For reasons I cannot fully understand, a political group called Conservative Way Forward has my name on their mailing list. Interestingly they never sent out a General Data Protection Regulation form or notification as far as I can recall, I certainly never ticked any boxes to ask to stay on the list, but nevertheless when I got the email yesterday morning inviting me (yet again) to their drinks reception with Boris, Liam and Priti yesterday evening it made me wonder if their numbers were down compared to the supporters they had hoped to attend. Of course if they had me and a few others on the list then there is a possibility they have over estimated the numbers of people who were likely to attend. They are a strange group, bearing in mind they claim that they are “the largest and most influential group within the Conservative Party, founded over 25 years ago to promote the principles of Baroness Thatcher. These timeless principles led to three decisive General Election victories and when applied to the problems of today will lead us to victory” What I find strange is the fact that despite all sorts of criticisms made by Margaret Thatcher towards the EEC, that she unlike the high profile members of CWF was a believer in the value of the agency that is now called the EU and which we are about to leave at great cost to ourselves. Indeed tragically it was the CWF past Chairman, Gerald Howarth who used the organisation to promote a false quote from Winston Churchill in an attempt to promote the Vote Leave campaign. The invitation to last nights gig included the promise “This event will see CWF relaunched under a new Chairman with a new Parliamentary Council, our new Chairman will set out a vision for CWF and how we will shape the debate in the coming years as well as increase the vital on the ground campaigning so necessary to defeat Jeremy Corbyn and his Momentum fellow travellers.” I hope that the numbers were sufficient to justify the hire of the Institute of Directors building on Pall Mall which as the invitation stated is “an amazing venue that was frequently visited by both the Duke of Wellington and Ian Fleming whilst it was the home of the United Service Club. It was also where Margaret Thatcher’s eulogy for Ronald Reagan was filmed.

Of course historical information is always important in planning the way forward, but the debate needed in the next couple of decades will be a series of apologetics as our nation suffers from its decision to take control back to a Parliament that on Tuesday will spend a maximum of 12 hours debating and voting on 200 amendments to a piece of legislation that will impact on our nation for the next 25 years. The decision to curtail meaningful debate on such matters comes largely as a result of pressure from the members of CWF who are determined to drag us back into the early 1970’s. The fact that Parliament can spend weeks debating much less important matters will one day come back and bite us very hard!