Tag Archives: european conservative and reformists

Blaise Baquiche

A longer read for the lockdown: Why I left the Tories and became a Lib Dem

By Blaise Baquiche | Tue 28th April 2020 - 2:10 pm


Embed from Getty Images

It wasn’t Brexit that made me leave, but a stark realisation that there was something deeply wrong with the Tory party.

I owe my life in Britain to a Tory MP. In 1957, newly elected Keith Joseph was instrumental in persuading the government to grant sanctuary to Jews fleeing Egypt following the Suez crisis, which included my father aged 8.

My grandfather, a 32-year-old dentist at the time, was asked by Egyptian authorities why he was leaving the country. Predicting a surge in hostility towards non-Arabs inspired by President Nasser’s populist speeches, he responded “because you’re allowing me to”.

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , and | 35 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Jana
    “ There is no offence of using the wrong lavatory and there never has been” This is correct - an offence would only be committed if there were some malicio...
  • cim
    Agreed with a lot of the above, "compulsory voting" is just a way to mask the symptom that there's not much in our current democracy that gets people excited to...
  • Stephen Gosling
    I was against compulsory voting until a few decades back when I saw in my then ward the age & assumed income cohorts of those currently voting. If we want t...
  • SteveTrevethan
    Thanks to all for a most interesting and relevant article and set of comments! From the information and possibilities therein contained, is it the case that ...
  • David Evans
    Let's be honest here. The whole thing is a political carve up, by an instinctively centralising and authoritarian Labour party, emboldened by a huge parliament...