Lawrence Fox’s party is almost certainly going to fail
The tough intellectual battle that Fox advocates must happen within the Conservative Party. We cannot give up the fight and jump ship so easily.
There has been an exciting piece of news circulating in the past few days: there is a new political party on the scene. That’s right – another one. The actor and singer Lawrence Fox has launched his own political party entitled ‘Reclaim’ with the aim of it becoming a ‘new political movement which promises to make our future a shared endeavor, not a divisive one.’
For some people, the announcement of a new and active party fighting the good fight in the culture wars is a welcome development in an ever changing and increasingly hostile political arena. Yet like most other new and small ventures, Fox’s party is almost certainly going to fail. Though it has the right intentions, it will sooner or later descend into an echo-chamber for the few hundred members it has scraped together – repeating tired platitudes about freedom of speech and cancel culture.
Unlike Conservative MPs and Cabinet ministers, Fox recognizes that our public institutions desperately need reform and require reorientation away from leftist propaganda. Yet he is misguided in separating himself from existing political structures and going lone-wolf. In jumping ship from natural support of the Conservative Party, Fox is allowing the dominant liberal faction to continue to have the whip hand. What he should be doing instead is focusing his energies on the current state of the party, and mobilizing social and cultural conservatives to direct and influence policy.
Many sound conservatives will sympathize with Fox and his political ambitions, but will be hesitant to lend public support because of the realistic nature of their future. Some commentators have suggested Reclaim will hoover up disaffected Tory voters who are saturated with political correctness and woke culture protruding into their lives at every avenue. Such optimism, that sees this novice party as a new version of UKIP, fails to recognize that the UK Independence Party died a bitter death because of their failure to provide a convincing economic alternative that could be sold to the British people. Relying on rhetoric against Islam and immigration is akin to flogging a dead horse.
Undoubtedly, social conservatives might be tempted to rejoice at the prospect of a political grouping that is finally representative of their views. But it is important to remember how other smaller parties have faired – even when they promote causes of socially conservative interest. The SDP attracted a flurry of defections earlier this year, and it is important to remember that the SDP is largely irrelevant in public discourse, and that they pose a minimal electoral threat under the current voting system. The same shall be entirely true for Fox’s party. The tough intellectual battle that Fox advocates must happen within the Conservative Party. We cannot give up the fight and jump ship so easily.
