Tories heading for the precipice

The Tory Party: 185 years in existence and in democratic terms, the most successful political force in history.  It has had its moments. The Corn Laws (1846) for example, which led to some 30 years in the wilderness, but this was a matter of economic common sense in the interests of all of Britain’s people. The Tories came back with a vengeance.

It achieved this unprecedented electoral success by being a pragmatic, centre-right party, which knew that a ruthless focus on power through delivering economic progress was the only objective that mattered.

Not now. It started with Thatcher; for many years a brilliant prime minister who, love her or loathe her, made the political weather and changed the direction of the country. She was actually quite pragmatic until the last few years and in her heyday would have never got us into this intractable mess with the EU. But she left office bitter, broken partly on the back of Europe although personal style mattered too. And on Party issues, she was never as benign as she professed. She began to turn the Tory Party into an ideological grouping and the seeds of its destruction were sown. Since 1992 it has only won one election with an overall majority. This new ideological approach was electoral suicide and the evidence is, well, evident.

And today, the Tories have still not learnt and are imploding. They are a rabble. A disgrace even, with able, moderate voices being extinguished by ideology from an increasingly unrepresentative, (of the electorate), shrinking membership generally, and the ERG wing in particular. It is the latter who have brought down May. Her many mistakes were dominated by ever believing that pandering to them would work. It needed more nimble, charismatic leadership to win. She needed to face up to her European extremists, in the process building alliances out of persuasion rather than necessity. Hey ho, we are where we are.

The EU elections were a well signalled disaster for the Tories. Farage, so much more able than most of his opponents, built a slick one issue campaign (take note remainers). He siphoned votes across the spectrum but particularly from the Tories and he did well. Hats off to him.

The Tories response? A further move to the right. Incredible. Probably at this stage Johnson or Raab, assuming they don’t blow up, will win the leadership, certainly if one of them reaches the final round of membership voting. They will pursue a no deal Brexit to head off Farage.

It will be the end of the Tory Party if either of them win. No liberal posturing on other policies will save it. This party was not built, and never succeeded, on the foundations of one issue. Its famed pragmatism would have led it to turn away from any act of national economic self-harm. And, in the past, even with its hostility to the EU, the Tory Party would never have voted for Johnson. He is a dangerous dissembler who carelessly flirts with the Alt. Right and its many dubious travellers, promoting divisive, jingoistic nationalism. The wider electorate know this.

On its current course, moderates will leave and by default the Tories will become a populist right-wing party, which will not win another election outright again. The centre-right/ centre/ centre-left (courtesy of Corbyn) ground is wide open and ripe for taking by a new generation of more talented politicians. If it wasn’t for the initial pain, you could almost feel optimistic!