Attending the PopCon talk in Birmingham on Saturday (25th of January 2025) was rather like witnessing an intellectual symphony conducted by two of Britain’s brightest conservative maestros.
If you’ve ever sat in the dark night of the soul and pondered the grim decline of the Conservative Party over the last fourteen years, then this event, featuring the indefatigable Mark Littlewood and the brilliant historian Dr David Starkey, was nothing short of a revelation.
One could hardly have imagined a more dynamic and intellectually stimulating double act. These two need their own show on GB News – pronto! Their chemistry was electric, their intellects razor-sharp, and most importantly, they didn’t just wallow in despair but laid out a roadmap to redemption for those of us longing for a Conservative resurrection.
Mark Littlewood, that tireless champion of Popular Conservatism and former guiding light of the Institute of Economic Affairs, joined forces with the erudite Dr David Starkey, a man whose profound grasp of history has rightly earned him the title of Britain’s foremost conservative public intellectual. In a packed venue at All Bar One, they took us on an extraordinary journey, dissecting the past, interrogating the present, and sketching a future filled with conservative promise.
They tackled, with forensic precision, the long and painful fall of the Conservative Party, pointing out the policy missteps, leadership failures, and strategic blunders that have led us to the current nadir. And yet, in the spirit of true resilience, they offered solutions—sharp, incisive, and thoroughly doable solutions that could reignite the conservative cause. But make no mistake, Kemi Badenoch and company have a Herculean task ahead. After the electoral cataclysm of July, it is clear we are facing nothing less than an Everest of challenges and, dare I say, a revolution to undo.
Dr Starkey, ever the masterful historian, reminded us that we have been here before. He took us back to 1974, when the Tory party found itself in the doldrums after Edward Heath’s disastrous tenure, which saw Britain shackled to the European project. It was in that bleak moment that Sir Keith Joseph, a true visionary, discovered the works of Friedrich Hayek and set about converting a certain Margaret Thatcher to the free-market cause. The result? The Thatcherite revolution that transformed Britain.
Yet, Starkey warned, we must not merely look to Thatcherism for answers today. The crisis of our time is deeper, more insidious. Blair’s constitutional vandalism—the devolution disaster, the creeping influence of judicial activism, the erosion of parliamentary sovereignty—has left us in a quagmire of bureaucratic inertia. As Starkey so eloquently put it, Labour’s reforms undermined the very foundation of our great nation, turning parliamentary sovereignty into a mere shadow of its former self.
The audience was spellbound as Starkey outlined how Blair and Brown launched a guerrilla war against Britain’s constitutional heritage, chipping away at it piece by piece with devolution, the Supreme Court, the Equality Act, and the relentless empowerment of the quango state. The result? 444 unelected departments calling the shots, ministers who can’t get anything done and a government that no longer works for the people, but for itself.
Dr Starkey explained how the country is mired in a bureaucratic and judicial quagmire that severely hinders effective governance. Mark Littlewood pointed to the example of the Rwanda deportation plan, which was passed by the Conservative Government but was ultimately struck down by the courts. Despite parliamentary approval, the judiciary determined that Rwanda was not a “safe country,” effectively nullifying the will of elected officials. According to Littlewood and Dr Starkey, this incident exemplifies a broader trend where judicial intervention obstructs governmental action, rendering Parliament’s decisions ineffective.
Dr Starkey took this critique further by highlighting the impact of judicial overreach on local governance. He posed the question of why council tax bills are soaring and why major councils, such as Birmingham City Council, have declared bankruptcy. He explained how the answer lies in the implementation of the Equality Act. Though it may sound virtuous on the surface, Starkey contended that it prioritises minority groups over the majority, leading to financial instability. He also made the striking assertion that the act contains economic equations based on the discredited Marxist labour theory of value. This theory, which assumes that labour has an intrinsic value separate from market forces, allegedly results in unsustainable wage structures imposed by judges rather than market realities. Dr Starkey explained how such judicial decisions contribute to the financial collapse of local governments.
The speakers then emphasised that the fundamental operations of government, at both national and local levels, are now dictated by unelected judges and bureaucrats rather than accountable politicians. They pointed to the Bank of England as another example, claiming that financial decisions are now controlled by an unelected governor rather than the Chancellor of the Exchequer. This shift represents a loss of democratic control, as voters can no longer hold key decision-makers accountable through the ballot box.
And of course our current Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, thrives on this system. He embodies the very problem at hand—a leader deeply entrenched in the progressive managerialism that has led us to this point. Day by day, Starmer continues to empower the establishment: unelected bureaucrats, activist judges, and the relentless creep of state control.
But despair not, for solutions abound! Both Littlewood and Starkey argued that the answer lies in a great Conservative Restoration—a decisive rolling back of the Blairite experiment, a revival of the British constitutional principle of parliamentary sovereignty, and a recommitment to the values that made Britain great.
Conservatives and Reform UK will hopefully unite under that shared vision, putting country before party. The Conservative and Unionist Party, Dr Starky reminded us, has always stood for national unity, and this must now extend to working with Reform to forge a common platform. An electoral pact may well be inevitable, but the focus must remain on policies, not personalities. The time for factionalism and petty disagreements is over.
Furthermore, Starkey emphasised the need for conservatives on all sides to make their voices heard—loudly and unapologetically. Without sufficient noise and pressure, he warned, the forces of bureaucratic inertia will prevail. The movement must be unrelenting in its demands for reform, with a clear message that resonates across the country.
The challenge before the Conservative and indeed Reformers, is clear. They must shed their timidity, rediscover their intellectual firepower, and forge a new path rooted in tradition, sovereignty, and economic freedom. A Great Repeal Act will be needed and we need to do the work now. If done correctly it could unite the right and a conservative landslide will ensue. If they fail, the British people will be condemned to years, perhaps decades, of leftist drift and decline.
Dr Starkey drew an intriguing parallel with the United States, pointing out how Donald Trump, through his insurrectionary Make America Great Again movement, did not merely contest elections but ultimately seized control of the Republican Party machinery. This, Starkey argued, is precisely what needs to happen in the UK. The Conservative movement must go beyond party politics and initiate a full-scale takeover of the political apparatus, ensuring that true conservative values are not just represented but entrenched.
To bring it all to a rousing conclusion, the event ended on a note of cautious optimism. There is a way forward, the speakers insisted, but it will demand courage, clarity, and an unshakable dedication to conservative values. Kemi Badenoch must step up, apologise unequivocally, and call out Labour repeatedly for being the architects of this decline. Fourteen years ago the Conservatives should not have meekly followed the tracks Labour laid – they should have obliterated them.
Come 2029, those tracks must now be reduced to rubble, and every damaging policy reversed with a vengeance. We must act with the decisiveness of Trump across the pond, showing no hesitation in repealing what is broken.
History tells us that the British people possess an uncanny knack for pulling themselves back from the brink, and we shall do so again with the next centre-right government. To succeed, the Conservatives must listen to the people, craft the right policies, and set their own course. If they do, the right will unite, and Britain will once more flourish.
This was, without a doubt, an afternoon of intellectual nourishment and political clarity. If the Conservative Party is serious about reclaiming its lost glory, it would do well to listen to the likes of Littlewood and Starkey.
As for me, I left the event with renewed hope and a deepened appreciation for the timeless wisdom of conservatism.
Onward, my friends, to victory!
Chris Bullivant Snr
- Find out more about PopCon here.
- Follow Mark Littlewood here.
- Follow Dr David Starkey here.
- Join the Great British PAC here.
- Suggest and vote on great policy ideas here.
