“We need to talk about Brexit more.” Such advice from Baron David Frost of Allenton does not come lightly. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s point man in the United Kingdom’s negotiations on independence from the European Union, Lord Frost was speaking before a recent Conservative conference at Newcastle. 

Lord Frost argues that Brexit is a core Conservative Party project — with the indispensable support of Nigel Farage, natch —  and that “if we don’t talk up the successes and the future projects, no-one else will.”

Wags will argue that Lord Frost isn’t necessarily preaching to the choir in respect of his own parliamentary party, both in the Lords and Commons. At present, a recalcitrant Conservative Government may be the most troublesome stumbling block to realizing the benefits of Brexit. 

Independence of the United Kingdom from Europe was sold to a freedom-loving British public as restoring their nation’s sovereignty after years of subservience to the Brussels bureaucracy. Yet feature the results on offer — unmanageable immigration, endemic inflation with ensuing interest rate hikes, rising energy costs and with no reliable sustainable sources, all tied up in the woke-culture that infests Whitehall.

Of course, some of these problems predated Brexit and, in any event, are also showing up in other countries. So Brexit can’t be blamed for all of it. The “the new establishment that likes telling people what to do,” though, and “what we are allowed to think.” Slight gains on GDP growth, well below 0.5 percent, are among the slim pickings on offer.

To his credit, Lord Frost is cognizant of the steep climb. “It is us that have been in power for 13 years,” he admits. “We bear responsibility.” Like the best of Tory leaders, though, from Bolingbroke to Pitt to Disraeli, and Churchill to Thatcher to Johnson, Lord Frost is an inspiring optimist. Out of necessity, one might say, if he is ever to lead the party.

“I’m not giving up on the next election,” Lord Frost told that Conservative crowd in Newcastle. “Yes the polls are bad, but there is still everything to play for.” Never mind that time is growing short: your Diarist believes a dynamic leader with the right message can triumph against all odds, but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is not that man.

Lord Frost is more confident, opining to his audience “how I think we can win the general election when it comes;” that is, “through delivery . . . and through having a proper conservative plan.”

He sums up his road to electoral success in two words: freedom and growth — toward “a better nation and a new Britain,” what he calls “modern Conservatism.” To do so, he argues in favor of “building a new nation — changing the old ways and building a new one.”

But how? Surely to build a new nation is to travel the route toward chaos charted by the Jacobins and the French Revolution. So as a guide, Lord Frost can do no better than “to channel” the wisdom of Benjamin Disraeli.

“In a progressive country change is constant,” Dizzy acknowledged. “And the great question is, not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws, and the traditions of a people.” 

The alternative, Disraeli averred, is “whether it should be carried out in deference to abstract principles, and arbitrary and general doctrines.” Contemporary conservatives would lay these “woke sensibilities” at the feet of cosmopolitan values — a Disraelian term of reproach. 

The answer, therefore, is clear: A return to national values. Hence back to freedom and growth. But on the axiom that politics and economics flow downstream from culture, growth is dependent on freedom.

This was — and is — the promise of Brexit. “Bringing power home to the British people,” Lord Frost asserts, “and putting voters back in charge.” Only then will his second step have any effect: “a virtuous circle where spending is cut, taxes start to fall, investment starts to grow, growth and productivity return.”

Instead, surveying the recent past, Lord Frost discerns “the direction of travel, that 30-year drift to high-tax/high-spend state-knows-best collectivism.” Traditional Tories are tired of the party’s stock retort: Politics will only be worse under a Labour Government. 

Still, from the likely “direction of travel” under Sir Keir Starmer, Conservatives are correct. This near certainty is made more crushing by the latest electoral poll conducted for the Daily Express. The Official Opposition leads the Government by 22 points, 46 percent to 24 percent. The numbers are more ominous still, given seat projections.

Conservatives are forecast to lose 275 seats, left with a rump of 90, while Labour would surge by 258, swelling to 416 seats — and an overall majority of 290 seats. This is nothing to be sniffed at. “In the unreformed House of Commons,” writes historian Norman Gash, before the Reform Act of 1832, “anything less than a three-figure majority for the government in an important division was a sign of weakness.” Today, such a preponderance is an indisputable sign of strength.

So, “talk up” Brexit? Yes, but in terms that will resonate with the British people. Freedom first, and then all the benefits that flow from putting people before the State and ensuring the State works for the people. If the Conservatives can return to these core principles — these traditional values that immortalize Disraeli — they will earn the people’s trust, but not before. Lord Frost and like-minded adherents have their work cut out for them.

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