Gossip Tory

While scanning the web after conference, re-reading about MPs I met and listened to, I discovered something.

During party conference I had the pleasure of briefly meeting the Right Hon. Dr Liam Fox, who was giving a speech at a fringe event on the Tuesday. While I knew about his birthplace, I never even thought to think about his background. I didn’t really care about it to be honest. All I cared about was his speech. But I soon discovered that Fox had been brought up in a Scottish council house- A working class Tory who had made his way up in the medical career, and then into the world of politics. I never knew about his background because I felt it didn’t matter- all that mattered was his policies.

Another Tory who I didn’t meet but had the pleasure of hearing in a CPF event was the Right Hon. John Redwood. Like Fox, I had always been interested in his policies and not his upbringing. But as I flicked through the internet I discovered he had spent the first four years of his life like Fox in a council house. I read on, surprised by this. I read how he won a scholarship and went to Kent College. I read how he went went to Cambridge where he read Modern History and later obtaining the Doctor of Philosophy degree at Oxford. A man who had come from humble beginnings going to the two best Universities and later joining the government…and yet how well known are this mans achievements? How well known are Fox’s achievements, going into the career every child dreams of?

When the left attack the party for being too upper-class why don’t we say “no, you’re wrong”, listing names, Cecil Parkinson, Norman Tebbit….so on. Why don’t we do that?

Then Cameron’s speech kicked in, then all the information kicked in. We don’t need to say it. Because we are already the party of the many. And even in people you’ve supported and admired for years….even in them will you discover diversity. Unlike Labour we don’t need to say what we are. And that is one of many reasons why I am proud to be a member of this party.