For anyone who has grown up with the idea that the right dominates Britain, it can be a shock to discover that its members are often anxious or even downright miserable. Much of this week’s already notorious National Conservatism conference in London – seen by some on the left as a gathering of immensely powerful and sinister forces – was actually very gloomy.
Over three long days in a slightly chilly church conference centre in Westminster with opaque ecclesiastical windows blotting out most of the outside world, I encountered a rightwing movement that often seemed frustrated, divided and angry – and pessimistic, even apocalyptic, about the right’s prospects. Despite 13 years of Tory government, it was widely agreed that the climate for conservatism had not got better but worse.
