Tomorrow my job interview is with the Conservative Party. I’m going to be going along to a parliamentary selection day to see if they’ll select me as a candidate for the next general election … My year-long diary of becoming Tory Boy. ToryBoy the Movie, 2011
I’ve applied for four seats that are available in the north-east. And I’ve got interviews for two. ibid.
I’ve just been offered the first seat that I’ve applied for: Middlesborough. I can’t believe it. ibid.
Sir Stuart Bell is simply not there for them … Sir Stuart Bell has not held regular surgery meetings for over fifteen years. ibid.
Labour has a history of petty and intimidating behaviour. ibid.
The stench of entitlement is now oozing from Rishi Sunak’s home as well as Boris Johnston’s. Andrew Rawnsley
The Conservative party is an eternally irritating force for wrong that appeals exclusively to bigots, toffs, money-minded machine men, faded entertainers and selfish, grasping simpletons who were born with some essential part of their soul missing. Charlie Brooker
5,000 miles away in the Mexican jungle … He was Tiny Rowland and he too had been marginalised by the on-rush of the economy. Rowland believed that the Conservative Party had been corrupted by the boom. Both these men [Rowland and Goldsmith] wanted vengeance for their loss of power. And both now set out to destroy the Conservative Party. And they would be joined by a third vengeful tycoon who had been cast aside: Mohamed al-Fayed. Adam Curtis, The Mayfair Set IV: Twilight of the Dogs, BBC 1999
Tiny Rowland was doing the same in Africa: he was taking over the old British-owned companies that had once dominated the empire. Rowland used ruthless methods to build a vast industrial empire; this included bribing the new rulers of independent Africa. They were methods that shocked the merchant banks in London. ibid.
The Conservatives’ boom had turned sour. It had led to inflation and industrial violence. And in November the Arab oil price rise pushed the market over the edge. It fell further than in the crash of 1929. The politicians now turned on the tycoons. When Rowland’s corrupt methods were revealed, Edward Heath publicly called him ‘the unacceptable face of capitalism’. And Goldsmith was now seen as a greedy spiv who had torn British industry apart to make himself a fortune. ibid.
Out of this [Neo-Conservative] campaign a new and powerful moral agenda began to take over the Republican Party. It reached a dramatic climax with the Republican Convention in 1992 when the religious right seized control of the Party’s policy making machinery. George Bush became committed to run for President with policies that would ban abortion, gay rights and multiculturalism. Adam Curtis, The Power of Nightmares II: The Phantom Victory, BBC 2004
The conservatives are all macho bluster, all pro gun and pro death. And pro torture. You know, real men that go off in the woods and blast each other in the face from time to time. Bill Maher: The Decider, Sky Comedy 2007
[Tories will] always find ways of hitting low-waged people hardest, while the very rich seem to get bigger and bigger pay rises all the time. Because that is the double standard practised by this government. That is their choice. That is the sickening hypocrisy of their trickle-down economics. And that is the reality of a government that cares more about lining the pockets of its rich friends that it does about the real needs of individuals and families in our country today. John Smith, former Labour leader
There will always be a Conservative Party as long as there is tyranny and privilege to conserve. James Connolly, 1899
Liz Truss is already a historical figure. However long she now lasts in office, she is set to be remembered as the prime minister whose grip on power was the shortest in British political history. Ms Truss entered Downing Street on September 6th. She blew up her own government with a package of unfunded tax cuts and energy price guarantees on September 23rd. Take away the ten days of mourning after the death of the queen, and she had seven days in control. That is the shelf life of a lettuce. The Economist October 2022
This is a tale of passionate sex. Of the desire for power at any cost. Of betrayal and deceit. A story about two people who look a bit like your mum and dad doing things you don’t want to think about. At a time when there was an avalanche of Conservative Party sex scandals, the most shocking was right under our noses. And no-one had a clue. Naughty Tories: John Major and Edwina Currie, Channel 5 2022
What Edwina Currie has planned for John Major is a full-on nuclear explosion. Currie has decided to publish her diaries to make money. ibid.
