A letter to Charles Moore of the Daily Telegraph
Dear Mr Moore, I hope this reaches you.
I’ve always enjoyed your articles and was particularly pleased recently to discover that your city career started a mere few weeks before mine in 1979, yours in Fleet Street and mine in Carter Lane on the other side of Ludgate Circus, just below St Pauls. Happy days.
My reason for writing is to challenge your assertion that if the Brexit Party does well it will make Brexit less likely. I suggest Nigel has been very smart, and while I’m mad as hell at not having been selected by the political virgins behind the scenes in TBP, and can understand the annoyance of those stood down, I’m also hugely relieved that I won’t be commuting to the city again at 66 years old after 20 years away.
Five factors stand out IMHO.
- Nigel’s given Boris a 317 seat start– and we’ve not seen any such goodwill reciprocated by Boris. Quite the reverse in fact, witness the recent reports of titles being offered, lucrative jobs, in short – bribes (universally rejected) to try to weaken the BP resolve. He is however still challenging Tories and Labour in marginal seats and will undoubtedly take votes from both of them, perhaps even enough to win them. Here, Barrow & Furness, divided in 2017 by a mere 200 votes, the constituency voted nearly 60% out in 2016 and we anticipate that pro-Brexit voters from both sides who value democracy will lend TBP their vote. Changing politics for good indeed.
- Who in their right mind would trust the Tories with Brexit?As a party they have always been thoroughly pro-EU since at least the days of MacMillan in the 1950’s, but they’ve also been very good at hiding it. There have been some notable casualties who fell foul of their pro-EU stance, ruthlessly cast aside when their sentiments clashed importantly enough with the Tory establishment, Enoch Powell for one and the other, the most successful PM they’ve had for decades in Margaret Thatcher. Pro Brexit Tories might want to think about that and the true nature of the party they normally support.
- How many Tory Remainers are standing? We will never know but it will the majority. It is true that some have finally been shamed into standing down, but how many remain? And how many more again are queuing up as pro-Remain PPCs to become their MP replacements? Remember David Cameron’s A List? Put simply, if you wanted to become a Tory PPC 20 years or more ago, you had to be pro EU. You could say what you like outside, tell the punters what they wanted to hear, lie to your heart’s content – but when it matters, if you want to get your nose in the MP’s trough you are 100% pro EU.
As an ex-Tory activist, I gradually became aware of how much central office controlled candidate selections to that effect. We had a situation where after losing the seat (and MP) in 2005 for the first time in 99 years (by about 260 votes), where having subsequently gone through the weary process of selecting a new PPC, for reasons unknown said PPC stood down and when an election was announced shortly afterwards, a central office nominee was parachuted in, and lost the seat by 12,500 votes!! And my support of the Tories ended at the following association post-mortem when we learned that the same thing had happened in 1997 when the previous locally-selected PPC magically disappeared and was replaced by the previous centrally appointed nominee … the same who went on to lose the seat!!
- The Brexit Party will hold Boris’s feet to the fire. If TBP gets enough support to control the balance of power (alongside the DUP who have done a magnificent job of keeping Brexit alive), they will force the Tories to deliver a genuine Brexit, ie. a restoration of full independence for the fifth largest economy in the world. I recall a recent letter from CEOs including Tim Martin saying it’s about time we acted like it. Quite so.
- Vote Tory or get Corbyn. Per-lease – I know we grow cabbages in the country but we’re not that stupid, not any more. If that’s the best they’ve got…..
Very best wishes,
Alan Piper
(And by the way, I realise you may be editorially constrained where I, as an ex Conservative activist and then UKIP PPC, running my own business, am not. Says something though about how far things have gone when the MSM is constrained … thought about another book?)
Whichever way this Election pans out…………certain facts seem plain. But I could of course be wrong.
The UK: Will still depend on the ECJ for final arbitration and judgments.
Our fishing industry will still be forced to allow vacuum-ships to rape our waters.
We will be forced to join The New European Vermacht.
We will still be forced to comply with every ruling/decision the ECJ makes in every area of our lives.
The UK will eventually know-tow to the overall EU Tax System.
Trading with the ‘wide-world’ will still be out-of-bounds.
In effect the Northern Island ‘Backstop’ has not gone away.
