Politics is fracturing, old party loyalties are dying and new political forces are emerging. Well, that’s the script inside the Westminster bubble. Few embody what is rotten about modern politics more than Justin Hinchcliffe the openly gay, arrogant, sneering, right-on leftist chairman of Tottenham Conservatives.
Conservative high command suspended him Wednesday for using his position to endorse the Liberal Democrats in a neighbouring constituency. He seems to believe he has done nothing wrong, but after years of letting people like Hinchcliffe get away with it, the Tories have finally lost their patience.
For Hinchcliffe politics is about keeping the coalition alive to maintain power and to push the party of Thatcher further to the left. He loves the coalition, after all it’s a vehicle to work towards permanently centrist social democracy.
He has a solid track record of putting his himself before the country and his particular penchant is publicity. As a 14-year-old, Hinchcliffe called for elderly people to be thrown out of hospital because they cost the government money (better known to us as “taxpayers money”).
At 1995 Conservative Party Conference he wanted to take to the stage in the education debate. He was stopped by the party and instead conducted a cringe-worthy interview about how state schools in Tory boroughs were better than Labour ones (he did not cite any reasons).
It was during this period he suggested the homeless go fish in the Thames. I am told it was not intended as an ironic joke. At the same time he was proudly telling people his mother was living on income support. Perhaps she should have gone fishing, or better still got a proper job. Then the taxpayer would not have been handed the bill for his upbringing.
In 2006 he publicly attacked UKIP for standing in local elections, which he claimed damaged the chances of the Conservatives. However, we can only wonder why Euro-sceptics would want to step aside for Hinchcliffe as he had consistently campaigned within the Conservative Party for them to back more European integration.
He also claimed that while all political parties had “bigots and loonies” UKIP had more than any other party aside from the BNP.
Following on from these successful interventions he became the chairman of Tottenham Conservatives. He used the role to go back to attacking pensioners, this time it was the 66-year-old father of a Labour candidate who committed the sin of putting his recycling in the wrong place. Hinchliffe posted a photo to Twitter explaining he was an “avid recycler” himself, and the man should have put the bin in the right place.
In April last year he announced his local election candidates in Haringey saying: “I am extremely proud that we have a woman standing in every ward. And our candidates are drawn from the diverse communities which make up Tottenham: Christian, Muslim, Jewish and secular.
“Of our 27 candidates, 6 are Polish, 3 Turkish, and others are from France, Italy, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Ghana, and Uganda. Five candidates are gay. One is blind. All have chosen to make their home in Haringey; and all have had enough of our Labour-run council.”
The truth about Hinchcliffe is he is part of a whole movement of people who want the party to ape the Social Democratic Party of the 1980s. They believe in diversity quotas, crazy environmental policies, euro-federalism and supporting their fellow “moderates” the Liberal Democrats.
When the Conservatives ask themselves why the UKIP surge is happening they should not look at Nigel Farage, they should hold up a picture of Justin Hinchcliffe. Oh and here is the car crash interview from 1995 (note the portrait of John Major on his bedroom wall):
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.