The Mask Keeps Slipping
2 MINUTE READ
My ongoing look at UK politics, and the Conservative Party specifically.
The mask keeps slipping. If there’s one metaphor that sums up Conservatives right now, it’s the mask. A Party that hides its true identity, whose main task is to appear responsible and capable, when it is anything but.
The mask keeps slipping. The Conservative Party is beginning to care less and less. Some times they walk out of the door in the morning completely unmasked, and realise halfway down the garden path, and scurry back in to get it.
The mask is caring, thoughtful. The mask is compassionate. The mask turns the other cheek. The mask shows deep concern for the sick and the old, the hard-working men and women who built this country. But the mask keeps slipping.
Underneath is greed and dishonesty, concealing the spasm of recklessness and the sneer of authority, the cold snigger of hypocrisy and the temptation of fraud. The snug fit of the mask hides all the destructive sins. But it keeps slipping.
The pretence of Compassionate Conservatism, a once cherished pillar in times of austerity, has gone. The people aren’t as important as the companies and other foreign interests. The people are as important as the balance of the personal bank account.
The Conservative Party will continue to be plagued by scandals concerning the sale of influence, because Tories cherish personal standing above all else. Personal standing is an Eton mess of royal honours, ministerial positions and cash in the bank.
The system is designed to be mined, with enough leeway and freedom for MPs to “top up” their salaries. According to The Guardian’s Rowena Mason, in 2021 the register of MPs' interests showed that more than 90 Conservative MPs undertake paid work in addition to their job in parliament, along with three Labour MPs.
Rules prohibit direct lobbying or advocacy for reward, but the recent Owen Paterson scandal shows that MPs feel there is a very high bar indeed before any paid work meets this definition. In recent years Labour has parked the gravy train. For Tories it seems to be full steam ahead.
The argument MPs often give echoes Lord Nolan: “A Parliament composed entirely of full-time professional politicians would not serve the best interests of democracy”, i.e. second jobs provide experience and enrich representatives by exposing them to “the real world”.
The real worry for me is that ingrained in the culture of the modern day Conservative is that election to House is seen as a means to end, a stepping stone to further financial opportunities, a way to publicise one’s “real” talents.
This doesn’t necessarily have to be nefarious, but it leaves the Party open to huge risk. The public are sick of MPs with their snouts in the trough, trousering money, looking after no. 1. Truth it’s doing untold reputations damage.
And this is the whole point: many modern Tories MPs don’t give a hoot about the reputation of the House, or the Party, or denocracy. This is just one issue which betrays their absolute indifference to the guardrails of tradition, honour, due process. The mask is slipping.