A Conservative Party for 2021

Spring is a time of re-birth and re-evaluation. Like the many budding flowers of the season, the Conservative Party is ripe for and in need of growth and momentum. Many of us will have spent these past lockdowns and curfews homebound, perhaps with a view to some personal growth as well; reading new books, picking up new hobbies, baking banana bread. There is one rather unwieldy citizen, however, who has done very little of that, and that of course is the Conservative Party.

Though it is counterintuitive to the name, the Conservative Party is a party of rebirth. Over many decades we’ve adapted to new problems politically as well as practically in terms of the structure of the Party. In 2021 we should be doing this all over again. The caveat is that the Party changes incrementally, and changes with the times and with the people, not at the whim of ideological elites who sit in their ivory towers, lofty and remote from all the issues that seem to plague the ordinary people of this country. It is therefore important to look at the domestic agenda with a fresh eye, after 10 years of Conservative government. Already 18 months into his premiership, Boris Johnson has done very little to demonstrate any real, biting domestic agenda. This fresh beginning for the Conservative Party, after the thorny question of our relationship with the EU has now been dealt and done with, is paramount, and seems to nonetheless to be a back burner of an issue.

The Government's first priority ought to be to show just why leaving the European Union practically will help to change the country for the better, and to prove it was worth all the fuss it caused to actually be implemented in the first place. The many free trade deal opportunities is one significant part of that, showing the world that trade can be frictionless, and that national success is about coming together economically. Free Trade Deals are a key aspect of that but we shouldn’t limit ourselves to this simple issue. We need to prove that we will be better able to innovate, to become a country with the smoothest and frictionless trade in the world, and also the greenest and cleanest domestically. The country is very much able to diverge from EU policy on the environment, but will we ensure that when this is done that the environment is better protected or push back on those protections? If this isn’t dealt with soon, every perceivable failure of Brexit, whether applied fairly, or unfairly is going to come back to bite those politicians, the Prime Minister included, who fought for Brexit.

The second issue that will be a defining factor of this term of Conservative government will be just how well we manage to bounce back from Coronavirus, bigger and better than we were before. This is a time for re-birth, not least because of all the destruction caused to the economy the previous year, but because the Coronavirus pandemic has already changed this countries habits and made it more amenable to positive growth in terms of productivity. Our brilliant scientists have already come up with the most equitable of all vaccines in the world, not least one of very few with a strong reputation able to be distributed quickly across the world. In the race to grow back, Britain needs to be first, not least because we will be watched very closely by investors to see whether we pass this first test in our new life as a nation unshackled from the EU. The Conservative Party therefore needs to figure out just how it will economically recover, but also create a more equitable society where we level up those cities in the North with the worst rates of inequality. The Tories need to bend the whole effort of the government into building a recovery effort and resist the temptation of falling into greater, pointless, culture wars and unnecessary factional arguments.

These issues are perhaps subordinate most of all to the greater issue of building a powerful vision of government for the whole British Isles, because to build a coherent, powerful vision of the purpose of the British state in its broadest sense needs to be the ultimate goal. 2021 will place great strain on the Union, not least because May's Scottish Parliamentary elections will bring the issue to the forefront, but because the demand for referendums is still heavy in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. The consequences of failure on this front is further economic turmoil for British citizens, and a whole new decade of rampant identity politics. Our Union is significant not economically, though there are major benefits to be reaped there, but because of our close ties socially. Many people in the UK have families across national borders and we have been united for over 300 years. It is vital, therefore, that the Conservative and Unionist Party do just what the name says. Stand up for the Union. The EU may have been abandoned, but the UK should never be!

The question is, just how will Boris handle some of these really pressing questions on the issue of unity? Boris Johnson was elected with a  strong and comfortable mandate from the people, but one that is a ragtag of former mining communities and affluent home county seats that will require a delicate balancing act politically that offers up unity and not division. For a party that is more often than not better at arguing for the benefits of individualism, understanding and fostering a sense of collective identity may prove difficult, and the Prime Minister will face this extraordinary challenge in this term.

New year’s resolutions are hard to keep because they try to break one habit by forming another. If the Conservative Party cannot use this moment to break new ground, they may find the country starting to think that voting Tory is a habit they need to kick sooner rather than later.

Kamran Ali (Secretary) is a third-year reading French and Russian at Christ Church.