He isn’t really right wing though, he is from a different Tory faction which failed to tap into much of any power in the past few governments. Politics on the Edge gave good insight into his time as an MP and his roles during the period, but he didn’t justify or go into much detail about what being on the right (centre right for him, really) truly means.
Comment on [Serious] Any high-quality right-wing media, books, explainers?
Skua@kbin.social 6 months ago
I will have to preface this with the fact that I have not read any of his books, but former British politician Rory Stewart is one of the people that comes to my mind when reading your description. I don't think that he comes to the right policy positions, of course, but whenever I listen to him he does seem to at least have a degree of empathy for all people. He seems to at least generally see the problem even if I think that his solution wouldn't work. He has an effective way with words in interviews and his writing is generally very well reviewed too.
ABCDE@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Skua@kbin.social 6 months ago
I'm not sure that makes him not right wing, surely that just means he wasn't the kind of right wing that succeeded in the political landscape of the UK in the past 20ish years? His voting record is generally in favour of less regulation (outside of a few issues), lower taxes, military intervention, isolation from the EU. He's pro-environmentalist, but that hasn't always been an exclusively left-wing thing. Similarly, anarchists and Marxist-Leninists are both left wing, even if they wouldn't necessarily get along well in a single political party together
ABCDE@lemmy.world 6 months ago
There are many left-wing people who were for leaving the EU, so I wouldn’t use that as a measuring stick of left/right.
His voting record is something he has covered; a lot of these votes which make him seem particularly bad (I’m not a big fan of his, despite having read The Place In Between - before I knew who he was - and Politics on the Edge) but from times when people were whipped or ‘encouraged’ to vote a particular way. We found out what happened when he did go against the whip, with even Nicholas Soames feeling that wrath.
Skua@kbin.social 6 months ago
Fair enough. The whip is a reasonable point to bring up, though I would suggest that if it bothered him that much he wouldn't have stayed in the party for ten years. After all, he had switched parties beforehand. I get where you're coming from though.
Allero@lemmy.today 6 months ago
Might be useful when taking popular side of it, thanks!