The self styled Conservative Democratic Organisation held a one day event in Bournemouth on Saturday.
It was apparently all about taking back control, although later on the dance people could apparently get out of control.
It was in practice a joint meeting of the Boris Johnson and Liz Truss fan clubs. It might be thought they don’t get on but the Guardian reported in the week that Johnson and Truss had been seen meeting at the Mayfair Club 5 Hertford Place.
In any case neither was present. Truss is pursuing a world tour of destruction- in Taiwan next week. Johnson is not likely to pitch up anywhere that doesn’t pay him thousands to be there.
The conference was streamed on-line. Attendance was difficult to judge because only the platform was lit. Further only the platform had access to microphones. It didn’t seem that democratic.
The speeches were of the Bufton Tufton genre. Johnson andTruss had been removed by coups, and there were LibDem entryists in the Parliamentary Tory Party apparently.
Those attending were united in a dislike of the present Tory leader Rishi Sunak.
The concern was that he was appointed rather than elected by Tory members which on this showing one might think was just as well.
That said there is a wider historical point. While local Tory politics historically would probably not pass as democratic in any serious understanding of the word, they were left to get on with things with relatively little central intervention. The issue now I think is with the control exerted by the Parliamentary Party as much as Tory Central Office.
Even so, it reflects broader trends in society that a gathering of Tories can meet to consider democracy, even if its not democracy as we know it
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