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In his Daily Telegraph blog – Nadine Dorries wants to be the first joint Ukip/Conservative candidate: good idea – James Delingpole asks;

“Well I’ve seen a lot in the comments below on what UKIPers don’t want. May I ask what you DO want?

Paint me a picture of your ideal scenario – what you all want out of this.

Bear in mind that I’m a UKIPer too and the reason I’m a UKIPer is that I want the best possible outcome for Britain sooner rather than later. That’s why Toby Young (still a Conservative) and I (a UKIPer) are both backing Unite the Right. I can only see this happening without David Cameron in charge. But if that happens, may I ask what your objection is?

And also may I point out that I entirely agree that this offer should be open to simpatico Labour MPs too. I speak as a conservative in the William Cobbett tradition, which I believe is also the Thatcher tradition. I want to defend the rights of working people against the political class.”

James, in answer to your question.

I come from a family with a very long association with the Conservative Party. My grandfather and grandmother are both members and my grandfather has donated in the past though no longer. I grew up in an affluent middle/upper middle class household in one of the more leafy parts of Berkshire, pretty much every one I knew while I was growing up was either involved in the land, the City or both and many of them had served in the armed forces beforehand.

I joined the Conservative Party early, the first person I voted for was Michael Trend, then Theresa May, before moving house in the early 2000s when Dominic Grieve QC became my MP. I was utterly appalled at the treatment dished out to Lady Thatcher which I and many others saw as an act of utmost betrayal, made more so by the fact that her betrayal at the hands of the Europhile wets was due to her standing up for this country in the face of aggressive Euro expansionism from the noisier element on the continent.

I remained loyal to the Conservative cause despite this, even though it was through gritted teeth. A difficult thing at times when the Major Government seemed determined to make itself look as ridiculous, chaotic and out of touch as it possibly could. The only thing that helped was the weapons-grade ineptitude of the Labour opposition.

All of which changed, of course, when the ever-so-shiny Tony Blair thrust himself into the public’s eye against whom the Major Administration looked every bit as grey as the Spitting Image caricature suggested.

Even in the midst of the laughing stock years of 1997-2005, I never once thought of leaving the party, conversely I wanted to get more involved, I actually felt sorry for them. Having so disgracefully disposed of their greatest living electoral asset, they were now thrashing around, looking for some kind of direction, some kind of coherent narrative and someone to deliver that to the British people.

In 2005, when David Cameron was elected leader, even though he was not my choice, I thought it would at least be good manners to give him the benefit of the doubt. It didn’t take long for the new broom to sweep clean however and the tenor in many associations changed, though not for the better. Six months later I had joined UKIP.

I believe that Government is legitimate and critical to society as an upholder of the rights of the individual. The role and function of the state however, should be limited in size and scope to the absolute minimum necessary in order to facilitate its basic functions. The powers delegated to government by the citizens should not be transferable without further mandate under any circumstance and the laws and institution of this country are answerable only to the citizens of this country.

Government should provide for a police force to protect the rights of the citizen from internal threats; an army to protect the citizen from external threats; a free, fair and transparent justice system, open and accessible to all citizens and a system whereby those citizens who, through no fault of their own, are incapable of looking after themselves (e.g. the severely disabled and the terminally ill) are provided a decent standard of living, at least equivalent to the median, whether through a Government mandated scheme, or in concert with the private sector.

As Hubert H. Humphrey said, and I agree with him, “The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” It should not be whether we draw a line, but where we draw that line. Of course, there should be a safety net. The left like to think they have a monopoly on the word “fairness”; unless we are to join them in the eugenicist lobby, we on the right must not shy away from accepting there are some in society who we have a moral obligation and duty to assist and, transcendent of ideology, acknowledge that it is the right thing to do.

Other than this, it is the role and function of Government to get the hell out of the way and allow the private citizen equal access of opportunity to drive the economy, provide jobs and create wealth, free of cronyism, statism and the cloying, suffocating regulation so beloved of the Brussels bureaucrat.

Of course this is a game of fantasy politics and the Government described above exists nowhere on Earth. What generally marks out the left from the right, is that the right deals with the reality of the world as it presents itself to us and the left deals in fantasies, looking at the world and everyone and everything in it as counters in a game, all of which can be moved and manipulated in order to bring about an idealised outcome, a utopia.

Click here for Page 2

Other articles by Christina

• Warmism – A Very Modern Death Cult For Trendy Lefties
• So then James, what do I, as a UKIP member, want?
• The Left Have a Problem With Women
• Mythbusting – The UK and the EU (Part 1)
• Mythbusting – the EU and the UK (Part 2)
• Salad Bowls, Melting Pots and a Failure of Duty
• I Love Men

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