In Praise of Daily Mail Tories.

With only twelve days to go to the British General Election there are divisions in Tory ranks over a manifesto pledge to reduce a particular welfare benefit paid to pensioners. John Stanley of the Bow Group (a Tory think tank) said: “The impact on the core vote will be awful - what I call the ‘Tory Shire’.” He then goes on to define the ‘Tory Shire’ as:

Those Tories who work hard, play the game, live life by the rules.

This is most enlightening because it illustrates the truth about that section of society which the Tories aim to represent. They’re the followers, the conformers, the obedient ones, the ones who go through life in a smug state of certainty that Big Brother knows best, the people who accept the instruction: “Keep your eyes, ears and mouths shut. Accept what traditional culture dictates is the right way to think and act. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t question us. Rebellion is evil by definition.”

I don’t necessarily condemn such people; we all have the right to be what we think is the proper way to be. But isn’t it mind-numbingly one dimensional? Doesn’t it fail to take account of the differences in personality types and social attitudes? Aren’t we now supposed to be living in a better modern world courtesy of the suffragettes, the Chartists, the early trade union leaders, and those who fought for the abolition of slavery? Did they conform and keep their eyes and mouths shut? Did they “play the game and live life by the rules”? And so doesn’t it reveal as nonsense Mrs May’s disingenuous pledge to represent the whole of society with the aim of making it better?

Maybe best of all, though, is what Mr Stanley said next:

They're going to wake up Monday around the family copy of the Daily Mail asking themselves what on earth has just happened.

The Daily Mail? Need I say more?