Just how different is the ‘agreement’ Boris is going to enforce to the farcical May ‘surrender’?
The only way all of these elements can be properly examined and amended will be a dozen or so TBP MP’s.
PLEASE put me ‘right’!
When I stood as a UKIP candidate and branch chairman we literally had to do everything from selecting candidates, being a candidate ourselves, running my campaign and the campaigns of others, writing my own leaflets and editing other candidates leaflets, delivering thousand upon thousands of leaflets like going out every single day and all day, and sometimes canvassing alone when its best done as a team. Don’t get me wrong I am not complaining, far from it as I enjoyed i and wouldn’t have had it any other way, apart from having a lot more helpers but when I met my counterparts from the Conservative Party they would boast that everything had been done for them, and that if I had any sense I should move over to them. Suffice to say I didn’t, as never one to toe the party line and as A UKIP had a feater degree of independence(forgive the pun) to act on one’s initiative.
Thank you Alan Piper for a most erudite and frank letter to Charles Moore. The Tory party is the most arrogant organisation you could hope not to meet where humility never goes. To be constantly told that they are the only party to remove us from the EU is fanciful nonsense judging by their pathetic performance over the last three years.
But to cap it all having been promised that 600 candidates were ready to stand for the Brexit Party the Leader then announces he won’t be standing. That was just the start because as some PPCs were anticipating being stood down they sought reassurances on the Thursday and told they would not be, only to find on the following Monday that they had been. At the same time they lost their email facility and could not contact their supporters to offer their thanks for all the help they had received.
To be defeated in an election is one thing but to be treated so badly by your own party is another and many are now feeling very betrayed for being treated as mere detritus. They have in many cases put their lives on hold, taken a sabbatical and used up annual leave entitlement simply to stand for election only to be deprived along with their constituency supporters who have no candidate to vote for at the eleventh hour.
Nigel Farage’s decision could not have been worse and I can’t see the party surviving for more than a few more months as it is highly unlikely it will gain any MPs.
Another fact that came to light last week is that there is no intention to stand BP candidates in local elections so we must all wonder what the hell is the real purpose of the Brexit Party apart from a very nice money spinner for a few people. Without doubt it has cost many PPCs a lot of expense and time and all they have left is a feeling of being used and dumped.
I can claim like Alan to have applied to be a PPC and failed to be selected and now I count my lucky stars.
Paddy Power Brexit Seats
Under (+0.5) Seats 4/11
Over (+0.5) Seats 15/8
Ladbrokes Brexit Seats
0 Seats 4/9
1-50 Seats 13/8
51-100 Seats 33/1
Over 100 Seats 100/1
That is odds on for no seats . . . ta Nige – you had the spanner and you put it up OUR Brexit backside – ta again.
As can be seen by this example, Ladbrokes are probably the worst UK bookmaker for value.
I have left this comment on the Bruges Group FB page (and think that Boris is worried that even with relatively low polling in favour of Labour at the moment – but rising – and Swinson looking completely insane, he may not in fact be able to secure a majority after all):
I wonder if it’s worth reminding anti-Farage thinkers of the Bruges Group’s own stated official position?
https://www.facebook.com/groups/bruges.group/permalink/10157773972559936/?hc_location=ufi
“…eurosceptic sentiments encompass a wide range of politics, from Communists, Labour Leavers to Conservatives and Brexit Party/UKIP supporters.
As such we do not endorse any particularly Party in this General Election, however it is clear that this is a time when a strong majority Government is needed. The basic advice is to decide for yourself who you should vote for in your Constituency, where Conservatives are strong vote for them, where Tories do not stand a chance, Vote Brexit Party.
We need to be realistic that the Brexit Party will not win more than a handful of seats, but could risk splitting the Leave vote in marginal seats, letting Corbyn’s Remainer Marxists into power. However, the Brexit Party has an important role moving the Overton window to keep up the pressure on Boris.”
My personal thoughts are that if we have the BXP in Parliament that will be all the better for Parliament and for the Country, too.
If Boris does not secure a majority then the BXP is there to help; if he does, then it is there to challenge.
