A recent theme on Liberal England has been to drawn attention to changes in the culture of local Conservative parties. This has happened over several decades, but the shift now seems definitive.
The norm for Tory councillors and activists is no longer local worthies (or busybodies), for whom politics is an extension of their citizenship.
Instead they are angry culture warriors, actually contemptuous of "mending the church roof" (as Kemi Badenoch would put it).
I’ve been involved in politics in my area since the 1990s, and have witnessed the same phenomenon: the balance of local Conservatives seems to have shifted decisively away from conservative-minded active citizens and towards online-radicalised crackpots.
Part of the electoral problem for the Tories is that this is pretty similar to Reform, but the latter are much more effective at stoking online resentments. Local election results are still coming in as I write, but they seem to bear this out.
The classic 1970s sitcom Dad’s Army, set in the Second World War, might help our analysis here. As late as the 1990s, local Conservative branches were dominated by the likes of Captain Mainwaring: the self-important bank manager who appoints himself commander of the Home Guard in his small town of Walmington-on-Sea.
Both the script and Arthur Lowe’s marvellous performance show that Mainwaring is not a buffoon: he has some intelligence and integrity, although his manifest limitations mean that he is often the butt of the jokes. In the 1950s he would probably have become Conservative mayor, having had 'a good war'.
Nowadays, Captain Mainwaring is nowhere to be seen in local Conservative parties. Instead, they are dominated by of some of the other characters.
There is Private Frazer, declaring "We’re doomed, all doomed!" without offering any practical suggestions. There is Private Walker, the spiv, contemptuous of rules that apply to others, but probably canny at running a
committee room. And doing the bulk of the leaflet delivery is Private Pike, the simplistic mother's boy, now radicalised by spending too much time online with right-wing influencers.
One of the reasons for this shift is economic change. The class basis of local Conservative parties has been hollowed out by developments in capitalism, which now has much less need for people in the middle.
Walmington-on-Sea probably no longer has its own bank branch. If it does, then its staff are low paid and unable to exercise their own judgement: they will have to follow the bank’s scripts and algorithms, and won’t have the opportunity to decide which local business gets a loan.
Most locally owned businesses will in any case have been replaced by national chains, or by online retail and services. And doctors, headteachers and local government officials, will be relatively less well off, and have much less agency, than their predecessors. They may well be commuting to Walmington-on-Sea because they can’t afford to buy a home there.
Other factors are also present, but my argument is that capital no longer has need for many Captain Mainwarings; it no longer plugs them into local economies, and no longer gives them some agency and status in their locality.
The ever-greater concentration of capital, and the growth of rentierism in land and finance, combined with technological change, means that the symbiotic relationship between capital and local agents has been broken.
Reform is a much better fit than the Conservatives for this sort of capital: it's an online brand which requires fans rather than officials and doesn’t concern itself with providing any actual product or service. That has its own limitations, as will become increasingly clear as Reform has to run councils. But in the mean time, Captain Mainwaring is dead.
Anselm Anon has been a member of the Liberal Democrats since the 1990s.
I like this post because Liberal Democrats don't normally have much of an economic analysis. We are at a point in the development of capitalism where even governments have very little agency where global corporations are concerned - one of the principal reasons why leaving the EU was so stupid.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tony, I agree entirely! Liberal Democrats need much more economic analysis. I think this is the party's main limitation. Jonathan reviewed a recent book which does something to address this, When We Speak of Freedom: https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2025/04/book-review-when-we-speak-of-freedom.html. And I had a go in one particular policy area: https://liberalengland.blogspot.com/2024/04/guest-post-no-smoke-without-political.html. But it is a challenge for the whole party, at every level, to articulate economic analysis.
ReplyDeleteI think you’ve hit on a really important point here. But I don’t think Captain Mainwairing is dead. He’s now chair of a local voluntary organisation. Church roofs are still getting fixed. It’s up to LibDems to become the party of these local community stalwarts, who previously aligned with the Tories in the countryside and with Labour in the cities.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this, Phil. I agree with you, but only in part. You're right that some Tories have opted out of the party but stayed involved in civil society. An example: a former Tory councillor in my patch, who lost his seat 20 years ago and is no longer involved in the party, has been chair of school governors for some time. And I agree the Lib Dems should be the party of community stalwarts. This is increasingly the case in some parts of the country (although not where the Greens are growing, but that is another story). But I disagree about Captain Mainwaring. He is dead because capital has no further use for him, and this is having a big impact on our society and politics.
ReplyDeleteThanks Anselm. Yes I get the point that capital has no role for Captain Mainwairing but society (and politics) does, and he only dies if we let him. We’re not Tories, we don’t believe that capital should have free rein. We’re Liberals and believe it should have limits and constraints. So do a lot of Mainwairings. Just try asking them what they think of the water companies!
DeleteI think we agree! I don't applaud these trends in capitalism, and the impulse to be a good citizen is found in lots of places. But local Conservative parties are no longer dominated by a particular strata of professionals and commercial managers.
DeleteThis is a very good article - I was particularly struck by the use of the word “integrity” to describe the active citizen conservatives of yesteryear. People who were not trying to get rich quick, and who would have had no time whatsoever for a chancer like Boris Johnson.
ReplyDeleteI must admit, I don't regard lots of what were once referred to as One Nation Conservatives as busybodies. Indeed I am extremely disappointed in Anselm for even using such a demeaning expression. There doubtless are/were some, but it is an easy putdown of generally good people who are simply not as left wing as our progressive wing.
ReplyDeleteThe group I discuss were not necessarily One Nation Conservatives, by any means. And some were certainly busybodies! Many One Nation Conservatives didn't engage with their local communities, and many Captain Mainwarings were much mote right wing than that. And some were certainly busybodies! But thanks for engaging.
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