Sometimes I am amazed at how naive I can be. I honestly thought that Johnson would tone down his sociopathic leadership ambitions until after the party conference. I had hoped that he saw the threat of a Corbyn government as a clear and present danger to our economy, our security, our freedom and would give at least a nod to party unity. I had believed that Mogg’s inner decency would might have persuaded him to hold back any attack on May.
Oh, how wrong I was. Any inner decency that I mistakenly perceived was illusory. Fanaticism, personal ambition and revenge are the only guiding principles that these despicably dangerous men possess. Damn the party, damn the country, damn the Prime Minister. If the price of crashing out of the EU is a Britain hating, press loathing, Jew baiting, Putin loving, Venezuelan doting regime, so be it. Are the Conservative Party so obsessed, so stupid, so myopic as to believe that hand to hand combat at conference is a good idea? That the electorate will warm to us? But of course, it isn’t the Conservative party. It is the few not the many who claim to speak for me. How dare they.
What the party should be doing is warning the country what Corbyn and his mobsters have in mind. The boycotting of the Guardian is not just stupid, it’s sinister and very dangerous. Freedom of speech is under threat. Journalists are being blackmailed. If you don’t write good things about us we’ll run you out of dodge. We’ll put you out of business. We’ll only gives stories to those whom we like. Everyone else can go to hell. They want to take back control.
I’ve seen this happen with the left before. When I was a candidate in 1981 the Harlow Gazette published an interview with me with the the headline, ‘oust the deceivers.’ It was a quote from me. It was a fairly tame attack on the council who opposed the right to buy. The left wing council reacted with incandescent rage. They threatened to pull all their advertising if the Gazette gave me any more publicity. This was financially a big deal. But the paper did the right and proper thing. They stood up for good journalism and the freedom of speech. The council eventually backed down. I would be shocked if the Guardian do the same.
The last few days in Liverpool have been an eye opener. The press were treated like Lepers. We saw the aberration of Dawn Butler encouraging people to break the law and Derek Hatton rejoining the party. But worst of all was the visceral hatred of the BBC and anyone who criticised Corbyn. The outrage on Twitter about how biased Andrew Marr was was as shocking as it was incomprehensible. If this is what they do in opposition what would they do in government? Somehow I can envisage Chris Williamson presiding over the Ministry of Truth.
This is what the Tories should be shouting from the rooftops in Birmingham. In every speech in every sound bite. In every fringe. This is not a time for complacency, political assassinations and Brexit self indulgence. The warning klaxons should be sounding.
But I do want a revolution. I do want an uprising. I want the good and sensible Conservatives to rise up and tell the likes of Johnson and Mogg to abandon their selfish and twisted appetites. May has earned their loyalty and support. They should give it to her.
