I joined the Scottish Conservatives in 2015, back around the time when David Cameron was still hugging hoodies. By that point, he had pushed equal marriage through a sceptical and deeply difficult party, had moved to the middle ground on issues such as the environment, and had, of course, stood arm in arm with Nick Clegg outside No 10, publicly embracing moderate, centrist liberalism as circumstances necessitated. Ten years later, the party has changed enormously, and I have left.
For me, it all began well. I was duly signed up by Ruth Davidson to the Scottish party, and elected in 2016 to the Scottish parliament. You may remember her karate-esque political punches, tank-driving photos and, during the Brexit referendum, the way she took down Boris Johnson in front of thousands of people at Wembley Arena.
I won’t lie: as a gay man, there was some underlying suspicion of joining the party of section 28, though my trepidation was eased by promises of a party that had changed, and was now all about fiscal prudence coupled with social liberalism. That worked for me as a media entrepreneur from a working-class background. “Aspiration” was a buzzword that appealed to me.
The Scottish Tories became the second-largest party in Scotland in the 2016 election. We overtook Labour with a pro-UK, centrist message, returning a record 31 MSPs. It was a safe vote for people who had never put a cross in the Tory box in their lives. You really could sense change in the party. Who cares, I hear you ask? The thing is, many folks from my background – young, aspirational, unionist and fairly centrist of view – found a home in a party that sat knights of the realm next to survivors of broken families and alcohol-harmed households.
The problem with political parties, however, is that they are made up of real people but managed by spin machines. The two don’t always align. Since Davidson left the helm of that happy ship, it has become a most unhappy one. The values of many of its people did not change, but those in charge did. I went from being cheered at Edinburgh Pride one year as a Tory showing solidarity, to being escorted off stage by security for my safety the next year. Hostile crowds don’t boo politicians if they’re happy with the party they represent, do they?
As time went on, the live societal issues of gender identification, net zero targets and immigration, along with a massive shift in global politics, meant that sooner or later the Tory party would have to decide where it sat on the political spectrum. It chose to slip right. Slowly at first, then accelerating as its decline from power became inevitable. The party was hammered at the general election.
The rise of Reform UK, once seen as a joke of an outfit, started to create cracks in any veneer of decency left in the Conservative movement. The shine of tolerance and acceptance wore off. The top layer of “big church, broad tent” paint was stripped to reveal what was always underneath: the old-fashioned “nasty party” of 1980s politics. I know this because I have been on the receiving end of it for some time, and it is as disgusting as it is upsetting. The party fails to realise that the road to success lies not in rightwing populism, but in middle-of-the-road decency.
Quite simply, by last week I couldn’t go on. I’ll be honest, I lasted nine years because I felt, and still feel, a lot of respect for the many good people in the party. The One Nation Conservatives who rejected manufactured division. They are still there, but I know that many of them are no longer comfortable. I know this because they are telling me so.
The party in which I once found a home has been reduced to Reform-lite. Its agenda is Trumpesque in style and substance. In my resignation letter to the party leader, I warned that “we now run the very serious and immediate risk of becoming once again the party of social division and morality wars”.
When the news broke of my departure, I received an email from a Tory supporter that read: “With your perverse views you won’t be missed, good riddance.” Days later, the Tory HR spin machine was spouting that I would “feel at home with gender extremists” and denouncing “nonsense” views and ideologies. The vindictive reaction to my departure from some within the party on social media, quoting Bible verses about Judas, further reinforces my view that getting out was the right thing to do.
I joined the Scottish Liberal Democrats the day after resigning the Tory whip. They treat colleagues with respect and decency. They are upbeat and positive. I’ve felt more tolerance in three days than I have in the past three years. Their political values fall better in line with what Davidson sought to achieve with her version of the Tories: fiscally responsible but socially liberal. The centre is where most voters are at; it’s where I am at and – judging by the messages I’ve had these past few days – it’s where most decent Tories are at. Perhaps they just need a new home too?
I may have been the first MSP to leave the Tories in Scotland in this parliamentary session, but I’d be amazed if I am the last. The sentimental part of me hopes this whole sorry saga serves as a wake-up call for the decent folk among them.
The language of far-right division doesn’t win elections. A positive and inclusive vision does. That’s just common sense.
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Jamie Greene is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for West Scotland
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