“Those whom the Gods would destroy, they first make them mad.”
By Anthony Webber,
On Tuesday 6th February there was a meeting in central London launching “Popular Conservatism,” a new political venture by Liz Truss to promote a different version of conservatism.
It was attended by a number of people, including Nigel Farage, ( which has not surprisingly attracted some criticism).
The speakers included Liz Truss herself, Sir Jacob Rees- Mogg and former Deputy Conservative party Chairman, Lee Anderson.
The meeting headlined policies on tax cuts and immigration, with a focus on libertarian economic policies. This new group is one of seven factions among “right-wing” MP’s, all trying to influence Conservative party policies for the next General Election. Some MPs are in more than one faction, but if other Tory groups such as “One Nation,” are added, there are many factions competing with each other, and it all makes the party look very divided.
This group are referred to as “PopCons,” which you just could not make up if you wanted to ridicule yourselves.
“Pop up” conservatives, “Popcorn” conservatives, “ Popular Conners,” “Popular Convicts,” are just some of the interpretations which spring to mind.
In other words, a joke term, hardly to be taken seriously and you would have to have lost your reason both to use it and to produce the idea in the first place.
The explanation as to why “Popcon” and indeed Conservative MPs generally have lost their sense of reason is very simple:
Back in 2016 the UK public voted to leave the EU and to take back control of their affairs.
The UK Parliament fudged the issue, and a General Election was fought mainly on that issue on December 12th 2019.
It was considered so important that Nigel Farage’s Brexit party withdrew from standing against Conservative MP’s in this election.
(Upsetting many of those withdrawn candidates in the process).
The Conservative party won a resounding victory with a large House of Commons majority of 80 seats, a net gain of 48.
The UK finally left the EU on 31st January 2020.
However, there was some disquiet about the terms of the withdrawal, especially with the Northern Ireland situation ( still not completely resolved after the resumption of the devolved Northern Ireland Assembly at Stormont).
The Conservatives after the Election made the mistake of assuming they had the mandate to bring in policies they never had a mandate for, and this is when they first started to lose their sense of reason. None of them have said, on any issue, we do not have mandate for this.
On immigration, they failed to accept that this issue was an absolute major reason why people voted for Brexit.
The public wanted to take back control of immigration, not just restrict EU immigration and instead vastly increase all other immigration, to the extent that up to June 2023 there was a net increase of 672,000. The figures are explained in detail in the attached government link, but are horrifying:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/immigration-system-statistics-year-ending-june-2023/summary-of-latest-statistics
This year the figures are worse, with almost weekly revelations about how lackadaisical the government has been in all areas of immigration.
To add insult to injury, the British public are subjected to former Home Office Ministers saying that immigration laws and procedures need to be tightened!
They were the ones in charge! A number of MPs in this new faction did little to stem this mass immigration, so it is no use pretending that they are some opposition party, when they were in power!
It is beyond doubt that the public have been grossly let down by the government on immigration and this increase in population has led to even greater pressures on our NHS, housing, and all public services.
The public see that that increased immigration has been pursued at their expense, and they feel let down terribly.
It is no good saying the opposition Labour party would be worse. The public are looking at the dismal record of the government.
The blame for this is partly with a group of “Brexiteers” among Conservative MP’s who went along with this increase of immigration, and it turned out they were in favour of restricting EU immigration only. So, this group rode on top of the Brexit wave to bring in their own agenda, and it wasn’t control of immigration , it was a cheap labour laissez faire approach to it they wanted and got. This is nothing short of a betrayal, but these Popcons do not see it. They have lost their sense of reason.
It was not long after the EU withdrawal, that the Boris Johnson government, in March 2020, brought in lockdowns and everything draconian and anti-liberty that went with those policies. They misspent upwards of £410bn on these, equating to about £6,000 per person in the UK. There was no mandate for this. They were oblivious or did not care. Far from the people being given back control, it had been taken further away from them by their own government! Yet some of this new faction voted for lockdowns and did not stand firm on the issue. It is no use saying they don’t want lockdowns now, after the damage has been done!
