Join The Orphaned Conservative Today

Our politicians have been swallowed whole by powerful interests and seductive populist tropes. I don’t feel any political party represents me anymore, so I would define myself as an orphaned conservative, now with a small ‘c’. I am conservative fiscally and socially liberal. I am pro-business, I believe in capitalism, open markets and low-ish but fair taxes. And I firmly believe in a reasonably funded safety net for society’s least fortunate. I don’t believe in an undeserving poor. 

I see the ecology and regulation around it as a global imperative. I believe in human induced global warming and I believe in science. I find it appalling that it even has to be mentioned.  I believe in championing the individual and a hands off approach to government and regulation, except when safety and we’ll-being is concerned. I don’t believe in legislating morality or criminalising victimless, legitimate adult private choices. I believe in strong punishment for behaviour that impacts directly on others’ rights, but laws designed to prevent behaviour. I believe in religious freedom in the private sphere, but believe the public sphere should be necessarily devoid of religious restrictions, such as sabbath laws or modesty dress codes. I firmly believe in the separation of church and state. 

I believe  businesses should be  obliged to operate in the public market, under fair non discriminatory rules. I believe in the right to privacy.

I believe in a strong, fair, well-funded education for all to the age of 18, and a free education for the top 1/3 of university applicants and poorest 1/3. 

I believe in having a strong military, being in NATO and the UN, but I want a strong leadership role. 

I want an equal rights legislation that specifically includes women, ethnic and sexual minorities, and their full rights to family life, marriage or partnership and medical privacy and self-determination.

I think that devolution has eroded the unity of the country, and wish that the brilliance and innovation of each country could be evenly matched In a unified, progressive system.

in Britain there is a two party system. You are either going to get a Conservative or a Labour government. All other parties are a protest vote. Those who want to splinter off are missing the opportunity to make the Party closest to them BETTER. Hence my association with the Conservative Party.

One could say that my ideas are

closest aligned to the Liberal Democrats. Even if that were so, why aren’t those politicians making one of the parties of government BETTER. They are wasting their time and diluting a vote. They should be operating as a special segment within the dominant parties. Coalition governments may be grown-up, but they are weak and shaky. Moderates everywhere need to get involved and move the locus of politics back to the middle, without fear of tackling the huge problems that lie ahead for present and fuure generations.

To say that capitalism has failed and we need a lurch to the left is unproven, radical and destructive. All we need is an ironclad safetynet, and laws that enable families the support they need to balance work and home lives. All of this should happen, without punishing the wealth creators. I also do not believe in an undeserving rich. That said, loopholes for hereditary wealth need to be closed. Inherstance tax should not be able to be avoided with clever accountants. And I believe Britons abroad should be liable to tax above a certain threshold. The passport needs to be paid for with contributions to the system that underpins it. 

We need to tackle sovereign debt, and built sovereign wealth for the future.

I am pro-EU, but I believe Tony Blair should have let us vote on the deep integration when he rubber stamped us through-and then Brexit wouldn’t have happened-because Britains wouldn’t have allowed it. I believe the EU should be a loose trading federation with common standards. I don’t believe Brexit is the best way to find our unique place in the global economy. I’m not sure there is any way back from Brexit, but I would support a final vote, with the option to remain. I believe in this country, and we will find a way. But I do not wish the misery of Brexit on every single section of society, and I resent that people were asked and empowered to enact that harm. I do not believe that the illusion of self-determination is worth killing the golden goose of British prosperity for a generation. I do believe in strong EU accountability and reform, and a strong Britain at the table steadying it and shaping it, as we have done since its inception.