Politics & Power Quote by John Redwood

Redwood is doing the oldest trick in party politics: claiming permanence while smuggling in reinvention. “We have always been” isn’t history, it’s a protective charm - an attempt to wrap whatever the party is about to become in the comfort of tradition. In the 1990s, with the Conservatives bruised by sleaze scandals and internal civil war over Europe, insisting on “a great national party” is less a boast than a rebuttal to the charge of being fractured, doctrinaire, or simply tired.

The phrase “views on all the main issues” is deliberately vague. It signals competence without risking commitment. What makes the line work is its rhythm of reassurance: broad identity first, then the promise of practical focus. The pivot to “daily lives” is a cultural read of the era’s mood - voters were growing impatient with grand ideological crusades and Westminster psychodrama. Redwood offers a consumer-facing politics: deliverables, not metaphysics.

Then comes the list: “schools, hospitals, transport and law and order.” It’s an inventory of the state, but framed in a way that allows a right-leaning politician to sound custodial rather than austerely anti-government. The subtext is triangulation: we can talk like technocrats and still be Conservatives. “We have plenty to say” is the final tell - not “we will do,” but “we can talk.” It’s a pitch for credibility before it’s a plan, aimed at a public that had started to treat politics like a service industry with too many excuses.