A View from Westminster: Renewing conservatism

We thought the eighty-seat majority would be used to unleash Britain. In reality, it has been used to limit and in some cases criminalise what most of us know to be normal human life.

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It’s no secret that 2020 didn’t go as Boris Johnson had hoped. After inspiring the nation and painting the country blue in the December 2019 General Election, there was great hope for a renewed period of truly conservative government, committed to getting out of the European Union on good, but clean, terms; rolling back the woke agenda; and instilling patriotism and pride in our nation at the centre of its governing programme.

Instead, as I write my first monthly column for Bournbrook Magazine, the view from Westminster is grim. Tens of thousands have lost their lives during the pandemic and the Government has again locked the country down in the hope of reducing the infection rate.

We thought the eighty-seat majority would be used to unleash Britain. In reality, it has been used to limit and in some cases criminalise what most of us know to be normal human life.

Almost everyone on the Conservative Party benches has great sympathy with the predicament the Government has faced. For all its missteps, this is a crisis greater than any the nation has faced since the Second World War. The trade-offs are excruciating. While some might calculate those trade-offs differently — believing that the damage to the economy is insufficiently weighed up — no one denies that there are trade-offs.

Fortunately, coupled with this despair is a cautious optimism. Our brilliant, ingenious scientists have played a leading role in producing a vaccine now being rolled out across the nation. Once the vulnerable and the elderly are vaccinated, the Government will be able to lift every restriction. This is something I and my colleagues will hold the Government to. There must be an end to this and it must happen soon!

Also cause for optimism is the good trade deal the Prime Minister agreed with the European Union. As one of the original 'Spartans' I can assure Bournbrook readers I would have not hesitated in voting against the deal if I believed it sacrificed the UK’s sovereignty in any way. There are areas I disagree with, for example on the fisheries transition period, and the lack of attention paid to the U.K.’s Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories, but this is an agreement which gives us quota-free and tariff-free trade outside the Customs Union and Single Market. Something the extreme Remainers said was not possible. They were wrong all along!

The roll-out of the vaccine, and the departure from the European Union, must mark a reset for the Prime Minister. Positive signs of a conservative agenda can be found. 'Unconscious bias' training was scrapped, the military was given a big funding boost and the U.K. signed a trade deal with Japan that goes beyond the E.U.-Japan free trade agreement.

I will be vigorously promoting a conservative agenda, as I have done for my twenty years on the green benches. I am excited to now also be able to promote such an agenda in the pages of Bournbrook Magazine, a publication I have been hugely impressed with for its commitment to a proud, unabashed conservatism.

As Margaret Thatcher wrote, 'Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by traffic from both sides.' Let us remember those words and make 2021 the year for a renewed conservatism.