14 Years of a Conservative Government.

15th September 2025

* some of the content below was posted on my Twitter / X account during August/September 2025. This blog may be updated periodically.

There’s always a lot of talk about the 14 years of Conservative Government 2010-24. 

For sure, it was no picnic. 

Some things went wrong. 

Very wrong. 

But …

Some things went right. 

Very right. 

There was a lot of pearl clutching and punishment going on by 2024. 

But, let’s look at what actually happened.

High Level Performance

We hear a lot about the 14 years of Conservatives government.

The failure, & betrayal. 

But, between 2010 & 2024 there were 5 General Elections.

The Conservative Party won 4 out of 5.

Someone must have been happy with them. 

The majority were voting for them.👇

Let’s look at the data.

So, in each of the 4 Conservative Party General Elections wins, the winning vote share was bigger than the so-called ‘landslide’ Labour General Election win in 2024.

So, it couldn’t have been bad for 14 years really.

Could it ?

Perhaps people are mis-remembering what actually happened. 

Now let’s not pretend Conservatives got everything right in these 14 years of government.

 

We certainly didn’t. 

We needed to do much more. 

And I’ve tweeted a lot about what Conservatives got wrong. 

But Conservatives got a lot right as well.

We must have. Conservative voters kept voting for them, until 2024 anyway. 

Feel upset, or even betrayed if you want. 

Admit Conservatives failures (though not forever).

And be proud of the successes, against attack from everywhere. 

However you feel, base it on what happened, not on hurt feelings and mis-remembering history.

Lower Level Performance

So, we’ve looked at the high level stuff (the General Elections), let’s look at some of the lower level key events now. 

Key Events

Let’s look at some of the key events (off the top of my head).

Now let’s not pretend @Conservatives got everything right. 

We certainly didn’t. 

We needed to do much more. 

And I’ve tweeted much about what Conservatives got wrong. 

But Conservatives got a lot right as well.

I contend that 2,3,6,8,9,10 (Govt support),11 on the list were major successes for the government. 

I contend that 1,7,10  (pandemic start),11,12,on the list were beyond the full control of the government.

Migration control was poor, it’s even worse now, under Labour.

The left leaning of the HoC and HoL together with left leaning judiciary / ECHR hindered progress. 

The Conservatives stopped the extreme left Labour under Corbyn becoming the government. What a disaster that would have been.

Although never implemented Conservatives established a viable deterrent to illegal immigration, RWANDA. 

Which would have worked. 

It was already having an impact.

And precisely why Keir_Starmer cancelled it within days of becoming PM in 2024. 

Labour do not want to stop illegal immigration.

Boris Johnson was elected with a mandate to GET BREXIT DONE.

And against massive opposition and a HoC in stalemate, Boris GOT BREXIT DONE.

The UK left the EU, as instructed by the public.

Now, YOUR list of Conservatives successes & failure during the 14 years may be very different.  

And your reasons for success or failure may be very different. 

But hopefully you get the point. 

It was no picnic for sure.

Low points & high points.

That’s life.

Conclusion

The moral of the story of 14 years of Conservative government which is still causing so much pearl clutching,is … 

Conservatives got a lot of things right. 

Voters liked it. 

Conservatives got things wrong.

Voters didn’t like it, and punished them at the ballot box in 2024.

And look what’s happened since then.

Sometimes I wonder if collective memory failure really exists. 

It must do.

And that, folks,is politics.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn

It’s Time To Roll The Dice, Again

 3rd September 2025

* some of the content below was posted on my Twitter / X account during August/September 2025. 

The last General Election (GE) in the UK was held on Thursday 4th July 2024, and won by the Labour Party, who are now the Party of Government.

The Labour Party Leader, Keir Starmer, is now Prime Minister of the UK.

FOR NOW.

Let’s remind ourselves of the scale of that win for Labour ?

Rishi Sunak, the previous Prime Minister and Leader of the  Conservative Party became LOTO, Leader of the Opposition, until a new Party Leader would be elected.

Kemi Badenoch became the new Conservative Party Leader and LOTO, and assumed these roles in early November 2024.

I am a conservative (small C), a lifelong Conservative voter and a Conservative Party Member.

I want a Conservative Government at the next GE.

The UK desperately needs a Conservative Government at the next GE.

Labour are destroying the UK. 

The cult are grifters. 

The Conservative Party are the best and only choice for the next Government of the UK.

That’s a given. 

That said,I believe that the current trajectory for the Conservative Party will NOT bring about a Conservative Government at the next GE, and maybe even at the one after that.

And, the way things are going, Conservatives may not even be the official opposition.

