Peter Huggins, a long standing member of the Conservative party, writes to BCiP Chairman Jeremy Stubbs on why he is now resigning.
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Dear Jeremy,
Although my attachment to the Conservative party was already well established, I began active service in 1951. The Atlee government had been hanging by the thread of a tiny and unreliable majority and decided on a snap election in October. At the time, posters in the windows of individual houses were important to get candidates known. I helped to deliver such posters to the party faithful on Shooters Hill, part of the very marginal constituency of West Woolwich. We won the constituency from Labour contributing to a Conservative majority in Parliament and the return of Churchill as PM. It was a happy new dawn for freedom and enterprise.
Ever since, I have supported the party consistently, if not uncritically. Recent years have been difficult as the party has increasingly fallen into the hands of intolerant Jingoists, many of them with links to UKIP or the Farage party. Today’s election of the new party leader is a bridge too far on this involuntary journey. The party has now chosen a dishonest and irresponsible charlatan loyal neither to country, nor party, nor family. His contempt for Parliament and the British Constitution is unbounded. As of today, the choice is between party membership and self respect. I have chosen the latter.
I wish all the best to you and the BCiP. I thank you for the rewarding times we have spent together. It is sad that the mindless drift of the party towards Faragism has done such lasting damage to British Conservatism. Perhaps in a happier and better informed future, it will come to its senses and the disillusioned faithful will return to the fold.
With my very best wishes,
Peter