Red pasts

Red pasts

Posted 28 Nov 2009 by Walaa Idris

These days, for one reason or another, it seems I get most of my news online. Last Sunday the Times Online had a piece on the Conservative party chairman, Eric Pickles, and his left-leaning ‘Red Past’.

The night before that I watched an edition of Straight Talk. Andrew Neil’s guest was my former MP Michael Portillo (who I hugely respect and admire). He too was a lefty and a keen Labour supporter at the age of eleven. He even ran a committee room for the Labour party and had a photo of Harold Wilson on his wall as a young teen.

Ronald Reagan, a hero of mine who has influenced and shaped a great deal of my political beliefs and ideals, started his political journey on the left as a member of the Democratic Party.

According to my mother and unbeknown to me I too began my journey on the left. At the tender age of six I was the youngest registered member of the Sudanese Communist party!

This got me thinking: it would be interesting to find out how many current Conservatives flirted with the left in their formative years.

3 comment(s)

Sally Roberts
30 Nov, 09:42

Delighted to read your new blog, Walaa! It looks excellent and I look forward to checking back here regularly.

Now – as to my flirtation with the left at a tender age….Yes indeed! At the age of 16 I fought a Mock Election held at our school as the Labour candidate! Not surprisingly, in a girls’ public school where the students voted as their parents did for the most part, I came last by a long way (behind the Communist Candidate who was obviously seen as more exciting and rebellious!) This was in the mid 70s but by 1978 I was a convinced Conservative and working hard for Margaret Thatcher’s victory the following year. I have never looked back.

Paul W.E. Ingham
30 Nov, 23:06

I joined the Barking Young Conservative’s when I was 15. Pretty much after I had finished my ‘O’ Levels. But I also have a secret left-wing past. For several years in the early 1980’s I was member of the Tory Reform Group.