Achieving Political Fission

Ian Birrell in the Guardian (Monday 27th September 2014) ponders whether a Conservative split may be the catharsis the party needs, concluding:

Yet what really binds the many decent and tolerant conservatives to those misanthropes filled with fear and rage against modernity?

Fear.

To be “conservative” implies an element of holding on to the past – because it has to be better than an uncertain future. Too often this can overpower any search for change for the better.

Two problems stoke this fear.

Kicking the F’ing Tories

The Huffington Post (10 September 2014 Cameron Pleads With Scots Not To Choose Independence Just To ‘Kick The F-ing Tories’ – other citations are available) reports Cameron as saying:

“People can feel like it’s a bit like a general election. That you make a decision and five years later you can make another decision. If you’re fed up with the f-ing Tories give them a kick and then maybe we’ll think again. This is totally different,” he said.

The Conservative Party only has one MP in Scotland. Alex Salmond has had some success in framing the debate as a chance for Scots to never again be governed by the Tories.

It’s a pity he could not go one stage further and suggest that Scots stick with the union so that in May 2015 they could give the Tories a Glasgow Kiss as well as an f’ing good kicking.

Only he wouldn’t, he didn’t and he can’t.