A Bank Holiday Treat! My long ago attempt at a Morning Call email
A long time ago, I unsuccessfully applied for a job with the New Statesman. Here's part of that application
Many years ago, I applied unsuccessfully to be a Political Correspondent for the New Statesman. I didn’t get the job, but I did get through to the last round, partly on the strength of my application exercise to write an edition of Morning Call. I never did anything with it, but the recent podcast with all the political editors made me think about it and look it up. While it’s several years old now, I think it still makes for interesting reading, so thought I would share it with you, my dear readers, now.
Michael Gove has admitted taking Cocaine on several occasions. This followed the revelation that Rory Stewart once smoked opium and Dominic Raab has admitted smoking marijuana.
On one level these admissions are all a bit “so what?” Thousands of people take drugs recreationally up and down the country every weekend. Going on to live perfectly normal lives the rest of the week.
But most people who break the drug laws don’t have the capacity to change them. The next Tory leader will. But the chance of one of them choosing to do so seems remote, despite the fact that so many prominent politicians on all sides of the fence have admitted to breaking them.
This tells us quite a lot about the current identity crisis of the Conservative Party. Are the Tories the party of ‘law and order’? Having so many people in their ranks happy to flout the law would suggest not. Are they the party of social conservatism? Again, the drug taking doesn’t scream that as a brand. Are they then the party of small government? Well no, as
they are also more than willing to allow laws that they all know fundamentally don’t work to stay on the statute books for no better reason than that they think it’s what their socially conservative membership (and the Daily Mail) want.
Theresa May – who formally handed in her notice yesterday – was once considered a standard bearer of progressive Toryism for identifying how damaging their reputation for illiberalism had become. In one speech she defined the ‘Nasty Party’ brand, the changing of which led to Cameron’s embrace of liberal causes such as environmentalism and gay marriage. However, she then went into the Home Office and while she made progress in tightening up stop and search, she was also the Home Secretary of the ‘Go Home’ vans and made up cat stories.
Then on the steps of Downing Street she swore to right the ‘burning injustices’ that divided the country. But she failed to deliver any flagship legislation to do this. And her appalling response to the actual burning injustice of Grenfell exposed her inability to really understand the needs of the voters she was trying to court. From then, her attempts to steal Labour’s leave voters were pitched in increasingly shrill dog whistles. After the disaster of the 2017 election, she never really defined her time in government beyond blundering Brexit.
Parties have long attempted to act like the centre while enacting their extremes. But rarely have they been so clunky and confused while doing so. May has managed to alienate voters on the left, right and centre leaving no group with the idea she was on their side.
The next Tory leader may well test positive for drugs, but until they can define positively what their party is for, they are likely to meet the same ending May did. Not because they are better or worse politicians, but because nobody knows what the Tories are for any more. Take Brexit out of the equation and they have nothing to say beyond the austerity they have declared over and tax cuts that are likely to extend it.
I hope you enjoyed that!
I was very sad not to get the job at the time. I still wistfully wonder ‘what if’ about some of my applications for “proper” journalism jobs that I never got. Though I have now stopped applying as I never got anywhere. I don’t think I really make a good fit in that kind of role. I’d be a bloody good columnist though…. (just saying)!