After leaving the Diplomatic Service, I served for 11 years as a Tory member of our local Sevenoaks Town Council, including two years as mayor in 2019-20. As a civil servant, I had scrupulously avoided any form of political engagement beyond voting. I remember being shocked to discover just how old the membership of the party was in Sevenoaks. Most active members were well above retirement age. There was a sense that the party was dying on its feet – and, to a large degree, running on autopilot. That said, the stalwarts who remained active did a wonderful job for their local community. I am proud of the work we did to support – and save – our local theatre, build a superb local community centre, manage and enhance local sports facilities, put in place our neighbourhood development plan – as well as delivering on a host of other initiatives. None of this seemed particularly political. We were Tory controlled until 2019, when the local elections left us evenly split with the Lib Dems. While I held views – not least on Brexit – that were fundamentally different from our local opponents, I threatened to resign as Mayor if we did not institute a system of alternating Mayoral appointments – as that seemed to me the best way to represent the verdict of local voters.
It is noticeable that when things are going badly on a national level for a governing party, MPs and Councillors do their best to distance themselves from central government and stress their delivery on local issues. The problem, of course, is that when it comes to it, voters naturally factor in national issues as well as local ones. Voter fury and frustration with the muddled, inconsistent and frequently duplicitous Conservative government came, for us, at the parish elections in 2023. It wasn’t much fun canvassing – and it took an effort of will to actually go out and knock on doors and deliver leaflets. And, sure enough, the results were devastating. Not one sitting Tory councillor was re-elected. If I’m honest, I was relieved to have missed out by 30 votes. I was so disillusioned that my heart was no longer in it. And I felt that I had done 11 years of voluntary, unpaid service to my community and, so, had done my bit.
Articles on this site – including my own – have sought to illuminate and explain what happens when a ruling establishment is perceived not only to be inept but also to be deliberately implementing policy that runs counter to the democratically expressed will of the majority of voters. Labour are actively subverting repeated votes in favour of Brexit; not only in 2016, but also in the 2019 European and national elections. The Tories, meanwhile, are so internally divided that they have – thus far – proved unable to respond effectively to the increasingly loud signals coming from voters.
This growing frustration manifested itself dramatically in this month’s Kent County Council (KCC) elections. The Conservatives lost 57 seats; all to Reform. A former Sevenoaks Conservative, Linden Kemkaren, is now the Reform Leader of KCC. The Lib Dems have 12 seats and the Conservatives have been slashed to 5 seats. The outgoing Tory KCC leader, Roger Gough, who lost his seat, rightly described the result as ‘apocalyptic’ – and well he might. Rather than rallying and pulling together, the Conservative group that remains in control of the Sevenoaks District Council has succumbed to in-fighting over who should lead it: 9 councillors have recently split away to form the ‘West Kent Independents’. Given that SDC is due to be merged into a unitary authority in the coming local government re-organisation, this really does look like squabbles over deck chairs on the Titanic.
I am loyal by nature, but I have found it impossible to remain engaged as an active Tory member – and resigned from my local ward committee two years ago. I did volunteer to deliver leaflets for a neighbour, James London, who was standing against the incumbent Lib Dem KCC councillor for Sevenoaks Town. James is a lifelong Tory – and will never leave the party. His parents were Tories before him. His father served as a Councillor at county, district and parish level. Such was his father’s contribution that he was made a freeman of Sevenoaks – which is a rare honour. Sadly, James lost.
Below is the text of the email I wrote to him following his defeat:
“Dear James,
I am sorry you lost – and I did vote for you, as promised. But, you know my views. The party has been on the road to oblivion for some time now. I’m afraid that the likes of Laura [Trott – MP for Sevenoaks] and Peter [Fleming – former leader, Sevenoaks district Council] just don’t get it – and don’t listen. I walked away in despair. I personally feel deeply betrayed on Brexit, Covid lockdowns (we should have acted like Sweden), immigration, Northern Ireland (no one piped up about the appalling Windsor Framework), allowing woke/trans ideology to invade government and Net Zero (a plan that had nothing to do with reality – and has served only to bankrupt the country).
The parliamentary party is fundamentally split, which is why Kemi is terrified about coming off the fence. But the price for failing to commit until something turns up can be huge – as she is now discovering to her and the party’s cost. I think there is a strong chance that the party will split, with half going to the Lib Dems and the rest will be unite the righters.
The country is in despair at the ineptitude of our political elite. This rebellion is not a passing populist fad. The complacency of many Tories was rudely disturbed on Thursday. Labour are also in deep trouble – having abandoned the British working class for their Primrose Hill luvvie mates.
I have written about this since 2019. Not sure you guys ever read Briefings for Britain. But I think our side of the argument is getting real traction. Even the Economist has now thrown in the towel on Brexit, with Callum Williams admitting that remainers like him actually wanted the British economy to fail in order to prove their point. Bravely, he has now written that despite the search for evidence that the ‘economy was about to collapse’ due to Brexit, ‘In practice, that didn’t happen at all‘ (his emphasis and underlining). But, as you probably know, the issue for me about Brexit was the revelation that our ruling class (including many of my former colleagues) had no real respect for democracy (despite repeated popular endorsement of Brexit at the polls in 2016, 2017 and 2019). Labour and a chunk of the Tory party, as well as the wretched LibDems, still want to take us back in. Voters are beside themselves with anger at this arrogant, authoritarian attitude. Winston Churchill may have been an aristocrat who couldn’t even boil an egg – but he never forgot how important it was to ‘trust the people’.
On a more positive note, this is an incredible moment in our political history. What are we going to do about it? And please don’t say ‘carry on hedging as before, Reform are bound to blow themselves up….’. Will Kemi come off the fence and at least set out some core principles before she is booted out?
Nick”
The Conservative party is now in an existential crisis – as polls have shown all too clearly. The most recent from YouGov (18-19 May) put the party in fourth place on 16%, with Reform leading nationally on 29%. It may already be the case that the Tories have now gone beyond the point of no return – and they have only themselves to blame.
