Neale Kumar: What a teenager really thinks of the state of the Conservative party

Neale Kumar is a lower Sixth politics student at King Edward VI school Chelmsford. 

Traditionally, the Conservative Party has been heralded as the party of valence, a party whose governance rested on the values of competence and integrity.

Take the postwar Butskellism consensus, focusing on cooperative policy outcomes on issues like the welfare, rather than plain partisanship. Thatcher instead espoused a radical, yet traditional style of governance, with an ability to get the goals she set achieved through strong and decisive leadership, and an adherence to issues like strong national security, especially a tough line on the Soviet bloc.

The party has constantly shown its ability to be adaptable, yet grounded in its values, which has forged a reputation amongst the electorate of a party of stability, a premise which assisted the election of Cameron into government in 2010, to restore economic stability in the wake of the global financial crisis.

However, the Tories 14-year spell in power has left the public’s perception of the party in tatters. Whatever the intention of the Tory leadership, in the minds of the electorate, and young people especially, the Conservatives are no longer considered a viable option to solve issues of national importance.

Frankly, the 2010 manifesto pledge to bring immigration into the tens of thousands yet seeing net migration figures exceeding 900,000 at the end of Sunak’s premiership, has shattered the prospect of the Tories holding any kind of government-in-waiting post, despite low approval ratings for Starmer.

What this supposed administrative failure has done, is conveyed to young potential supporters that the Tories are not a suitable option, and that Reform UK offers radical, simple policy, with clear-cut solutions, hence many young people flocking to Reform.

Even to the large proportion of the youth who support a left agenda, the ineptitude of the Tories means that even if the Conservatives offered a centrist platform, more appealing to many of the youth, the Tories may simply be discarded as an option due to their previous shortcomings.

The party now has a decision, to either shift itself to the right to reverberate a more populist rhetoric or redefine itself as the party of the centre right, one which can effectively capture swing voters. Regardless of which direction the party takes on the political spectrum, the party needs to restore its bedrock tenets and save the sinking ship.

Reestablishing economic credibility in the wake of the Truss mini-budget and the cost of living crisis, by offering pragmatic solutions that would appease the electorate and gilt markets alike.

Creating strong leadership that mimics the decisiveness and strength that gave Thatcher three consecutive mandates in government. A party with 3 leaders in the same year contributes to the public perception of inter-party feuding taking precedent over governing for the people. The inability for a leader to set the agenda and rally the party behind such agenda, at least in public, even if there is inevitable disagreement within the party, does nothing to quell the notion of incompetence.

Factionalism must not dominate the headlines of the Tories, and that differences in the MPs who choose to support either Badenoch or Jenrick, such as on issues of withdrawing from the ECHR, should be resolved, so the platform of the party is one of a united front, one which is coherent, and not riddled with ad hoc, opportunistic policy U-turns.

Cleaning the image of the party. A party fatigued with scandals cannot be the basis of a party who wishes to govern, and the leadership must retroactively acknowledge failure in ethics, whilst stressing the actions the party is taking to change, with zero tolerance for people who taint the party’s image.

Amid inter-party feuding in Reform, if the Tories can actively showcase their sensibility, that plays into strengthening party image and helping the Conservatives elevate themselves back to contention.  If Thatcher would not have accepted ill-discipline, why should the current party. If there needs to be an evolution from Tory mainstays to new prospective parliamentary candidates who embody a sense of willingness for change, so be it.

As a teenager, I do think that the Tories should recognise that as a new generation of the electorate comes through, there will likely be a gradual shift away from the right, which the party should respect in terms of the long term outlook on politics.

Regardless of this, if the party instead chooses to shift its platform to the right, there needs to be more effort to collaborate directly with working people. This would dispel the notion that the party is out of touch with working people, one which has tainted the Tories constantly, even at the peak of their popularity, and then would serve to enhance the image of the party further as when compared to the time when the party was already viewed as competent.

At the end of the day, what I believe the Conservatives need to do is reestablish their perception as the ‘safety net’, the capable party that voters will return to in the event of mishaps by their opposition. This will in turn reinstate the party as one in contention in the minds of young people, which is integral to the long term viability of the Conservatives, regardless of whether the party chooses to veer to the right or left.

Where the party should start, is in making that decision and sticking to it, and then showcasing why they are the alternative to Labour, and to Reform. As Margaret Thatcher once said, “If you just set out to be liked, you will be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you will achieve nothing.”

The Conservatives must reflect this by sticking to whatever guns they choose.

The post Neale Kumar: What a teenager really thinks of the state of the Conservative party appeared first on Conservative Home.