Bill's Comment Page

Conservatives and 'inclusivity'

Yesterday Theresa May, Chairman, gave what I thought was a reasonably good speech, if a little didactic at times, on the opening day of the Party's annual conference, this year being held in Blackpool, although Andrew Gimson said in an article in The Daily Telegraph today that it was "beyond parody". In particular one small section, quite near the beginning, caught my attention when she said that the Conservative Party welcomed people as individuals on their own merits: "Rich or poor. Straight or gay. Black or white." I think the Party genuinely does try to do this, but there are still members who do not share this inclusive approach and who are permitted to remain members, or in one very recent case to stand under the [Scottish] Conservative banner at a major parliamentary election.

Even more recently Baroness Blatch, Deputy Conservative Leader in the House of Lords, tried to delay abolition of the hateful 'Clause 28', by introducing a 'spoiling' clause. Luckily she and the Conservative Party were unsuccessful.

So is the Conservative Party inclusive? In many ways it probably is, or at least has the intention of trying to be so. But they still have some considerable way to go before I will believe they really mean what Theresa May said yesterday is their policy - there are simply too many facts stacking up against them.