Alex Phillips: The Tory Party have thrown their traditional values in the bin

The Conservative party was founded in 1834 from the Tory Party, making it the oldest political party in the country. And, in theory, it’s supposed to do what it says on the tin. With age, ought to come tradition. Yet today’s Conservative Party at times feels a far cry from its centre-right roots.

It is supposed to be socially conservative, finding a traditionally strong support base in the Church, as well as fiscally conservative, favouring small state spending alongside free market economics. It is also, to give the party its full title, the Conservative and Unionists party. Yet a quick audit of the party’s policy ledger suggests that all of the above has rather been thrown into the dustbin of history.

Social conservatism seems a million miles away from a Government that has presided over the culture wars, with scant impact on exponential societal changes lurching in the direction of what could only be described as extreme liberalism, from gender self ID to an entirely unregulated online landscape with unbridled pornography and arguably malfunctioning multicultural integration.

As for being fiscally conservative, the pandemic ushered in the most eye watering splashing of public cash, spending proportionally more on locking people inside their houses against the mores of the Liberal Party in whom it also finds heritage, than during the Second World War.

In the wake of such unprecedented extravagance, tax rises are now in train, while a slew of state aid and pseudo-nationalisation is being rolled out to prop up or kickstart a long time ailing manufacturing sector. And as for being Unionist, explain that to the people of Northern Ireland who have effectively been annexed by the EU under Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal.

Trying to identify what some may consider traditionally conservative values is frankly becoming a loser’s game. In fact, anyone listening to Sir Keir Starmer’s speech at the Labour conference earlier this week could easily be mistaken for thinking he was quoting from a litany of recent government announcements.

Yet despite periodic rebukes from the party’s grassroots and backbenches, support for the Conservative party electorally is the highest in decades with a whopping 80 seat majority, having cauterised the canker that dominated party schisms since the 1970s, finally putting to bed the Europe issue, but not without a few bloodied noses along the way.

Unlike the left side of the spectrum, where Labour is forced to share political turf with the Liberal Democrats, Greens, Plaid and SNP, the Tories have only ever really been challenged by transitory threats from Farage-led entities UKIP and The Brexit Party, nipping at the heels of wayward conservatism and holding their feet to the fire, forcing the party to shift back into the space it abandoned.

Now largely unchallenged, the oft cited broad church of the Conservative Party is once again seeping outwards as an amorphous political blob, spreading itself across the board with the direction of travel seemingly governed by temperamental public opinion rather than an immovable ideological core. Yet perhaps this effort to be all-things-to-all-people is what has enabled the party to seize traditionally left wing constituencies in the North, and maintain a comparatively sturdy hold at the top of the polls, given the tumultuous period the country has been through. However trouble clearly lies ahead.

A cost of living crisis with soaring fuel prices, increased taxes, bloated council tax bills and what will likely amount to be extremely costly green policies, the just-about-managings who put their trust in Boris could potentially lose faith during a Winter of Discontent. Despite the predicted gloom, most pollsters would still probably shrug and predict ongoing right wing hegemony.

With the great and the good of the Conservatives congregating in Manchester this weekend for the annual conference, expect a battle of ideas on the fringes dominating newspaper headlines as we look on and ask the question, who is this Government we have had for the past 15 years, from the coalition to Cameron to May to Johnson, and what is it that they actually believe?

Well, GB News has a sneaky preview for you, because today, we really need to talk about the Tories.