If Boris/BXP voters split the Leave vote in Labour-held seats that the BXP can win, this will be due to hubris on Boris’ part as much as anything, where he has been aping Farage and trying to kill two birds with one stone. If though, Boris loses to the Lib Dems in Tory-held seats (or Labour in London or PC in Wales or the SNP in Scotland etc) – it will a) not be the BXP’s fault, since they have stood down and b) will be a matter for the consciences of Tory Remainers voting Lib Dem in those seats or failed Tory policy everywhere else for the last several years.
It is looking as if Boris, being afraid of losing to the LibDems and even Labour in the South and thus not so confident of a majority because of this, has to attack Farage in the North. Looks like he wants to have his cake and eat it?
1. Nigel’s given Boris a 317 seat start.
It was an absolutely ludicrous decision in the first place to withdraw 317 candidates when all the Tories standing in those seats have agreed to support Johnson’s Surrender Treaty.
2. Who in their right mind would trust the Tories with Brexit?
Well clearly Farage does. I heard him on the radio this morning saying that he would still have stood all 600 candidates but for the fact that Johnson had said he would seek to negotiate a Super Plus Canada Free Trade Agreement with the EU. So that was all it took – give a Free Trade Agreement a fancy name and all of a sudden the “second worst deal in history” becomes perfectly acceptable.
3. How many Tory Remainers are standing?
You might as well say the whole damn lot of them except for the fact that, as one of the Brexit Party MEPs has said, Johnson’s “deal” is worse than Remain. At least with Remain we can get out some time in the future, with Johnson’s Surrender Treaty we’re trapped indefinitely.
4. The Brexit Party will hold Boris’s feet to the fire.
Not to get a Clean Break Brexit, they won’t – that’s already been surrendered and, anyway, now they’re known as the Tory Party’s second string their chances of having any MPs has almost certainly disappeared.
How could Farage have done this to all the supporters who put money into his company? Those who live in the 317 constituencies, particularly, must feel they’ve been taken for fools.
Alan,
TBP won’t do well. Standing the PPCs down has turned the party into a busted flush. 5% in the polls, under FPTP that’s wipeout. Very few PPCs will save their deposits. This decision may very well have finished any chance of a proper clean Brexit for good….
Thank you for saving me the time and effort of having to articulate my sentiments, which are exactly the same as yours.
Let me just add that by standing down in Tory seats, Nigel has publicly declared himself a Tory party stooge. Yet he is continuing to stand exactly in seats where the majority of the electorate are pro-Leave, traditionally vote Labour, was going to vote BXP but would never in a million years vote Tory – or for someone they (now) see as a Tory stooge.
Who designed this election strategy? It could not have been more idiotic. Not only is BXP not standing in the seats where it could have made the most difference (by putting pressure on Boris to commit to a real Brexit, or face a hung parliament), it is continuing to stand in seats where it will be humiliated and wiped out, thanks to standing down in the others.
Why? Why would anyone do this?
Why? A huge threat or a huge reward. In time we might see which. Either way I’m thoroughly peed off with Farage but will still vote BXP as I can never support a Con again.
Well, you’re a little ray of sunshine, aren’t you, Mr Locke? This is exactly what Propaganda Central WANT us to believe. Polls? Really?
Perhaps your post should read as though you are actually pleased. Perhaps you’re a remainer. That’d explain your glee!
Mr Jones,
If you have read any of my articles to this site you will see I’m no remainer. However, I’m a realist and this situation is a disaster. If TBP win any seats, and if I’m proved wrong I will be the first take my hat off to you. I suspect I will have no need to do so.
JL
Don’t worry, the large number of TBP snouts in the EU piggytrough will do much to achieve Brexit for us, I’m sure.
Mary, I am not quite what you are specifically driving at with your facetious posting, but we all know that MEP’s no matter what party they represent have no clout whatsoever. The European Commission formulate the laws and the MEP’s in the European Parliament rubber stamp everything. Besides which, before very long ALL the British MEP’s will be looking for another job.
This article must make every decent, patriotic, Conservative Party activist who believes in true representative democracy and the sanctity of the nation state squeam. The Conservative Party is bought and paid for by the corporate party sponsors, they fund it, they direct it, they hold the title deeds, they dosh out the jobs and lucrative networks. As for the aforementioned members – like the decent ordinary Labour party members they are just the useful idiots.