A letter sent to the Royston Crow, but as yet unpublished…

Going by the Conservative Party election leaflet recently distributed to Royston households, I have to ask whether our longstanding MP Oliver Heald agrees with either its content or the party leader whose face adorns it.

Sir Oliver is one of that dwindling band of conservatives known as a ‘One Nation Tory’. He is a popular local MP, and for good reason, given that for many years he has worked tirelessly for the North East Hertfordshire constituency. Sir Oliver takes nothing for granted, his majority appears unassailable, and the competition seem loathe to put any significant effort into unseating him. This leaves the votes of Royston residents like me who consider conservatism anathema wasted in a first-past-the-post electoral system.

I know Sir Oliver personally through our joint campaigning for Remain during the 2016 EU referendum, and as a result I respect him as an individual. Following the referendum in which Royston and the North Herts district as a whole voted 55% Remain, Sir Oliver accepted the result whilst continuing to stand up for his pro-European principles. Sir Oliver even flirted with rebellion, only to have his mugshot plastered on the front page of the Telegraph along with those of other ‘enemies of the people’.

Sir Oliver’s insurrectionary spirit didn’t endure, however, once the party whips got to work on him. Since then Sir Oliver has been firmly on-message, no doubt hoping against hope for a relatively soft Brexit landing.

Turning to the Tory party as a whole, what a wretched institution it has become. With the one-nation crowd licking the wounds of defeat, the party is now controlled by the nastiest of the nasty. The Conservative and Unionist Party of today is a soulless entity, formed out the political refuse of the English shires, and increasingly inhabited by the very bastards of creation.

At the party’s head slouches Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson: a pathological liar whose only interest is personal advancement. Johnson has no political principles or moral compass, and, compromised by personal association with agents of a hostile foreign power, he is a serious threat to national security – a view held widely within the intelligence community.

To the decent, honest Tory supporters of Royston and North East Hertfordshire I make a heartfelt plea: acknowledge that your once great party is now morally bankrupt, and look to regenerating the centre-right of English politics in a new form. As for the general election on 12 December, please, for the love of all that is good, either lend your vote to another party, or stay indoors in front of a nice cosy fire.

Dr Francis Sedgemore
Royston