Louise Staite: For the Conservative Party to win again, we have to remember why we exist

Louise Staite is Director of External Affairs at the Margaret Thatcher Centre.

As a child in the 1980s I had the luxury of taking my freedom for granted. While millions of children in the Soviet Bloc suffered, I benefited from freedom underpinned by the dual-powerhouses of democracy and capitalism.

I listened to the stories of my grandmother growing up during the London Blitz, a childhood changed completely by war. My grandfather could never speak of what he witnessed during his service in Burma, like many men it was too horrific to recount. Yet with the ascendency of the West over communism and tyranny, expertly driven forward by Magaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, freedom seemed secure.

Many of today’s political leaders and our own shadow cabinet are of a similar age and will have grown up with similar levels of comfort. Maybe they too were lulled into a false sense of security.

Recently I attended the third Freedom Festival organised by the Margaret Thatcher Centre.  The speakers – Lord (Toby) Young, Baroness Fox, Allison Pearson and Dan Wooton – an eclectic group who, while not sharing the same party politics, were brought together by the same passion: defending freedom.

As panelist after panelist spoke it became clear that well meaning policymakers since 1997 have created a ‘state knows best’ mentality that pervades almost every aspect of our lives.

Regulation stifles freedom to the point that we cannot build houses or infrastructure projects that this country so desperately needs.  Regulation of the media through Ofcom now undermines journalistic freedom and debate. The promotion of electric power plants in the pursuit of a ‘carbon free’ economy skews the market and pushes other alternatives into the long grass.

The Climate Change Act of 2003 – in classic Gordon Brown style – pervades every department, in what was clever politics but a disaster for the British economy and growth. We cannot develop two new North Sea oil fields due to legislation that wasn’t even voted on in Parliament.

Climate change clearly exists, but in a healthy democracy it is absurd that we’re no longer able to debate the best ways to mitigate its effects.

It is not possible to make the argument that importing energy is not only ridiculously environmentally unfriendly but also inefficient and weakens our geopolitical hand. The course has been set, and no one shall deviate the UK from our trajectory. Equally, no one can challenge the shibboleth of pursuing Net Zero above all common sense: how else would celebrating reduced domestic emissions while failing to acknowledge emissions produced elsewhere be deemed acceptable?

Non-Crime Hate Incidents are as sinister as they are stupid. They are the unwanted children of George Orwell’s 1984 and Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. 65 are handed out across England and Wales every day. Often the person who is issued with one isn’t told, only to be made aware of its existence when they apply for a DBS check for a new job or as a charity volunteer.

Allison Pearson spoke movingly of her struggle with Essex Police to work out what she was supposed to have done, who had accused her, and which tweet had caused the distress to her accuser. A Conservative government should not have allowed the College of Policing to introduce the reporting of incidents – they restrict freedom of expression and free speech. If no crime is committed, why is it being recorded?

For the Conservative Party to win again we have to remember why we exist. We have to remind ourselves and the public of what it is we stand for – and be willing to fight for it. We have to be sure of our values, principles and beliefs.

Freedom is at the very heart of what it is to be a Conservative: freedom of expression, freedom of speech, freedom to get on with your life and have the government leave you alone, freedom to spend your hard earned money as you wish.

We need to remind the British people that this is who we are and why freedom must matter to them.  We must make sure that future generations don’t grow up listening to their grandparents talk about their experiences of war and reminding their offspring that their freedom was taken away from them.

Thatcher’s three unshakable values were freedom, defence, and law and order. In this centenary year of her birth, let’s celebrate those values in the best way we can. By championing them, by making sure that they are at the heart of everything we, as Conservatives do.  That is how we pay tribute to the greatest peacetime leader this country has ever seen.