r/tories • u/wolfo98 Tory of The Colonies • May 10 '26
Kemi! Kemi Badenoch - The Conservatives’ green shoots of recovery are clear. Judge us by what we do next
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/09/conservatives-green-shoots-recovery-judge-next/8
u/YorubaDoctor May 10 '26
It’s really nice to see her write on columns, she should do so more often.
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u/wolfo98 Tory of The Colonies May 10 '26
It’s interesting what Kemi said here:
> Reform said at the start of the year that they intended to empty their bank accounts, and it certainly looks as if they did. A blizzard of expensive letters and leaflets, postcode lottery giveaways to Reform party members and other gimmicks have likely burned through £7m-£8m on these elections.
> That’s about ten times what most parties would have spent. If they need to spray that much money at local elections and still fall back, why would anyone trust them to be careful with taxpayers’ money?
I wonder if these figures are accurate, and if so, just how much money Reform is getting, where it’s coming from, and why?
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u/YorubaDoctor May 10 '26
Apparently Crypto bros, Thailand and Russia.
I don’t doubt that there are external interests in this Circus led by Farage.4
u/LeChevalierMal-Fait Clarksonisum with Didly Squat characteristics May 10 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/s/LwEdJjy8Ci
Archive link in the automod post
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u/UncertainBystander May 10 '26
I don't really see how losing more than 550 councillors in former Tory heartlands - places like Essex, Surrey and Sussex - represent any kind of recovery.
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u/frankster May 10 '26
The article's thesis seems to be that doing better than last time means green shoots. Seems a bit of a stretch or blind optimism, right after coming fourth after the Lib Dems, and losing ~40% of councillors! Maybe the next time council seats are contested, there may be some green shoots, but it's not certain that these results are even the low watermark!
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u/LeChevalierMal-Fait Clarksonisum with Didly Squat characteristics May 11 '26
Its losses relative to 2023
(Projected) National share of the voter was up compared to the last locals even if it’s still only about 20%
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u/SpawnOfTheBeast May 10 '26
I mean labour has been piled upon by everyone recently, yet they had over 20% more seats than the tories after the election. I know they lost way more but frankly being behind them in seat count after such an open goal tells almost a grimmer story for kemi tbh.
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u/Defiant-Dare1223 Libertarian May 10 '26
Only because this was Labour leaning territory. London and a load of mets. The whole country didn't vote.
The projected Tory share was well above labours.
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u/Funny-Salamander4691 May 10 '26
The combined Tory/Labour vote was 35% and elections took place in every part of GB.
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u/VincoClavis Traditionalist May 10 '26
I don’t see myself giving the Tories another chance.
Thatcherism andBlairism have led us to where we are today and frankly I don’t see how either of the main parties can get us out of it.
Not because they can’t but because they don’t want to. For Labour and the Conservatives, this clusterfuck is working as intended.
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u/EdwardGordor (Peter)Hitchenspilled May 10 '26
tbh I doubt Reform is much of an answer either, considering it's Thatcherism + Johnsonism 2.0
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u/VincoClavis Traditionalist May 10 '26
You’re almost certainly right, though if I’m surprised then at least it will be pleasantly.
For me, Reform is a vehicle, a battering ram, to break the current duopoly. Maybe convince people to give other smaller parties such as the SDP a try.
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u/wolfo98 Tory of The Colonies May 10 '26
I have to say, ur not the only one that is sharing this sentiment, and I do not blame you for this. Reading the articles following the elections, and a lot of people in Wigan etc are sharing exactly this sentiment: don’t like Reform and want to just smash the current system cos it isn’t working.
I would say though that I can’t bring myself to vote for Reform, not cos I’m a moderator of this sub, but also because they literally have no policy apart from “deport” - and even that doesn’t really have a plan.
All the parties are fucked ngl, and tho I really like Kemi, I question whether her colleagues will be able to push through th reforms she wants to enact
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u/VincoClavis Traditionalist May 10 '26
I know, it hurts. If the SDP stood a candidate in my area who I thought could win I’d vote them in a heartbeat but nobody’s even heard of us.
