Tory grandee fears ‘English nationalist’ UK Gov could ‘breakup’ the union
A Tory grandee has said he fears the “English nationalist” UK Government could “breakup” the union.
Chris Patten, a former Chairman of the Conservative Party, made the comments amid a storm engulfing Boris Johnson’s government following reports of parties held at No 10 during lockdown.
An explosive video released by ITV News showed Boris Johnson’s then spokesperson Allegra Stratton joking that one Christmas party “was not socially distanced” and suggesting to pass it off as “a business meeting”.
It has been reported that Jack Doyle, then deputy director of communications, gave a speech and handed out awards gathering on 18 December last year. It is understood that the party included food, drink and games.
The Conservative Party has also been fined £17,800 by the Electoral Commission for “failing to accurately report a donation” that paid for Boris Johnson’s expensive refurb of the Downing Street flat.
The revelations have sparked speculation that Boris Johnson could be ousted as Prime Minister by his party colleagues.
Patten told PM: “I’m not sure that this is a Conservative government. I think this is a sort of all over the place, rather chaotic English nationalist government, and that I find is deplorable and very difficult, and one of the big things which is going to face us in the next few years is unless we’re careful we’re going to see the breakup of the union because of this.”
In response to the comments, Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts said: “Former Chairman of the Conservative Party, Chris Patten calls Boris Johnson’s government as it is: ‘This is an English nationalist government’.
“Boris Johnson does not speak for Wales and the sooner we’re independent the better”.
‘Morally delinquent shambles’
Chris Patten added: “I think it’s an incredibly dispiriting and morally delinquent shambles, but you might expect me to say that because I’ve never been a fan of Mr Johnson.”
On the allegations of parties at No 10, he said: “And the whole thing has been unbelievable. First of all denying that there was any party. Then denying that there was any party but that if there was one then all the rules were being followed. Then getting the Cabinet Secretary to review whether there was a party and whether the rules were followed. Then having to admit that there were several parties and the Cabinet Secretary is looking at them.
“Look the first of, the biggest of those parties was the one I think on the 18th of December. I know more about this I think than I wanted to know. And apparently the Prime Minister in the house, in Downing Street, as the same time. Now you know as well as I do that if you have 40 or 50 people, and according to the FT this morning, the Financial Times, so it must be true, there was loud music being played it would be very hard not to know there was a party going on.”
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The first rule of No. 10 parties is that there are no No. 10 parties.
The second rule of No. 10 parties is that there are no No. 10 parties.
That’s a fact we in Wales don’t get a look in from this London government and people in Wales are starting to wake up and it doesn’t matter who the government are labour are just has bad when they are in power in London they take the Welsh vote for granted WAKE up Wales
They’re not English Nationalists. They’re British Nationalists. They have a vision of a singular British Nation ruled from Westminster alone under their hegemonic power. And it is an Anglophone Britain they seek. They’ve gone beyond Unionism. They’ve no interest in an Union of Nations. Even England is a regional identity to them, even if they see it as “the Big Daddy.” This is the Tory State and they see it as their dominion. The likes of Labour are wasting their time trying to come to some sort of federalism based constitutional accomadation with that mob. Dissolve the Tory UK and… Read more »
Former” big wigs ” in the Tory party ,coming out daily, to not only attack Boris, but also call into question the party itself and what it has become. Earlier we had Dominic Grieve, former Tory MP, and former Attorney General calling Boris a liar on radio 4, and ctiting the actions of Boris as the ” green light ” for how the rest behave, ie, parties , rule breaking etc. A byelection in North Shropshire is looming and if it close could be the start of the end for Boris, but we will still have the anvil of a… Read more »
The Tories are not Nationalists but English Imperialists. They think they can act with impunity towards Wales by imposing English rule. They have never respected Wales as a country. In their eyes we have no sovereignty or right to home rule. They think we are part of a greater England and a trophy nation to exploit still. And ever since the inception of devolution in 1997 and subsequent 2011 legislative referenda culminating with its name change from the derogatory Welsh Assembly back to its original dignified title of Senedd Cymru/Welsh parliament ,have tried to undermine and usurp Welsh devolution by… Read more »
I suppose, when you look back through history, there has never been anything in Wales for the Tory party, yes, a few MPs at times not even a single MP, and some MS, but never in the majority, and never in a position of power within Wales, whenever ruling, always from a power base in England, therefore, ” why should they ” would seem to be a good question.
The real question is, given its history why should we (or anyone else in the world for that matter) respect England?
They should respect Wales has a nation they spent hundreds of years trying to wipeout the Welsh people with All them castles that they built they were not holiday homes they tried to wipeout our language and CULTURE has they did in every other country that they invaded and we are only three million people and very often beat fifty five milion of them in sports and they also claim things that they have no right to for a example Stevenson didn’t make the first train to run on rails in England it happened in merthy Tydfil in Wales20yrs earlier… Read more »
Yes please, bring it on. They are not English nationalists, they’re not advocating self-determination for England. They are just Anglo-centric UK nationalists. Big difference.
Besides this parties debacle there are so many other reasons why Wales should leave the UK. It has become very obvious, even to Tory Grandees, that the UK is failing and with Johnson and Co in power it is very likely to break up sooner rather than later. I don’t think anything can stop that happening now – we are past the point of no return.
One of the positive outcomes of Brexit is the exposing of the tensions and fractures within the UK. The Faragist- Johnson wet dream is rapidly becoming a nightmare and most of the UK’s demography will feel some sort of pain while a relatively small segment will do fairly well and an even smaller segment, the real opportunists and chancers, will syphon off huge sums of money out of the public purse by means of overpriced contracts and other scams. If this doesn’t fire up the people nothing will.
I recall in the late 1980s attending my first meeting of the then Advisory Committee on Postal Services for Wales. An interesting body but what I found most fascinating was secretariat civil service and how they ‘perceived ‘ Wales. We may think there was hostility or antipathy towards us or indeed a fear of going our own way etc – but nothing could be further from the truth. There was in fact a total lack of knowledge of who we were and what we were about – we were seen as a sort of ‘ West Anglia ‘ and not… Read more »
with all the focus on johnson and No;10, lets not lose sight that yet again the met police force are refusing to investigate a possible crime, while thousands of people up and down the UK are being fined in court for doing exactly what this bunch of parasites are being accused of, Obviously cressida dick DBE, QPM knows where her breads buttered, try and work out why she’s been awarded these titles or why she’s still in the position she’s in, was it the murder of de Menezes, or just the simple ability to not investigate any wrong doing by… Read more »
I can’t help thinking that Chris Pattern is trying to excuse decades of mean and small-spirited Tory thought (and the resulting policies) and suggest that these are somehow not really Tory at all. (Has he forgotten the Poll Tax and hiding behind Austerity to dismantle the state already?) While it is true that the current administration has been hijacked by a particularly nasty Nationalist cadre (E.R.G. et Al) we must remember that it is deep in the very nature of a Tory to go along with anything to stay in power and feather their own nests. We must never forget… Read more »
Look – It wasn’t a party…. it was part of a scientific trial to determine if snorting coke protects you against getting Covid 19.