🔗 Share this article Enjoying the Collapse of the Tories? That's Comprehensible – Yet Completely Mistaken On various occasions when party chiefs have seemed moderately rational outwardly – and alternate phases where they have come across as completely unhinged, yet continued to be cherished by their base. Currently, it's far from that situation. One prominent Conservative left the crowd unmoved when she presented to her conference, while she threw out the provocative rhetoric of anti-immigration sentiment she believed they wanted. The issue wasn't that they’d all arisen with a renewed sense of humanity; instead they were skeptical she’d ever be in a position to implement it. In practice, an imitation. Conservatives despise that. A veteran Tory apparently called it a “themed procession”: loud, vigorous, but still a parting. Future Prospects for the Group That Can Reasonably Claim to Make for Itself as the Most Accomplished Governing Force in History? Some are having a fresh look at Robert Jenrick, who was a hard “no” at the outset – but as things conclude, and other candidates has withdrawn. Others are creating a interest around Katie Lam, a young parliamentarian of the latest cohort, who looks like a countryside-based politician while saturating her socials with border-control messaging. Could she be the figurehead to beat back opposition forces, now surpassing the Tories by a substantial lead? Does a term exist for defeating opponents by adopting their policies? Furthermore, if there isn’t, maybe we can use an expression from fighting disciplines? If You’re Enjoying Any of This, in a How-the-Mighty-Are-Fallen Way, in a Consequence-Based Way, It's Comprehensible – But Absolutely Bananas One need not consider overseas examples to grasp this point, or reference the scholar's groundbreaking study, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: every one of your synapses is shouting it. The mainstream right is the key defense resisting the extremist factions. The central argument is that representative governments persist by appeasing the “wealthy and influential” happy. I’m not wild about it as an guiding tenet. It feels as though we’ve been catering to the propertied and powerful for ages, at the detriment of everyone else, and they rarely appear sufficiently content to cease desiring to take a bite out of public assistance. But his analysis is not speculation, it’s an archival deep dive into the Weimar-era political organization during the pre-war period (in parallel to the UK Tories in that historical context). As moderate conservatism loses its confidence, as it begins to pursue the rhetoric and superficial stances of the radical wing, it transfers the control. We Saw Comparable Behavior Throughout the EU Exit Process The former Prime Minister associating with Steve Bannon was a notable instance – but extremist sympathies has become so evident now as to obliterate any other party narratives. Where are the traditional Tories, who treasure stability, tradition, legal frameworks, the pride of Britain on the world stage? Why have we lost the progressives, who defined the United Kingdom in terms of economic engines, not powder kegs? Let me emphasize, I didn't particularly support any of them either, but it's remarkably noticeable how these ideologies – the inclusive conservative, the reformist element – have been erased, in favour of constant vilification: of migrants, Islamic communities, welfare recipients and protesters. Appear at Podiums to Music That Sounds Like the Opening Credits to the Television Drama Emphasizing positions they oppose. They describe protests by 75-year-old pacifists as “displays of hostility” and use flags – national emblems, English symbols, all objects bearing a splash of matadorial colour – as an clear provocation to those questioning that complete national identity is the best thing a person could possibly be. We observe an absence of any natural braking system, encouraging reassessment with their own values, their traditional foundations, their original agenda. Each incentive the Reform leader throws for them, they follow. So, absolutely not, there's no pleasure to observe their collapse. They are dragging social cohesion into the abyss.