August 14, 2019

Requiescat in pace, not in tax

August 14, 2019/ Guest User

Alex Honey (non-university member) is an undergraduate in his second year at Exeter University, and Chairman of the Exeter University Conservative Association.

“This is all the inheritance I can give to my dear family. The religion of Christ can give them one which will make them rich indeed." Well if Patrick Henry had lived in the 21st century Britain, HMRC would probably demand 40% of it. Perhaps settling for the Father and a dabble of the Holy Spirit. We currently live in a state bigger than Thatcher's 1983 majority. We must shrink it, beginning with the tax on dying.

All views expressed are Alex’s own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the association nor its office holders.

August 11, 2019

Ticket to nowhere? Sure, that’ll be £60 billion, Sir

August 11, 2019/ Guest User

George Wright (Political Officer, Ex-Secretary, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee Member, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

In the not too distant past, I found myself on a flight to Berlin. The plane landed at Schönefeld airport, taxied to its terminal before a few hundred excitable Brits flowed briskly onto German soil. Predictably, the airport was orderly and well signposted, so within a matter of minutes, I arrived at the border, was greeted with a stern ‘Willkommen’ by a slightly disgruntled official and commanded to move along with a Tinder-ish swipe of the fingers. It was all eerily German.

August 04, 2019

Britain is in decline; we have stopped worshipping feet

August 04, 2019/ Guest User

George Wright (Ex-Secretary, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee Member, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

A few weeks ago, I rode a bicycle through the impeccably delightful countryside of East Anglia. It was an experience which reminded me of two things: one, I’ve become helplessly unfit and two, quaint rural road signs demarcating distances in miles are so much more pleasurable to behold than those measuring in kilometres. Not only in length, but in capacity and mass too do we see the peculiarity and specificity of the imperial system far outshining the dull mundanity of Napoleon’s autocratic metric potion. And metric measurements are exactly that: autocratic. They emanate from the same mindset which adores order, control and standardisation – the evisceration of unique quirkiness is supplanted by a Germanic obsession with neatness and divisibility by ten.

July 31, 2019

The Bitter Nature of the Sugar Tax

July 31, 2019/ Guest User

Alex Honey (non-university member) is an undergraduate in his first year at Exeter University, and Chairman of the Exeter University Conservative Association.

Bojo recently got into trouble for proposing we scrap the Sugar Tax on fizzy drinks, however I must say on this issue I like the cut of his gib. "The law will never make men free it is men who must make the law free". These are words Thoreau would never have thought would apply to sugary drinks (Coca Cola was still Cocaine based at this point). However they are poignant in the debate today.

All views expressed are Alex’s own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the association nor its office holders.

July 28, 2019

Brexit will lead us to either dominance or death

July 28, 2019/ Guest User

George Wright (Ex-Secretary, Former Deputy Returning Officer, Ex-Treasurer, Ex-Whip, Ex-Committee Member, St John’s College) is an undergraduate in his second year of studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.

Well, maybe. Political discourse is the natural habitat of the hyperbole and you would be excused for thinking I’m doing my part to enrich the biodiversity contained within it. But before you chastise me too harshly for desperately trying to resuscitate project fear, let’s take stock of exactly where we find ourselves. For nearly three years, our parliamentarian overlords have equivocated and tergiversated and blabbered about how Brexit means Brexit. The government has spent month after month dealing in the currency of can-kicking, spitting vacuous metaphor after vacuous metaphor until no BBC studio was left un-moistened by the collective phlegm of their inchoate prolixity.

July 23, 2019

Take a walk on the rewilding side

July 23, 2019/ Guest User

Lynx, beavers, and wild boars are roaming the countryside. Gone are the bare scrublands, replaced by temperate rainforest with millions of trees. Uplands teaming with wildlife and not just the occasional bleating sheep. This might sound like romantic nonsense, but rewilding British countryside could have serious economic and environmental benefits.

July 08, 2019

The Death of our Green and Pleasant Land

July 08, 2019/ Guest User

Alex Honey (non-university member) is an undergraduate in his first year at Exeter University, and Chairman of the Exeter University Conservative Association.

J.R.R Tolkein once commented of hobbits that ‘’a well-ordered and well-farmed countryside was their favourite haunt’’. Well in this sense I must say I have an affinity with the hobbits of Middle Earth. As I drive around Oxfordshire playing the works of Pachelbel, Dvorak and Vivaldi a tear comes to my eye. Not because of the stunning beauty of the countryside, nor because I have accidentally checked my bank balance, but because this serenity is under grave peril.

All views expressed are Alex’s own, and not necessarily reflective of the views of the association nor its office holders.

October 28, 2018

A View From Conference

October 28, 2018/ Guest User

Ellie Flint is an undergraduate at Jesus College and the Social Secretary.

Party Conference is often seen as the highlight of the political calendar. It isn’t often that members from across the country meet in one place, to listen to the cabinet, share opinions, and meet new people.

July 15, 2018

Why the Conservatives must Pursue Educational Reform

July 15, 2018/ Guest User

Lucy Boland is an undergraduate at Keble College and the ex-Social Secretary.

It may seem that after all the recent upheaval in education policy there is no need for further reform, but this could not be further from the truth. Change is badly needed, firstly to improve the international competitiveness of UK firms by boosting human capital, but also to create a fairer and more meritocratic society.

June 17, 2018

What is a Conservative?

June 17, 2018/ Guest User

James Beaumont is an undergraduate at Exeter College and the President-Elect for Michaelmas Term 2018.

This question has always been a notoriously difficult one to answer. If you pick up a book by any philosopher, they’ll all tell you something different. However, one thing they’ll all say, counter-intuitively, is that a conservative believes in freedom. I’m going to expand on this, among other things, to give my view on what makes a conservative.

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