Sedbergh Festival of Ideas

Peter Hitchens (photo: Lotte Stenderup, Mail on Sunday)

Peter Hitchens argues “that the Tory Party cannot win the next election, since millions of people would rather Tandoori their grannies than vote Tory ever again and the party’s voter base is dying without being replaced. Current polls do not show a Tory surge, but a Labour sag (and conceal the fact that about a third of those polled don’t know or won’t say how they will vote, or say they will not vote at all). No party has ever won a general election if it hasn’t scored at least 51% in the polls at some time whilst in opposition. The Tories have yet to come anywhere near that figure.”

Hitchens continues: “Even if it did, it would not be substantially different in any major policy from New Labour, as it has surrendered far too much ground to socialism over the past 70 years, and doesn’t really disagree with Labour over any major subject. So, since you cannot sack the government at the next election, why not [Hitchens argues] sack the useless opposition to it, which has been so ineffectual for the last 10 years and has no real alternative to offer? A proper Tory collapse would open the way for the creation of a new party, neither bigoted nor politically correct, that could throw New Labour into the sea. Anything else would prolong the life of this doomed, senile failure and (even worse) encourage David Cameron’s view that the best way to beat Labour is to be as like them as possible.”

Peter Hitchens is a columnist for The Mail on Sunday and the author of The Abolition of Britain, The Abolition of Liberty and Monday Morning Blues. He is an occasional but irregular broadcaster, and has made TV programmes for Channel Four on decanonising Nelson Mandela, the assault on liberty and on David Cameron. He studied for many years in what he calls ‘the University of Fleet Street’, reporting on education, labour affairs, politics, defence and diplomacy. He is a former correspondent for The Daily Express in Moscow and Washington and has reported from a great variety of countries, including Iraq, Iran, North Korea, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Israel, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Somalia, Turkey and most of the major nations of Europe. He is currently at work on a book provisionally entitled The Broken Compass - How Left and Right Lost their Meaning.