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Where has the civility gone?

Author profile picture Dale Joseph Ferrier
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Recipient profile picture Andrew Stephenson
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18 July
Dear Andrew Stephenson,
I hope this finds you well, and once again congratulations on your recent appointment to Co-Chairman of the Party. Whoever is appointed as the new PM will be wise to maintain you in your new position. It is in fact the leadership race that has prompted me to write to you. Like no doubt many other members of the party, I have followed the leadership contest to see who may likely be on the final ballot, and therefore the two I will need to choose between. I have avoided watching the televised debates as this I believe not only demeans the office of Prime Minister, but adds to the growing delusion that we are a Presidential democracy rather than Parliamentary. The idea that it is the entire Commons that has a mandate, rather than just the leader of the party in power, has withered in the face of media simplification and a lack of understanding among the general voting public. This is not however why I am writing to you, as important an issue it may be. I want to write to you to express my alarm at the vitriol and toxicity that has entered into this contest. Watching the candidates spa off each other, they behave as if they are of different parties vying for election in some hot contested presidential election. I have pride that, in general, British politics is rather more subdued and civilised than in many other nations, but this contest as of late is far from being a good example. I appreciate the need for spirited and thorough debate to take each candidate through their paces. And I equally appreciate the need for the general public to bear witness to this as whoever wins in September will not only be leading the Conservatives, but the UK as a whole. What is not right however is the barbed accusations and mud slinging that we are seeing right now. After all is said and done, these MPs will need to work together for the cause of the party and the country. I fear recent events have only created very public fractures that will take a long time to heal. I hope then that in your position, you could be minded to work with the Chair of 1922 Committee to remind candidates that civility and rationale is one of the reasons we are the oldest democratic party, and that some of the performances seen thus far are doing nothing less than showing up the party and casting us in a bad light. On another note, I wish you all the best of luck in your work in the Party and Parliament.

Dale Joseph Ferrier

Author profile picture Dale Joseph Ferrier

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