So, in November 2024 the Conservatives selected a new Party Leader. 

Personally I believed we selected the wrong Leader at that time. 

But given the disaster of the 2024 GE a new Leader would need time to slow and stop the decline and turn things around.  

So we then moved toward the local elections in 2025.

Surely this would at least start to show a ‘Badenoch Bounce’.

Well, NO it didn’t.

It got worse.

A lot worse.

The Conservatives

- lost 676 Council seats

- lost control of 16 councils

No Badenoch bounce,  just more disaster.

Council Seats

Council Control

The cries, or whimpers, were heard … but but but …

Kemi Badenoch needs more time. 

OK 🤷‍♂️

Let’s fast forward another 3 months and a recent voting intentions poll. 

It’s getting worse, folks. 

No bounce. 

Firmly in reverse. 

Now, it’s true that I am not a massive fan of polls. 

As an example, I have NEVER been asked to take part in a poll. 

And there are other polls. 

None show significant or sustained improvement in Conservative performance and chances at the next GE. 

Sorry to say. 

My considered assessment at this time, having given Kemi Badenoch 10 months as LOTO is that …

- it’s just not working

- Kemi Badenoch is not working

We are not even stopping the decline let alone gaining.

Labour and Keir Starmer have been in power for nearly 14 months, at the time of writing.

And in that time, 

- Labour have proved themselves to be the most disastrous Government that the UK has ever experienced.

- Keir Starmer has shown himself to be the worst Prime Minister the UK has ever had. 

The performance of this Government is beyond belief.

In this time there has been MANY PMQ sessions.

With open goal after open goal every week, sadly Kemi Badenoch has failed to score any wins, other than perhaps a couple of times.

It’s just not good enough

Nowhere near good enough.

The Conservative Party should be making hay right now.

Sadly, the truth is far from this.

 

We could give Kemi more time, again. 

But it won’t help. 

We need to be bold and make a change at the top. 

It’s time for Kemi Badenoch to go. 

Now we can wait 1,2,3 years to change Leader. 

That just delays what needs to be done and reduces the time a new Leader has to turn things around. 

Or we could do it sooner.

Given the rules associated with the selection of Conservative Leaders, Kemi Badenoch is safe in her role as Conservative Leader  until November 2025, the 1st anniversary of her selection into that role.

To move forward after that date, though, I would propose : 

- Waiting to assess the performance of the current Conservative Party Leader / LOTO in the upcoming Conservative Party Conference in early October 2025.

- Waiting until the results of 2026 local Council elections, expected in early May 2026. If the Conservative Party lose a large number of seats, or lose control of more Councils, then that would confirm the need for a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO

- A short selection process for a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO (max 2/3 weeks) is undertaken to select a new Conservative Party Leader / LOTO. The final selection being made by Members as per normal Leadership elections.

It’s time to be bold. 

The easiest thing would be to carry on as is. 

Bury our head in the sand.

Hope for the best.

The fundamental question is -

Do the Conservative Party want to be the Government again ?

EVER. 

My reply is a resounding YES. 

So it’s time to take the bold actions to make that happen. 

It’s easy to see the content of this blog as being negative towards the Conservative Party, maybe too negative.

I assure you, my assessment of the situation the Conservative Party finds itself in is nothing but positive.

Very positive.

We are the greatest, most effective and most successful political party in UK history.

We are the natural party of governance, of business, defence education, science & innovation and many other sectors.

An election fighting machine, albeit slightly humbled at present.

And we still have many great true blue Conservative MPs and ex-MPs that can and will play a huge part in politics in the UK. 

We should use these better.

Sadly, we have still have some that really aren’t Conservative, and these need to be rooted out and removed.

And we still have a core of true blue Conservative members, a network right across the UK that work tirelessly to support the Party. 

And we need more members and we will get more members, I am sure.

And of course we need to excite the electorate with fantastic policy and bring back our core voters.

Yes, we are not in a great position, but we can and will rebuild and return to power and return the UK to its rightful place.

Obviously, this is MY view as a Conservative member and as a patriot who loves this country.

 

And as someone who believes that the Conservative Party MUST survive and the UK MUST have a Conservative Government ASAP. 

But I believe many members and voters feel the same. 

But I know NOT all members and voters do. 

And that’s fine. 

We are all entitled to our OWN opinion on this. 

YMMV and that’s ok. 

My opinion is :

IT’S TIME TO ROLL THE DICE, AGAIN.

Thanks for reading.

Graham

Twitter : @apple_shwn

Please add any comments to my Twitter post at @apple_shwn