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.
