Mirror-Image articles from Matthew Parris and Joff Wild
By a strange co-incidence Matthew Parris in the Times today and Joff Wild, who posts on the "Political Betting" website as "Southam Observer" have mirror image articles today.
Matthew Parris has a piece in the Times explaining how, despite being extremely unhappy with the Conservative party over Brexit, he has resolved his "personal political anguish" and decided that
"There has never been a more important time for people like me to stick with the Tories"
His article is called
"The Tory 'lurch to the right' is an illusion"
Which is not quite what Matthew has sometimes appeared to think over the past year or so but it will probably not surprise anyone to learn that I think he is right, particularly when he concludes
"Britain doesn’t want a very right-wing government, so the Tories won’t offer one."
The mirror article from the Labour site is on the Political Betting site here, by Joff Wild who resigned from the Labour party last year. He writes:
"I left the Labour party last year as the anti-Semitism I saw and heard became too much to live with. How could I stick with a party that tolerated it?"
He, has, however, reconsidered his position because it leaves the Labour party in the hands of people he strongly disagrees with and he has decided to rejoin the party to fight for the sort of Labour party he believes in and thinks could be elected.
It is interesting to read the two pieces, by Matthew Parris and Joff Wild side by side. The main difference is that I think Matthew's analysis of the Conservative party, though very cynical, is likely to be correct. I fear that Joff, by contrast is being hopelessly overoptimistic about the prospects for moderates regaining control of the Labour party.
I would like to see moderates like Joff win out in the Labour party, even though it is not in the interests of my party to have a stronger opposition party which reasonable people would be more likely to vote for, because it is in the interests of British democracy to have a credible opposition. But I fear that all he is doing is giving credibility to a party which has been captured by people who despise everyone with views remotely like his as much as they despise people like me, and who would wreck this country if they ever came to power.
Matthew Parris has a piece in the Times explaining how, despite being extremely unhappy with the Conservative party over Brexit, he has resolved his "personal political anguish" and decided that
"There has never been a more important time for people like me to stick with the Tories"
His article is called
"The Tory 'lurch to the right' is an illusion"
Which is not quite what Matthew has sometimes appeared to think over the past year or so but it will probably not surprise anyone to learn that I think he is right, particularly when he concludes
"Britain doesn’t want a very right-wing government, so the Tories won’t offer one."
The mirror article from the Labour site is on the Political Betting site here, by Joff Wild who resigned from the Labour party last year. He writes:
"I left the Labour party last year as the anti-Semitism I saw and heard became too much to live with. How could I stick with a party that tolerated it?"
He, has, however, reconsidered his position because it leaves the Labour party in the hands of people he strongly disagrees with and he has decided to rejoin the party to fight for the sort of Labour party he believes in and thinks could be elected.
It is interesting to read the two pieces, by Matthew Parris and Joff Wild side by side. The main difference is that I think Matthew's analysis of the Conservative party, though very cynical, is likely to be correct. I fear that Joff, by contrast is being hopelessly overoptimistic about the prospects for moderates regaining control of the Labour party.
I would like to see moderates like Joff win out in the Labour party, even though it is not in the interests of my party to have a stronger opposition party which reasonable people would be more likely to vote for, because it is in the interests of British democracy to have a credible opposition. But I fear that all he is doing is giving credibility to a party which has been captured by people who despise everyone with views remotely like his as much as they despise people like me, and who would wreck this country if they ever came to power.
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