One of the things that is a perennial constant when you are a self-identified conservative or centre-right figure with a middling or greater sized public profile is the demands that are placed upon you to be “respectable”.
That is to say, consider the scenario where a building earmarked for asylum accommodation spontaneously or otherwise goes up in flames, while you yourself are very much on the public record as having said “immigration has been too high for too long and local communities have a right to oppose new asylum centres and to engage in peaceful civil disobedience to inhibit such projects”. There is an expectation that not only should you, therefore, rush to condemn the arson, but that you should be at the front of the queue to do so and more vociferous in your condemnation than anybody else. After all – it will be said with a wink and a nod – these are your people, are they not?
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