THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY: A GREAT BRITISH MESS

Ralph Early - 31st January 2022

To many observers, both foreign and domestic, it would appear that United Kingdom is in deep trouble politically and economically, which does not augur well for short-term and even long-term societal stability and harmony. To put it bluntly, our country is in a terrible mess. But, why should this be so? To those with the capacity to appraise rationally the evidence and also the willingness to replace emotion-linked beliefs with facts, it will be obvious that the cause of the political quagmire in which the UK now finds itself is deeply rooted in the inability of the Conservative Party to come to terms with itself. While it is every person’s right in a democracy to choose their own political affiliation, and certainly no political party is ever perfect, the rot that is now evident at the centre of the Conservative Party will cause many to reflect on their ability to maintain loyalty to this particular party. This is not to say that other of the UK’s political parties are without their difficulties and indeed, a little reflection on the recent history of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is sufficient to explain why the party then could never rationally have aspired to government. Even under Sir Kier Starmer one has to wonder whether his intelligent, quiet and gentlemanly manner, apparently devoid of aggression and confrontational inclination, may in the end impede Labour’s access to 10 Downing Street. As for the Liberal Democrats, while they have been able to enjoy success at recent by-elections, including the remarkable victory of Helen Morgan in taking the now disgraced Owen Paterson’s North Shropshire seat which the Conservatives held for nearly 200 years, their ability to make significant impact at a general election remains uncertain.

Let’s return to the problem for our country that truthfully is the Conservative Party - and here we should note that the word party is singular not plural. In this we see the central problem that is the Conservative Party. It’s one which presents a problem for we the voters who elevate a select few to MP and the level of demigod in our country, thereby gifting whichever party forms a government with almost unlimited power. Fundamentally, the man or woman in the street faces the problem of knowing – or actually not knowing – exactly what the Conservative Party is, what it stands for and who it represents. Is it really even one party or an amalgam of different shades of blue, given the many and different ideological notions that trip from the lips of Conservative MPs? The Conservative Party calls itself a party, but truth be told it’s really several parties or factions collectively branded as a single party for electoral advantage. Consider that under the banner of ‘Conservative’ there lies the libertarian capitalist European Research Group, which was instrumental in manifesting the EU referendum and pushing our country into an economically catastrophic no-deal Brexit glorifying isolation in Europe and establishing cultural and geographic distance from the rest of the world. Then there’s the Bruges Group which nurtures a deep-seated hatred of the EU and rejects the science of global climate change, even though the evidence is undeniable. But what of the other groups? The list is long. There’s the Blue-Collar Conservatism Group, the Common-Sense Group, the Net Zero Scrutiny Group, the Northern Research Group and not forgetting the Covid Recovery Group or the Conservative committees of which there are numerous. We might even distinguish some committees as groups, such as the powerful 1922 Committee able to influence the removal from office of Conservative prime ministers. If we think our country is in a mess, take a look at the Conservative Party. It’s incontestably a mess. So how can any voter genuinely be expected to get their head around what this party really is and who it actually and honestly represents as a priority: be it the British aristocracy and landed gentry, or hedge funds, investment banks and global corporations, or the ordinary citizen who pays tax at source and is burdened daily by rent or mortgage worries and debts they may never be able to repay?

As an amalgam of various different and often secretive political factions, each with their own ideology and set of objectives, the Conservative Party seems hardly able to present a rational political choice for voters based on clarity of knowledge about the party itself. But in this, is it really so very different from any other party, perhaps with the exception of the Greens? Even so, the Conservative Party is and has been incredibly successful at the polls for two centuries and although the British news press which leans heavily to the political right is clearly a cheerleader for the party, we must wonder at the reasons for its success. We must also wonder if it can continue to be successful, or whether the national experience of Brexit might just happen to destroy it before Brexit itself finally decimates the British economy. Indeed, if Brexit does cause long-term and irreparable harm to the British economy, so eroding the quality of life of the people, perhaps the Conservative Party should pay a heavy price for what many are beginning to realise was a grave Tory mistake. Recall that former prime minister David Cameron agreed to the EU referendum even though the British people weren’t actually demanding it in any voluble or meaningful way. Cameron was simply hoping to remedy the internecine squabbles within the Conservative Party, as well as halting the loss of supporters to UKIP. We should also recognise that many Tory MPs also saw departure from the EU as a way of avoiding new EU tax regulations for themselves and their wealthy mates.

From Cameron’s personal perspective, the referendum was a disaster but it did create a path into 10 Downing Street for Boris Johnson, which Johnson then took with the aid of world-class lies and slogans. Recall ‘Take Back Control’ and ‘Reclaim Our Sovereignty’. Think also on Theresa May’s ‘Brexit Means Brexit’ when nobody in the Conservative Party had a clue what Brexit actually meant and they still don’t, which is irrefutably why Johnson is still waiting to ‘Get Brexit Done’ over two years after entering Downing Street. He promised that leaving the EU that would deliver a vibrant economy and a quality of life far exceeding anything possible in the EU. He also promised £350 million a week for the NHS, written proudly on the side of a bus. We now know that none of this was true and we see that just like the promises Johnson made in his 2019 election manifesto, they count for nothing.

Johnson is a remarkable politician though. That is undeniable. It’s not for his achievements on behalf of the British people that he’s remarkable, but for his ability to survive in spite of his decades-long track record of narcissistic mendacity and an apparent inability to control his peripatetic penis. In spite of this and significantly because of his TV-show image of politician as clown, he found among a certain sector of British society a cult following willing and eager to absorb xenophobic English Nationalist messaging in support of Brexit. His character traits and behaviours then swung both Brexit and the premiership in his favour. However, as Henry Cate observed, “The problem with political jokes is that they tend to get elected”. This is what the British people appear to have done in Johnson’s case. They have elected a joke and now it seems that Johnson is in deep trouble of his own making, but it also threatens serious trouble for the Conservative Party.

At the time of writing it’s hard to say whether Johnson will survive much longer as PM. It is clear there is a will within the Conservative Party to protect Johnson’s position as prime minister and this may be more to do with his populist appeal and linked ability to win general elections rather than his ability to be another Churchill. On the other hand, it may alternatively reflect a deep seated and unspoken concern on the part of many Tory MPs that Brexit will not deliver the sunlit uplands of prosperity the British people have been promised. Will the Party then need to offer the people a sacrificial lamb as a means of atonement and will that lamb be Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson? This remains to be seen, but whatever the future holds for Johnson, the Conservative Party itself will likely remain the mess it currently is and has been for decades. And the British people will likely remain in the dark as to what the party really stands for and who it truly represents.