I am a member of the Tory Party, Mark Field is my MP , the incident in this video occurred half a mile from where I live and work.
I am ashamed.
I do not want to be a member of a party that has other members in it like Field and I don’t want Field as my MP. I hope the man resigns.
Leadership
I strongly supported Theresa May and am sorry to see her leaving office. I shared her values as stated when she took office. I watched as things went wrong – from the disastrous speech at the Tory Conference in Birmingham to the shambles of Brexit. She was defeated by forces she had no control of, those forces are only too evident – characterised by what went on in the Mansion House last night.
The new leader will be Boris Johnson and there are people who enjoy the thought of his style of leadership. I don’t
Johnson will be selected by a hardcore of 120,000 conservatives mainly – like me – living in the south – owning our own homes and knowing very little of life other than the privileges it has brought us.
As a party we have no right to be arrogant. We can count ourselves lucky and work for the common good to make others luckier. That is what I saw in May’s speech on the steps of parliament when she took charge.
Violence against the vulnerable
As Micky Clarke commented on the radio this morning, would Mark Field have been so brave if the person passing him was a six foot male? I very much doubt it.
It is in the DNA of the bully to seize opportunities to show bravery at little or no personal risk.
I suspect that having had a few glasses from the Mansion House cellar, Mark Field’s judgement was impaired but I suspect that what Mark Field showed last night is a behaviour that will be secretly applauded by many of my fellow conservatives. It is a vile behaviour, I do not support it and the sooner that Mark Field is expelled from the party the better.
Why I am still a Conservative
I am not a Conservative because I love the Conservative Party but because of a strong , decent core within it – typified by Theresa May and Philip Hammond, Ros Altmann and John Godfrey.
The Conservatives are the party of business, of commerce and trade. I hold them as the party of enterprise and I count myself an entrepreneur.
That does not mean that they have to be the part of Trump – deniers of climate change and the party of sexist thugs like Mark Field.
I am a Conservative despite Mark Field, not because of him.
There are limits. The limits of my tolerance for the Conservative party are being sorely stretched this morning. I hope that over the next 48 hours, strong action is taken by the Conservative party to ensure that the behaviour in the video is never associated with a party that should stand for quite a different set of values.
The symptoms are clear to see well documented by a book last year Read the book https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Fascism-Audiobook/B078XL7VCJ?source_code=M2M14DFT1BkSH082015011R&ds_rl=1235779
Like Churchill, you have the reason and opportunity to move from the party. Don’t compromise on moral standards.
Ask any teacher about the certainty of a charge of assault when laying hands on another.
Shoot me for being binary, but he did that to a woman.
How far out do the Conservative politicians have to go for you to move Henry? Rory Stewart will hopefully join Chuka Umunna at the Lib Dems – not because I’m a Lib Dem voter, it’s not about the political labels, is it? If those with whom I agree are in the grey room, that’s where I’ll be. If they move to the white room then I’ll move there. Just as Blair took conservatism into Labour, so deeply negative traits have been injected into the Conservatives. This is a nasty party again.
Worse, read through the comments under the YouTube clip. It’s not just Mr Field we have a problem with, there is a large section of our society who have been given a voice to be heard and I do not like what they want to be heard saying. Our country’s moral compass is way off course, and we are cursed in having the most self-centred, incompetent set of politicians across all parties, at a time when we need leadership by example, and honesty. God gave children to grown ups for a reason, and Scotland Road School showed that unconstrained freedom of expression simply leads to anarchy and misery for the participants.
I don’t want to live in a society that is an experiment, and I do expect those elected to a position of authority to deliver a secure and consistent social framework so we can get on with life. I’ll happily contribute to the prosecution of Mark Field if that’s what’s needed, in the same way I’ll happily contribute to a civil prosecution against Gemma Brushett. I am dismayed though that our sense of right and wrong means the miscreants need to be legally forced into doing what’s right.
Churchill demonstrated that moving from party to party is not a cardinal sin, his point being that the party names are just labels. You can put Blair in Labour but he was always a conservative. One should always stand with those whose values you support, if not then move away from them otherwise you are tarnished by assocation.
Be brave Henry!
bravely and honestly said, Henry and Doug.
It is clear that Party comes before Country they may never recover as a party
appalling behaviour………
The Tories you name are some of many reasons why I would never vote Tory again, and haven’t since Thatcher became PM (yes I use the name Tory deliberately, these are not Conservatives). We were saying earlier how the upbringing and education of the likes of Johnson, Gove, Hunt et al give them no concept of what life is like for the average person (including pensioners) in this country.
Henry,
Your headline is wrong. The Tory Party should be ashamed of what they have become and why good people feel separate from their party. Whilst I disagree their policies, and in particular Austerity, your principles have not changed but the hard right infiltration of the Tory Party has moved it towards nationalist populism.
As Dr Robin Rowles points out: these are not the One Nation Conservatives. Those in powerful positions are long term Tories at the extreme Eurosceptic right wing. They have been emboldened in the local Conservative Associations by similar minded UKIP (or worse) voices. The recent poll which identified they would take Brexit at any cost, shows they are disaster capitalists seeking a false dawn of a resurgent ’empire’ when Britain told the world to fall in line.
They have no empathy for the most vulnerable and economically disadvantaged in society, as they do not believe in society. As long as their goals of limited immigration, deregulation and climate change denial etc are achieved they will be happy to see the rest of us suffer or worse.
We cannot allow these malevolent forces to be successful in this “Steve Bannon/Trumpian” strategy.
Stefan
https://twitter.com/uncoolfellazone/status/1142117242085216256
More of the same, Henry?
My confirmatory bias is showing as I find myself in agreement with all of the above.
There is some doubt about the authenticity of those tweets George.
I have never voted Conservative but that doesn’t mean that, in the past, I have been virulently Anti Conservative. I sat on a platform with Edward Heath at the time of the 1975 referendum. I have great respect for John Major, Michael Heseltine and Ken Clarke. But the Party has been taken over by ideologues. I want One Nation Conservatism to return. Please,