TURNING RIGHT - THE DANGEROUS TRANSFORMATION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY - NICK LOWLES and JOE MULHALL

The difference is not simply the severity of the language and policies on immigration, but more the adoption of a wider far-right narrative that has become commonplace on the US right in recent years. [...] Q: When you think of ‘elites’ in Britain, which of the following come to mind? PAGE 18 “Much of what currently passes for conservatism is no more than blue- rinsed universalism and hyper-individualism, the credal values of the left, which has taken a wrecking ball to the legitimacy of the western nation and its core institutions and precepts. [...] The fact that many who call themselves conservative would vigorously deny this merely illustrates the depth of the problem.” “The NatCon conference represents an attempt to explore what conservatism actually is and how it has lost sight of the principles that must be conserved.” Another group operating on the fringes of the party is the New Cultural Forum. [...] PAGE 19 DISSENTING VOICES There are many people in the Conservative Party bitterly opposed to the party’s lurch to the right and the growing influence of the radical right. [...] Particularly since the 2016 Referendum, and at the urging of its allies in the press, the Tory Party has taken to routinely posing as the tribune of ‘the people’ against ‘the elites’ and a shadowy ‘blob’ that apparently doesn’t understand them, looks down upon them, and seeks to stop the government giving them the supposedly commonsense policies the country is said to be crying out for.