Conservatives can’t agree on much at the moment. But one view that the vast majority of them would struggle to disagree with is that there are fundamental problems with the party’s pitch to the electorate. The fault lines have been there for some time, but the issue became impossible to ignore after last year’s general election.
That is why there has been a flurry of activity on the centre-right of British politics lately. At the forefront of the wave of initiatives to reboot Conservatism is George Freeman, MP for Mid Norfolk and head of the Conservative Policy Forum, who last year launched his Big Tent Ideas Festival. The event, which journalists quickly dubbed “Tory Glastonbury”, returns on larger scale this year.
For this week’s episode of Free Exchange, I spoke to George about the challenges and opportunities of Conservative renewal. I hope you find the conversation as interesting as I did.
You can listen to the full episode here, or subscribe via iTunes.