewise Justine Greening MP for Putney despite her undoubted abilities and her charm and effectiveness on the media never seemed to me to have a grasp of strategic issues. I recall a dinner given at a Westminster Hotel for a small and select group of senior Conservative London Politicians ( and me ) by Metronet , one of the two contractors under the disastrous PPP (Public Private Partnership) invented by Gordon Brown that ran London Underground . Everyone at this dinner knew Metronet was on its last legs financially and something would have to be done to resolve the issue just banged on about the state of the tiling at East Putney Tube Station. Well Politics is a funny old game and Ms Greening is now Secretary of State for Overseas Development in which position no doubt she will have to undertake many visits to all those African Dictatorships, sorry I mean worthy development projects, your taxpayers’ money is propping up. No doubt as she circles over Barnet waiting to land after a 12 hour flight from Rwanda she can reflect on the state of British aviation policy and our current lack of Airport capacity.

Cometh the hour, Cometh the woman !

The promotion of Chipping Barnet’s Member of Parliament Theresa Villiers to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland will come as a great delight not only to her but to her many friends and supporters in Barnet and beyond.

Since succeeding the much loved Sir Sydney Chapman as MP in 2005 Theresa has worked hard locally, living in the constituency and turning up at hundreds of local events a year.Many a time she has rushed back on the Northern Line from Westminster for a residents meeting only to jump back on the tube to the House of Commons for a 10pm vote.

I have always considered Theresa a shrewd cookie and a very clever woman. Once elected in 2005 she firmly hitched her wagon to the Leadership campaign of David Cameron whilst some of us hankered for the more traditional approach of David Davis and following his victory she got her reward becoming Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Cameron’s first Shadow Cabinet (after only 6 months in the House) where she faced the dreadful bully Ed Balls for whom she quite soon developed a deeply held dislike (rather as Ed Miliband has done). She then became Shadow Transport Secretary where she developed the mistaken policy which has now come back to haunt the Government of opposing expansion of Heathrow and spent endless hours mastering the intricacies of the railway franchising system. Following the General Election of 2010 where she turned Chipping Barnet back into the safe Tory seat it always was prior to 1997, she failed to make the Cabinet due to need to appoint some pesky Liberal Democrats but ended up as Minister of State with Membership of the Privy Council (highly sort after). Dear Sir Sydney Chapman never achieved Privy Council status to his huge disappointment; I think he would have preferred it rather than the Knighthood.

Theresa in Government was lumbered with the highly unpopular (and in my view ludicrous High Speed Rail) and in recent weeks has taken on the bad loser of British Business Sir Richard Branson over the West Coast Rail Franchise.

Presumably with the Security considerations that still exist in the Northern Ireland portfolio Theresa’ bike will have to be put in the garage and the site of her hair flowing in the wind as she pedals around Parliament Square will be a thing of the past .

However a word of warning to Northern Ireland’s Politicians, and of course they have more Politicians per head of the population than any other part of the United Kingdom, Theresa is no pushover with a strength of character more than equal to the likes of Martin McGuiness or Peter Robinson, just ask (the very few) people who have fallen foul of her.

I am sure everyone in Barnet wishes Theresa well as she serves our Nation in this vitally important role