I left Tory’s party because it became a Trumpesco disaster. Others will follow | Jamie Greene

I He joined the Scottish conservatives in 2015, in the period When David Cameron was stopped with hood embraced. At that point, he had pushed the equality of marriage through a skeptical and deeply difficult party, he had moved to the middle of the way on issues such as the environment and, of course, had remained in his arms with Nick Clegg outside n. 10, publicly embracing the centrist liberalism, how circumstances required. Ten years later, the party changed enormously and I left.

For me, everything started well. I was duly enrolled by Ruth Davidson to the Scottish party and elected in 2016 to the Scottish parliament. You may remember his political fists in karate style, Tank driving photo and, during the Brexit referendum, the road He hit Boris Johnson In front of thousands of people at the Wembley Arena.

I will not lie: as gay, there was a suspicion below to join the feast of section 28, although my trepidation was loosened by the promises of a party that had changed and Now it was all about fiscal prudence combined with social liberalism. It worked for me as an entrepreneur of the media from a background of the working class. “Aspiration” was a password that I liked.

The Scottish Tries have become the Second party in Scotland in Scotland In the 2016 elections. We have passed the work with a pro-UK message, Centrist, restoring a record of 31 msp. It was a sure vote for people who had never put a cross in the Tory box in their life. You could really perceive the change on the party. Who cares, I feel you ask? The fact is that many people from my background-young, aspirational, unionist and fairly center-sighted centrists found a house in a party that sat down the knights of the kingdom next to the survivors of broken families and families damaged to alcohol.

The problem with political parties, however, is that they are made up of real people but managed by spin machines. The two do not always align. Since Davidson left The helm of that happy ship has become very unhappy. The values ​​of many of his people have not changed, but those responsible have done. I went from being encouraged to pride of Edinburgh a year like Tory who shows solidarity, to being escorted out of the stage by safety for my safety the following year. The hostile crowds do not whistle politicians if they are happy with the party they represent, right?

Over time, the social issues alive of gender identification, zero net and immigration objectives, together with a huge change in global policy, meant that sooner or later the Tory Party should have decided where it was on the politician spectrum. He chose to slip on the right. At the beginning slowly, then accelerating when his decline from power became inevitable. The party was hammered in the general elections.

The rise of reform UK, once seen as a joke of a dress, began to create cracks in any granting of decency left in the conservative movement. The brilliance of tolerance and acceptance has been exhausted. The upper layer of paint “Big Church, Broad Tent” has been stripped to reveal what was always below: the old style “ugly party“Of the policy of the 80s. I know why I have been for some time, and it is as disgusting as shocking. The party cannot realize that the road to success does not reside in the right -wing populism, but in decency in the middle of the road.

Quite simply, by the last week I it could not go on. I will be honest, I lasted nine years because I felt and I still felt a lot of respect for the many good people of the party. The conservatives of a nation that rejected the manufactured division. I’m still there, but I know that many of them are no longer comfortable. I know because they are telling me.

The party in which I once found a house was reduced to reform. His agenda is trumpled with style and substance. In my letter to resign to the party leader, I warned that “now we run the very serious and immediate risk of becoming the party of the social division and wars of morality again”.

When the news of my departure came, I received an E -mail from a supporter of Tory who said: “With the perverse views you will not miss, a good Riddance”. Days later, Tory Hr’s spin car was spitting that “I felt at home with gender extremists” and denounced “meaningless” opinions and ideologies. The revenge reaction to my departure from some within the party on social media, citing verses of the Bible on Judah, further strengthens mine View that going out was the right thing to do.

I joined the Scottish Liberal democrats The day after the resignation of Tory’s whisk. They treat colleagues with respect and decency. They are optimistic and positive. I have heard more tolerance in three days than he has done in the last three years. Their political values ​​are better in line with what Davidson has tried to obtain with his version of the tores: fiscally responsible but socially liberal. The center is where most voters are located; It is where I find myself and – judging from the messages I have received in the last few days – it is where more decent bulls are found. Maybe they just need a new home too?

I may have been the first msp to leave the tories Scotland In this parliamentary session, but I would be amazed if I were the last. The sentimental part of me hopes that all this excuse saga acts as a clock for decent people.

The language of the far -right division does not win the elections. A positive and inclusive vision does it. This is just common sense.

• Jamie Greene is the Scottish liberal democratic MSP for Western Scotland

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