My Favourite Tories August 10, 2009
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Politics , trackbackWe have a new meme – Greens blogging their favourite Tories – so, inspired by the Daily Maybe, here’s my go.
I grew up 12000 miles away, untraumatised by the Thatcher era in the way of many British lefties. I saw the miner’s strike and the Falklands War on telly, but I was fifteen, and lived in a warmer ocean. Tories are something of a mystery to me.
First, it has to be Ann Widdecombe. She stands up for what she believes in. She’s strong, no-nonsense, and full of integrity. In a blunt, and sometimes harsh way, she cares. We wouldn’t see eye to eye on many things, but I respect her.
I was impressed by Dominic Grieve at the Convention on Modern Liberty. He made good points about the plans for id cards, and anti-terrorist legislation. He seems fairly consistent on that at least.
Phillip Blond might be interesting to watch. Red Toryism could be a radical alternative to free-market, big state Labour. The localism he advocates sounds almost Green, but within an Anglican, rather than socialist/ liberal context, so potentially difficult for minorities and women. He’s food for thought, though perhaps not for fully digesting.
This is getting tricky. Cameron, Osbourne et al really do not do it for me and the muppet mayor is just a classical irritant.
Did you know Nancy Astor was a Tory? Me either, but as the first woman to sit in the House of Commons, she gets my vote.
And for my fifth and final favourite, I give you Sir Peter Viggers, without whose duck house, the general hilarity of the nation would have been far less this summer.
Comments»
You might be interested to know that the first woman elected to Parliament was in 1918 and was a Countess no less. Countess Constance Markievicz who was a radical Sinn Fein MP who was in jail when elected.
However, Markievicz was not allowed to take her seat. The first women to take her seat in the House of Commons was a merely a Viscountess, as you say the Tory Nancy Astor in 1919.
Yes, I am a geek.
The problem with Blond, well one of them, is that he is anti-abortion: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/10/abortion-phillip-blond
So are Dominic Grieve and Ann Widdecombe – it’s not easy to find Tories I could seriously support!