Cllr Ralph Baldwin: Why I am joining the Conservative Party

Cllr Ralph Baldwin of Barking and Dagenham Council announces his decision to join the Conservative Party

Over the past months I have been preparing myself for a massive change. Ironically it has been a much smoother process than anticipated. People are often questioning their parties, more often than not because they care very much about the issues and policies their Leaders are implementing. It’s a sign of healthy vibrancy and introspection, of intelligence and debate, of freedom over control. When you are sitting in the Council Chamber of Barking and Dagenham, one thing you quickly realise is the silence and even the local paper mentions the strange “lack of discussion” in meetings.

It is no longer about “loyalty”, it is about nothing short of totalitarian control. The strangest aspect was the lack of discussion in the Labour Group meetings where people were too afraid to speak out. The fear was palpable.

Watching Question Time I see the same expressions and hear the same voices, the common denominator in all of them is the lack of any form of service to the public and lack of concern about the circumstances or policy being discussed. The supercilious attitude of people who have nothing to do with any kind of political tradition or ethos beyond their own advancement regardless of the consequences or damage used to be quite shocking to me.

When you watch Question Time their attack lines are generic and clumsy, referring to people losing their jobs and businesses, or helping millionaires (Labour still courts them and is led by them), relying on “Eton” as an elitist criticism when Labour still brands it’s MPs a political “elite” to satisfy their pretentious delusions and attack their own long dead ideology, with the usual hypocrisy and their future MPs and Parliamentary staff are mostly inexperienced ex-public school people.

Of course Labour is not offering an alternative to the policy of austerity and yet is trying to play two games at once, relying on a strategy they practised upon their own membership to prove to themselves how dim their own members were (they do not understand the virtue of loyalty only control using any means) and that is to proclaim a programme, no matter how shallow and go through the motions only whilst trying to steal Conservative ground. 

Ed Milliband attempted to create a “New Generation” without actually making any real changes at all to his party other than to try and con more members into campaigning harder and even diluted further their input at Conference. Pure rhetoric however but zero on delivery. Pay attention to Labour, they often accuse the Tories of doing the very thing they themselves are doing, remember the appalling slogan “ramping up the rhetoric” repeated by Millibands’ pet MP Parakeets? All written for them to follow like drones.

Milliband like all his predecessors promised a new politics and when tested by me, was found to be weak and false. It was also supported when Ed backed Ken Livingstone after his tax exposure.

So what is the danger? Well the real and very clear danger lies not just in the nepotism and incestuous family groups that now dominate absolutely the Labour Party, the lack of any form of scruple, they abandon policy at a whim without having to go into a coalition.

It isn’t even in the tremendous vacuum they created in politics that gave rise to the BNP and after their motives were exposed in the expense scandal and in the way they handled it, the election of Nick Griffin resulted.

The terrible danger is clear; they have become spoilt mad children. They refuse to accept or believe they had anything to do with the bank collapse, they have said this on live TV. They say the Tories created a new recession as though after the first “dip” we somehow addressed the banking problem and a new problem has come to visit. Even though they would have implemented either the same or stronger cuts (my belief is they will cut further and use their Labour “mask” to delude people they are doing them a favour which may sound responsible, but will target groups, the most vulnerable groups and leave them with nowhere to go in our democracy and increase the danger further). Such a move will only be temporary as they commit themselves in complete contempt to the public to cashing in again totally devoid of reality and purpose and of what the public think.

In a word they have no grasp of reality, or of consequence. They have created a new bubble around themselves, as though their senior MPs were completely different people before they lost the General Election to who they are today. Any comment aimed at their corruption of public life is seen as “abusive” or “insulting” as they can do no wrong no matter what shape such behaviour takes and they point blank refuse to show or exhibit genuine remorse.

We need a strong Conservative Party, this is no longer about the left vs the right, it’s about the centre and the right, about democracy vs the complete corruption and collapse of Parliament. The Big Society, as vague a notion as it is, is incredibly important and needs flesh put on its bones. We cannot afford Labour. The Conservative movement must one based upon freedom, of empowerment and encouragement, of using greed not being ruled by it. It must mean law and order - with the rule of law to all citizens. It must mean regeneration. It muust mean a state that helps those truly in need but that protects those who work and need to work with new forms of incentives for doing the right thing.

The centre ground is important, but there is plenty of room for the right too and when you create an attractive policy platform. There is appalling pressure on the Cabinet and its Leader because the cost of failure will lead to an even worse Labour Government and believe me things can get a lot worse. I want to be with the people solving or trying to solve problems in our society, I’ll even volunteer to do my bit, as I did when I helped give the BNP the boot, as I did when I served in the RAF in a very small way.

I am with the Tories for now and the rest of my life. I will never forget the “control” and delusion of absolute Power of the Labour Leadership and their Council Leader here that has destroyed their party and made it little more than a self serving twisted club for a few families, a true sign of decline and depravity. They have crippled our democracy and our economy and are guilty of worse, of trying to delude by projecting their denials and delusions at everyone at a time when people, the public and the residents are demanding sober democracy and the truth so that they can have hope and faith that Government functions again and that we can get out of this mess.

I'm not looking for a cuddly party, but I do believe the Conservative Party should be a positive place and it’s ideology no longer perceived as the worst case scenario but a singular truth that in a tough life we all try and do the best we can for ourselves with our eyes open to reality so that we can best attempt to make a harsh world better. The other option, is self-denial, true hubris, delusion and madness and at the cost of the lives and hopes, dreams and ambitions of millions.