TORY BOY: Memoirs of the Last Conservative

Published in hardback as 'Small Men on the Wrong Side of History', the book was described by The Times as 'Insightful, poignant and at times hilarious.' Exploring why Conservatives have lost almost every political argument since 1945, Ed West looks at this endless litany of failure from the perspective of one of the losers in his semi-autobiographical, self-deprecating way. Since the 1950s, the Western world has gone through a huge cultural shift, comparable to the rise of Christianity during the late Roman period, and the 16th century religious revolution unleashed by Martin Luther. Both of these led to profound changes in public ideas about morality and sexuality, and eventually to 'culture wars' between two deeply opposed groups. Today what we are witnessing is a sort of second Reformation, painful and boring, and both sides are going to get more idiotic and hysterical. Conservatives like the pagans and Catholics before them are very much on the losing side. The future appears progressive and their defeat is inevitable. Too many polemics and articles on the Right are tediously shouty, and too few of them explore where their arguments have fallen flat, and why people find conservatives so repulsive. West will look at some of the idiocies of the modern Right and the strange characteristics shared by conservatives, including himself, and also offers explanations as to why people are conservative, and he explains some of the benefits. He argues it's now necessary as a break on 'runaway liberalism', the competitive desire to appear Woker Than Thou which is driving progressive politics to extremes. Think "last man standing" meets history lesson... sprinkled with gallows humour, funny and thoughtful. 426 page paperback edition.