She couldn’t possibly have predicted how vicious the backlash would be against her. ibid.
Back to Basics was an absolute disaster for John Major. ibid.
Dennis Skinner: Half the Tory members opposite are crooks.
Speaker: The honourable member must withdraw that remark.
Dennis Skinner: OK … Half the Tories opposite aren’t crooks.
No figure in my 40-plus years in parliament encapsulated the poison and nastiness of the Conservative Party more than Margaret Thatcher. Dennis Skinner
‘Why do people vote Tory, asked Piglet?’
‘Some are thick as pigshit, some are crooks, some are selfish bastards, and some are all three. Others are racist xenophic wankers, some are entitled arseholes, others are inbred. The rest are human excrement, said Pooh. Tweet 24 February 2023
The Tory Party is of course deeply split between three factions: bastards driven by a ruthless ideology, bastards driven purely by personal gain, and bastards driven by both. Craig Murray
This Tory government are deluded by the bizarre notion that the free market is intrinsically good, and the public sector is intrinsically bad. So the try to sell everything off to the private sector, and the thing they cannot sell, they try to run according to market rules. But schools are not businesses, and neither are hospitals. Head teachers are not entrepreneurs, and doctors are not accountants. Nor should they be forced to act like them. They should be allowed to get on with the job they are trained to do: to teach children and heal the sick. John Smith
This is a government that cares less about democracy than about power, that cares less about people than about political dogma, that cares less about fairness and justice than about defending its own interests, and the interests of its own rich benefactors. John Smith
In the summer of 1995 the prime minister, John Major, decided that he’d had enough and put himself up for re-election. Now John Major claims he was always a reluctant prime minister … ‘I never had a gameplan.’ The Major Years I, BBC 1999
A deep sensitivity about his past. He never wanted to make political capital out of his difficult boyhood in South London in the 1950s and his colourful parents. It was the start of a painful even obsessive relationship with the press. ibid.
He left [school] with only three O-Levels. A fact he kept secret for many years. ibid.
Despite his ambition, John Major was clearly daunted. He knew nothing of foreign affairs. And at 46 was relatively young for the job. ibid.
The prime minister [Thatcher] appointed John Major chancellor of the exchequer. He had been foreign secretary for only 94 days. ibid.
The battle to replace Margaret Thatcher began … Mrs Thatcher’s interventions were not always welcome. ibid.
John Major’s personal standing was never higher. An opinion poll showed that he was the most liked prime minister for thirty years. The [Gulf] war had given him a new confidence and authority. ibid.
‘I was deceived over Major, says bitter Thatcher’. ibid. Telegraph 1991 article
The lampooning could be hurtful. The press cartoons could be cruel too. ibid.
1992: Polls at the start of the campaign showed the party behind Labour under Neil Kinnock. iibid.
When the results of voting came through he was vindicated. ibid.
‘I could begin to see that life in a consecutive Conservative parliament would be life in very unchartered waters indeed.’
In September 1992 John Major’s chancellor emerged from the shadows of the Treasury to announce the devaluation of the pound. It was the government’s worst humiliation. The Major Years II
The party’s bitter internal divisions went to the heart of the cabinet itself. ibid.
‘Events were making a dissembler of me.’ ibid. Major
Intervention meant spending billions buying pounds in an effort to support sterling but it had no effect. ibid.
The Chancellor and Governor of the Bank of England now returned to Admiralty House to tell the Prime Minister it was all over. ibid.
Traditional Tory newspapers turned against the prime minister and savaged him at every turn. ibid.
He had just led his party to its worst election defeat ever. The Major Years III
But he had led a divided party and the dilemma he had always faced was how to make peace between the warring factions. ibid.
Within weeks the rancorous civil war in the party would break out again. ibid.
The fresh start was dubbed ‘Back to basics’ and it would be yet another calamity. ibid.