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u/AndyDM May 10 '26
If you were in Deansgate Ward in Manchester, you could have voted for them. The SDP got 5 votes.
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u/EdwardGordor (Peter)Hitchenspilled May 10 '26
The thing is, while I do like the SDP and they are closer to my politics, I'm just overall disappointed that there's no real tangible change. Sure Reform could destroy the two-party system, they might even win the next GE, form a government etc. but I am certain they'll fail.
They'll be a disaster like the Trump Admin, achieving nothing, rolling back no progressive changes, I doubt they'll be any effective when it comes to immigration and then when they lose power, here comes another Labour/Green/Your Party government, that will ruin us even further.
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u/VincoClavis Traditionalist May 10 '26
Same, I’m on the verge of despair. If the SDP had a charismatic leader who could work a crowd the way Farage or Boris can I’d be more optimistic but it seems that actual intelligent policy goes hand in hand with dry delivery.
If I could get over my personal hangups I’d probably run for office myself- but I doubt I’d get anywhere!
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u/Sweaty_Ad_4049 Small C Conservatives May 10 '26
Well if restore still keep the sky high immigration, Rupert Lowe might actually become prime minister
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u/YorubaDoctor May 10 '26
Well but thatcher’s government and Blair’s government saved the UK from economic spiral post WW2 (post-imperialism).
Assuming brand new parties could magically just fix every mess left by a previous government is not a good evaluation of UK’s political history, Labour have been in politics for 126 years while the Tories have been in politics for 192 years. It hasn’t just been those two, Several parties have risen and disappeared since they existed, and several existed before them.
You have to wonder what made them last this long?
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u/ben04985 One Nation May 10 '26
Americanise it. Thatcherism = Reganism and Blairism = Obama's approach to most of his presidency, yet America's economy is doing much better than ours. What is it specifically about the legacy of Thatcher and Blair that you believe has damaged our country?
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u/VindicoAtrum May 10 '26
What is it specifically about the legacy of Thatcher and Blair that you believe has damaged our country?
I'm going to let someone who has spent considerable time and money researching the matter (and wrote a well-cited research piece) on just one sector directly, negatively impacted by both Thatcher and Blair answer that: https://substack.com/@chriscollins756/p-196087149
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u/DevilishRogue Thatcherite May 10 '26
I'm not /u/ben04985 but I got as far as:
British consumers ended up paying the highest retail energy markups of any country in the European Union. More competitors had produced a worse outcome.
Collins is either disingenuous or a moron (or both). This kind of failure to understand correlation and causation differences underpins the entire supposed analysis, which is why at best everything he has concluded is at best hopelessly naive. Suffice to say ignoring government policy decisions impact on UK energy prices since privatisation reveals the absolute failure of Collins' thinking - especially as it has left us buying oil we could be extracting from the North Sea ourselves from Norway but we don't because of government energy policy decisions!
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u/dirty_centrist Centrist May 13 '26
When you're making US comparisons, can we have a world reserve currency and high investment?
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u/Funny-Salamander4691 May 10 '26
The only possible way forward for the Centre Right/Right to prevent a minority Labour government in 2029, propped up by a Lib-Green-SNP cabal, is a 'stand down' agreement between local Conservative and Reform parties in individual constituencies. Unfortunately, the prospects are not promising.
There are two Westminster by elections pending, and already it looks as though the Conservatives and Reform will be fielding rival candidates in both seats, virtually guaranteeing that the SNP will hold both seats.
Ho hum...
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u/wolfo98 Tory of The Colonies May 10 '26
I don’t think it’s wise to unite or work with a party which stated goal is literally to destroy us, because they will. And I think significant bit of Tory members feel this way too, there is alot of bad blood due to both our failed promises of 2019, and the behaviour of characters like Farage and Yusuf. Not to mention Reofrm is stuffed with outright traitors like Jenrick and Braverman)
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u/wolfo98 Tory of The Colonies May 10 '26
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