Last night, after my first trip to the pub in months, I dreamed I was interviewing Margaret Thatcher on primetime TV. Naturally, she was accompanied by the Norwegian army, and the interview took place in a school gym hall, in front of the climbing frame. [Cont...]
2. In the midst of a devastating set of questions, I absent-mindedly sat down, so Thatcher sat down too. They then had to find chairs for the Norwegian army & could only find those little plastic ones they use in reception."You won't beat communism sitting down", she said sternly
3. When the interview was over, Thatcher asked what advice I would give her. I replied: "Be courageous, but not for too long". I'm now going to spend all day wondering what in the world that means - and what they were putting in the drinks in that pub...
This, by contrast, was a *real* interview with Mrs T, and I suspect the interviewer still has nightmares about what followed...
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
The 2024 election saw the worst Conservative defeat in history, producing their lowest number of seats, lowest vote share & highest number of ministers unseated.
I've been writing about the "crisis of Conservatism" for years, and have collected some key pieces below. ⬇️ [THREAD]
In 2019 I wrote in the @NewStatesman about "The Closing of the Conservative Mind".
"British Conservatism has broken with three of its most important traditions. It has stopped thinking, it has stopped “conserving” & it has lost its suspicion of ideology". newstatesman.com/politics/2019/…
Later in 2019, I explored the abuse of history in talk of "Global Britain", showing how Boris Johnson & his allies "use the past to imagine the future".
"As so often, history becomes the mask worn by ideology, when it wants to be mistaken for experience". newstatesman.com/politics/2019/…
@lewis_goodall 1. The case for televising Parliament is that voters should know what their elected representatives are saying and doing in their name, so that we can hold them to account at the ballot box.
All those involved are public officials, who are directly responsible to those outside.
2. By contrast, court cases involve private citizens - most of whom have been accused of no crime, but who may be recounting situations of extreme distress, trauma or personal embarrassment.
Those involved are accountable for their conduct, not to public opinion, but to the law.