They have also brought in restrictions to freedom of speech and assembly, introduced “Ministry of Truth” type propaganda and mind manipulation, again taking control away and giving it to a small group of authoritarians who are intent on bringing down the whole nature of our society.
These same MPs did little to stop these things happening!
They have brought in their commitments to the “Climate Change” agenda, costing upwards of £15bn, which again they have no mandate for. This faction want to end “net zero zealotry,” but what did they actually do apart from abiding by the party line?
Then there has been the mass charging of motorists in many parts of the UK for all sorts of “offences,” including 20mph speed restrictions in areas where they are not needed for road safety. The government could have stopped all this, including in Wales, but the faction too, have done nothing more than give muted criticism.
The same with the facilitation of all aspects of what is called the “woke” agenda, ( also with nil mandate), it has all come in under their watch. No point in complaining that “left-wing extremists have taken control of UK institutions, when they stood idly by while their government encouraged these things to happen.
To make matters worse, they have robbed the British public of £12bn and continue to give to a pointless Zelensky war effort in Ukraine, which has never been in the public’s interest. The sanctions against Russia have worked against the public, with huge energy and cost of living rises, inflation and rises in interest rates. Again, no mandate for this! The ironic point about this is they have the gall to say they believe in “restoring democratic accountability,” when they allowed the government to ruthlessly ignore it.
Now they have added to their foreign policy agenda of supporting the current extremist dominated government in Israel.
This has meant strikes on Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, and yet we have no idea of the costs involved.
Another example of lack of democratic accountability.
There is a new Parliamentary petition on these two issues:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/655150
Far from the public getting back control, the government seems to have lost control, lost the plot, lost all sense of reason.
So, in that context this new Conservative group is part of that loss of reason, but also a breakaway into cloud cuckoo land.
It was obvious that Liz Truss and her policies were a total disaster, and that this was not a viable alternative to the beleaguered Rishi Sunak.
If the Conservatives genuinely want to regain the public’s trust, then they will have to find a new leader who will sweep away all the policy decisions which have been mistakes. There is one new leader out there. There always is.
If they don’t do this, then the very old saying would apply:
“Those whom the Gods would destroy they first make them mad,” is very apt.
There are many versions of this, and it goes back over 2500 years ago, possibly even before that.
So many authors and poets have written their own versions in their own contexts.
The following link has the detail:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom_the_gods_would_destroy,_they_first_make_mad
There is at least one Christian version:
From the Novel, “The Idiot:” When God wishes to punish a man, he first deprives him of reason.”
The Conservative party needs to find a new leader who will take them out of the destructive path of delusional thinking and into a path of realism and delivery.
Some Conservatives are talking of tax and insurance cuts, but where is the money coming from? We could have had them with better management of the UK economy.
However, they envisage some of the funding for this would come from cuts in the welfare budget and other government expenditure. In real terms this is already happening.
It cannot be ignored that the UK national debt has increased to £2.637 trillion. This is £37,900 per person! This has come about through the folly of government decision making. The UK is in an appalling position because Conservative MPs voted for the unnecessary policies which cost so much and left so little in the kitty.
To regain trust, the public want delivery of election promises. There are many examples of failure, but here is one more:
Where is the promised Care of Elderly ?
The reality is that proper care of the elderly would cost at least a 2% increase in National Insurance plus a government contribution.
This what it costs to run a fair and non means tested successful scheme in the British Island of Guernsey ( since 2002).
The government know this but have done nothing.
However, it can be done, if there was a genuine will to deliver, instead of blaming other factors for inaction.
We all want tax cuts and improvements in services. We deserve a sane government which has the wherewithal to deliver.
What we have had enough of is Conservative MPs acting as though they are not in government and endlessly appearing on media such as GB News saying what should be done. They should be doing it!
Anthony Webber
Independent Political Commentator
anthonywebber@cwgsy.net
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