REVIVE THE ROOTS

To save the Conservative Party, its chairman must return powers to the local associations rather than retain the top-down direction from the leader’s office

Paul Goodman

Dear Richard, I’M SORRY TO BE SO LATE IN CONGRATULATING YOU ON YOUR appointment as Conservative Party chairman — though to do so at all may be an error of judgement and taste. After all, you are the eleventh chairman to hold the post in the past five years. That’s an incumbency rate of less than six months each — a fact which highlights not only the chaos of the last government, but the withering of a once formidable post. For among those successors to Rab Butler, Iain Macleod, Cecil Parkinson and Chris Patten were Amanda Milling, Andrew Stephenson, Sir Jake Berry and Richard Holden. This is so backward a progress as to make one doubt the truth of evolution. But there is more to the matter than yesterday’s politicians…

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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, August/September 2024

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