Conservative Party's chronicles

[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by thenry

14 years wasn't it.. I think.

How many years was it with a condom on

On what?

[thenry]

Well David was the dominant one. And Nick had cling film on.

[1andrew1]

Sky News promoting its interview with Cummings with this prediction from him.

Kemi Badenoch will be gone as Tory leader within a year - and there are plots already under way to oust her, Dominic Cummings has said.

The former Number 10 aide also claimed the Conservative Party "might be dead".

https://news.sky.com/story/nigel-far...-says-13375541

[Russ]

The former Number 10 aide also claimed the Conservative Party "might be dead".

Ooooh don’t tease us like that!!

I usually think you have to take the proclaimed death of one of the two main parties with a large pinch of salt. It's been said of both of them so many times over the years. Tories in '97, Labour in '10, but especially in '19 and now the Tories again.

What gives me some cause for doubt is that Reform does seem a real threat to them. They are not gaining at all from Labour's unpopularity, and Badenoch doesn't have a good read on the country outside of Twitter. Farage is much better at connecting with what people are feeling.

The other side of that is that Reform at the moment has less broad appeal. About 30% of Conservative voters are going for Labour over Reform in a hypothetical match-up. There is a reason why Labour are trying to position Reform front and centre over the Tories because, if the Tories got their act together, they're still a bigger electoral threat. Farage is a big turnoff for moderates and the centre ground. I am not sure of they are capable of broading that appeal in the way Cameron and Johnson did to win their elections.

Reform’s support is skin deep. It has councillors (and MPs) who don’t show up to work and who resign and swap parties. It is quite possible it could do very well in the next election but at some point it will do well enough that the spotlight is properly on them and that’s when it’ll go bad.

The Scottish Socialist Party was a thing at Holyrood - formed in 1998, got one seat in the first Scottish parliament, six seats in the second, and then utterly beclowned themselves with a series of stunts and pronouncements that would make a student activist blush. They lost all their seats in 2007 and gave up contesting Scottish elections prior to the 2021 vote.

Populists are great at pointing out problems and getting people angry enough at what’s wrong to support them on the basis that they made people agree with them that everything’s awful. Whether they are as good at implementing workable solutions, especially solutions that take time, cost money, don’t have universal support and which involve some people winning and some people losing, is another matter.

The Tories are the most successful political party in the world for good reason. They have a depth of support and a heritage. They may look awful now but they’ve looked awful before.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Sky News promoting its interview with Cummings with this prediction from him.

https://news.sky.com/story/nigel-far...-says-13375541

Exaggerated media hyperbole as if my memory serves me right they were saying the same thing about the Labour party several years ago.

[1andrew1]

Tories secured most donations of any UK party in first quarter of 2025, data shows

The Conservatives raked in more donations than any other big UK political party in the first three months of 2025 as backers returned to the fray, while Nigel Farage’s Reform UK failed to secure big-ticket supporters.

The Tories received more than £3.3mn in donations in the first quarter, the Electoral Commission said on Tuesday. In the same period, the governing Labour party received £2.3mn, while Reform and the Liberal Democrats received just £1.5mn.

Kemi Badenoch’s party received its single biggest donation of £1mn from gaming entrepreneur and new donor Jeremy Elliott San in February, according to figures published by the UK elections watchdog.

Media reports suggest he donated a further £1mn ahead of the local elections in England in May, though data for that period has yet to be published.

The rise in donations for the Conservatives reflects enduring support for one of the most successful political parties in the democratic world, from both new and historic backers.

https://www.ft.com/content/f97d0740-...b-7578f1a1904b

Un-paywalled version

https://archive.ph/1twxo