Tory PPCs: Compassionate? Progressive? Apparently not

By Mike Ion / @MikeIon

Tim Montgomerie’s article in today’s FT appears to revel in the fact that the latest survey of Conservative candidates in winnable seats indicates that his party is moving further and further to the right. Indeed he appears to be quite happy that his leader’s attempt to ensure that candidates selected reflect the caring and compassionate side of the Tory party has spectacularly failed. According to Montgomerie the collective views of Tory PPCs will give heart to the Thatcherite wing of the party and cause the likes of Ken Clarke to ponder where it all went wrong.

The survey was carried out by ConservativeIntelligence.com and makes for very interesting reading – though for me the questions asked are probably more revealing than the answers. For example the survey does not appear to contain a single question on housing, education or health – apparently Mr. Montgomerie et al think that the public is more interested in whether Tory candidates support the right of Catholics or other religious adoption charities to decline to place children with same sex couples. Candidates are asked about Iran but not about Iraq, about nuclear power but not about the need for more renewables, about their attitude towards abortion and foxhunting but nothing about stem cell research or animal welfare.

It looks as though Tory Associations up and down the land have been selecting candidates that reflect their own, traditional – often reactionary – views and not those of the leadership.

Having said that it is also clear that Cameron himself has changed over the past couple of years. Following his summer of despair in 2007 Cameron was warned by his Whips that he needed to embrace more “traditional” core Tory issues like Europe, crime and the family. Yet again a newly elected Tory leader is forced (by his own reactionary right wing) to move to the right in an attempt to hang on to the Tory core vote.

Progressive politics? Forget it. Montgomerie’s survey tells us a great deal about the Tory party of today and what it would be like if – heaven forbid – it were to form the next government. It tells us that Tory candidates are largely Eurosceptic, anti-abortion, pro-nuclear, pro-foxhunting and believe that England does not get a fair deal in terms of the distribution of the UK’s finances.

So all in all we have nothing new. Something borrowed? Yes, past Tory agendas. Something blue? Very much so.