Read coverage in the Spectator here.
Ignore Left-wing Conservatives and abandon modernisation, urges oldest conservative think tank
Following statements by the centre-Left think tank “Bright Blue” which argued for the Conservative Party to return to the discarded “modernisation agenda”, The Bow Group, Britain’s oldest conservative think tank, has urged Prime Minister David Cameron to embrace, not shun, conservative values, or risk losing all claims to conservatism.
Ryan Shorthouse, the director of Bright Blue, specifically called for the Tory Party to adopt a Liberal-Conservative manifesto for the elections in 2014 and 2015, ignoring the evidence that recent polling shows the Tory Party trending up, not down, after tacking to the right on issues such as immigration, the economy, and Britain’s burdensome environmental taxation.
Responding to Shorthouse, Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney said:
“Following the rise of UKIP and the appointment of electoral strategist Lynton Crosby, David Cameron has clearly begun to realise that moving the Conservative Party to the left loses votes, and damages the integrity of the conservative message.
Appealing to metropolitan sensibilities and Liberal Democrats has only served to paint the image of David Cameron as a disconnected elitist in the minds of the vast majority of voters.
Both in policy and philosophy UKIP is a conservative party, and genuine conservatives should have nothing to fear in joining forces with them. For Bright Blue, Shorthouse and many of their ilk however, it is simply the case that they are, at heart, Liberal Democrats who have found their way into the wrong party.
In railing against UKIP Cameron risks ceding all claim to conservatism, and degrading the philosophical integrity of the Conservative Party beyond repair.
With UKIP currently polling at 11 percent, Labour at 38 percent and the Conservative Party at 36 percent (YouGov/Sun), the reunification of the right in Britain would prove a robust and popular electoral force.”
The Bow Group’s President and former Prime Minister Sir John Major recently made the following public statement:
“The Conservative leadership should pull their punches on the United Kingdom Independence Party, many of the Ukip supporters are patriotic Britons who fear their country is changing and will come back to the Tory party.”
Bow Group Chairman Ben Harris-Quinney is set to launch the “Stop Labour” campaign alongside conservative author Toby Young, journalist James Delingpole, and TrendingCentral.com editor Raheem Kassam in 2014. The project will aim to unite UKIP and the Conservative Party against Labour and the Liberal Democrats.
For further information contact Luke Springthorpe on 07921677580 @ research@www.bowgroup.org