PopCon Director, Mark Littlewood, attended the launch of a new paper at the Prosperity Institute last week. Read why he thinks it is a game changer. 

Last week I attended the launch of a new policy paper at one of London’s leading think tanks. The occasion gave me real cause for cheer. 

For me, that’s an unusual reaction to such an occasion. I must have attended many dozen such launches over the course of the last ten or fifteen years. They can often provide useful food for thought, frequently clarify one’s ideas in a particular (and sometimes very obscure) area of policy or sometimes even make you change your mind. But rarely do I leave such events thinking they are a true game changer. 

But that’s exactly how I felt at Thursday morning’s event at the Prosperity Institute in Mayfair. They were launching a paper co-authored by Suella Braverman and PI’s own Guy Dampier. It covered the topic of not just why Britain should leave the ECHR but also on how to do so. 

The paper is very well put together (as you’d no doubt expect from Suella – a former Home Secretary, former Attorney General and a KC) and it doesn’t shy away from the challenges in extracting ourselves from the Strasbourg court (and unravelling the way we have built our ECHR commitments into our domestic legal arrangements through the Human Right Act). 

But even that doesn’t explain why I thought this was such a significant gathering. A good number of leading politicians, journalists and thinkers were in the room (which was packed to bursting) which is always a good sign. But the real boost to morale was for two rather different reasons. 

First, these sort of ideas are becoming cross-party. The speakers at the event included – in addition to Suella herself – Lord (David) Frost and the deputy leader of Reform, Richard Tice. On the substance of the issue – as well as the detail – you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between them. 

For those of us determined to “unite the right”, this matters. While there is endless Westminster tittle tattle about what some sort of electoral alliance or pact of non-aggression might look like (and whether it would even be remotely attractive to either the Conservatives or Reform), I think the exercise in bringing about unity needs to be much more about ideas than crude psephological calculations. 

Here was clear evidence that thought leaders in the Conservative Party and the leadership of Reform were basically at one with regard to a major constitutional issue of our times. 

But there was a second, even more important and heartening takeaway from the Prosperity Institute launch. 

PopCon’s key aim since its launch has been to proselytise an overarching case. The restoration and recovery of Britain doesn’t merely require a few policy tweaks here and there but a coherent and full-scale overhaul of the state structures that have grown up since Blair’s victory in 1997. These have had the impact of undermining Parliament and empowering quangocrats and the legal system. It has reached the point where you could argue that we live in a democracy in name only. 

An incoming government will need to tackle the “blob” all at once. Attempting to curtail its powers just a little bit here and a little bit there would be like attacking a hydra just one head at a time. 

Persuading people that we need a complete reset or restoration is vital. But that grand vision is going to need a lot of detailed policy work – a series of technical and specific roadmaps specifying how we navigate ourselves to such a destination. 

The fact that we now have a leading think tank providing just such work gives me great hope that the next government won’t just involve a change of personnel at the Cabinet table but that it will have the tools to put our country on a completely different path. 

You can read Suella’s paper HERE or watch a short movie in which she summarises her case HERE. 

I commend them both to you. 

Keep the flag of freedom flying!