Paul Hodgins: Let’s build a new political party

Paul Hodgins is the former Conservative Leader of Richmond Council

“There’s no way of sugar-coating this — so I’ll just come out with it. The Conservative Party is dead. In fact, it’s been dead for quite some while.” so wrote ConservativeHome columnist Peter Franklin recently.

He is dead right.

William Atkinson was repeatedly warning the same in his last days as this website’s assistant editor. I and others have, too, written similar in the recent past. More and more people are reaching the inevitable conclusion: the Conservative Party will not emerge from its death spiral.

That does not make this a worrying time. With acceptance comes relief. In fact, for an entrepreneurial politico, this is a thrilling time. The old organisations are broken and not fit for purpose. The world has changed. There is a huge market gap.

No party is representing working age people in offering a centre-right way forward to a thriving, creative, tolerant but realistic, well-run country that helps enable those it serves. Older people need the country to be thriving just as much as younger people need it.

It is obvious what must be done. The cycle of life. One party dies, and a new, modern party built properly from the ground up arises.

Admittedly for a low-risk politician, which is most of them, it is a terrifying time. A deer in the headlights. You can see disaster coming, but you cannot avoid it.

The first reaction of low-risk politicians when hearing the call for a new party is invariably, “too difficult!” Never works (except all those times it did). If you believe that, you are correct. You cannot do it. You also cannot fix anything else in the country, because creating a modern party built to address the challenges of the next 10/20/30 years when people are so desperately crying out for it, is one of the easier challenges facing the country. It is also absolutely necessary if the country is to thrive.

Everything in politics is connected. Party structure and organisation, membership, candidates selected, quality of MPs and leadership, values and aims, policies and competence in implementation, strength in standing up to the press and ability to sell/communicate. It all needs to work together, or the whole does not work.

It is difficult, to be sure, and some recent efforts at creating new parties (eg. ChangeUK) have been half baked efforts that were doomed from the start. But it has been done elsewhere, it is done every day in the real world, and it can be done here.

A Modern Centre-Right Party

What are the benefits of building a new modern party? They include but are certainly not limited to the reasons below.

We all get involved in politics because we want the UK to thrive. New ideas, high quality people, clarity of purpose. We do not get involved to fight endlessly amongst ourselves, and manage decline in a broken, outdated organisation. Of course there are differing views and conflicts in any group, but there is creative conflict and then there is Conservative Party dysfunction.

We can build a vehicle that provides a sense of purpose, leaving a legacy, making this country better, not one of constantly trying to fight off saboteurs, mediocrity, cliques, nepotism, and feeling in the end “what was all that wasted effort for?”.

We desperately need an effective party designed to make things happen, focused on the detail of making government work better, not whining about the blob by unqualified ministers.

Britain and both its major political parties have lost any ability to take risks. Risk avoidance is now embedded in their DNA and it is killing the country. Life is uncertain. Innovation is about uncertainty. We must take risks to be innovative and successful. Only in a party built for it will we be able to generate exciting ideas and solutions, try them out, explain them, and be accepted for doing some things that ultimately do not work.

We need a structure that attracts the country’s best people, not one that embeds declining mediocrity and allows problem people to bring everyone else down. A clean slate party that people from all backgrounds and areas of the country feel welcomed in (no false historical Tory/Labour identity) would unlock huge potential. The Conservative Party now limits itself to about 20 per cent of the country.

We need a clear focus on making the country thrive, especially young and working aged people. If people under the age of 50 are not thriving, people over the age of 70 are not supported, and our country is not thriving.

A modern party gives us the opportunity to lead again, to set the example for others around the world, to make Britain dynamic and thriving. The world has changed and we need to modernise with it.

So What Is Needed?

Building a new party is just like starting a new business. It needs proper thought, proper planning, and proper expectation setting. It is not just a collection of people replicating what already exists.

There is far too much detail to include here, but to give an idea, it includes elements of the following.

It starts with a meaningful definition of what principles and values the party is about. That is a written document addressing belief in the goodness and creativity of people, family and community, the purpose of government, engagement in the world, pride in country, etc. Principles which do not change, and upon which other positions are derived.

There then needs to be examples of how those principles and values work, and how they ultimately translate into policies (principles/values are long term, policies are short-to-medium term translations of those principles and values).

For example, low tax on its own is not a core principle. It is a vague relative outcome which serves a purpose and which now gets separated in political consideration from the services those taxes pay for. It doesn’t answer the question: if low taxes are good, why are there any taxes at all? The real question is what should and shouldn’t government do, and why?

An organisational structure needs to be defined, fit for the modern world, built on modern technology and able to adapt quickly. That structure also needs to address a number of challenges bringing down our old parties. The current models, with declining and ageing membership in a fast-moving world, do not work anymore.

There are competing problems that need to be solved.

A party needs debate and multiple voices, but also must present the public with a coherent mission and plan, high quality candidates and representatives, and through its principles be driven to do things right for the country and just for self-preservation.

It must prevent an out of touch group of elites from embedding itself in the party leadership, while also preventing small groups of troublemakers at every level from hijacking the efforts of everyone else.

Alongside structure, a set of operating principles are needed that are different from the principles of the party. These include risk taking; an empowered team (never again becoming a one person show); expectation setting; a defined culture and tone of voice; proper management and recruitment of people – this is not a club.

The name must convey what the party is about. It cannot be one that is only temporarily relevant (Reform/Change UK). It must inspire and guide behaviour amongst all involved. Ironically, the name of the Conservative Party now holds it back, in that it has come to mean ‘stop anything new from happening’.

A core team initial group of people are needed to make it happen, including thinkers/architects, coordinators/managers, funders, doers, and high profile sponsors/promoters.

While expectation setting and defining realistic expectations is key. This will be a 10-15 year project, not two-three years. Looking ahead, 2035 and 2040 seem a long way away. Looking back, 2015 and 2010 seem like yesterday

Like any new venture, a staged business plan is needed:

• A pre-seed six-month/year one plan (stage 1)
  • Building the core team
  • Building out the detailed plan, structure, principles, etc
  • Gaining key early support
  • Raising seed funds
• A seed/early stage one-two year plan of how practically to build momentum (stage 2)
• A series A/B two-five year plan – moving from start-up to challenger (stage 3)
• A five-ten year plan – moving from challenger to government (stage 4)

The final, possibly most important factor that is needed to successfully start a new party, like any new business, is luck. That means right time and right place. There has never been a better time, and a greater need. We have seen the lowest ever vote share of the three main parties, still declining. We have incompetent, broken competition, being picked off by protest parties that will never deliver anything. There is an enormous gap in the market, with no party serving the increasingly frustrated group of working age people.

If you cannot face the challenge, by all means, stay withering in the Conservative Party. See you at the funeral.

But it is time for those who can do, to get real and act. It is an enormous waste to see good people in their prime sitting on the sidelines, wasting time praying for a miracle which is not coming, or resigned to decline and mediocrity. The country desperately, desperately needs a party that can successfully lead it.

It has been done before, and it will be done again.

Work has already started on all this. There is much more to do. If you are interested, find me, and get in touch.