As the Guardian notes this morning:
Rishi Sunak was losing control of an increasingly anarchic Tory party on Saturday as former cabinet ministers openly criticised the direction of policy under his leadership and dozens of backbench MPs plotted a new rebellion over Brexit.
Amid recriminations over the heavy Conservative losses in recent council elections, and with pro-Brexit MPs incensed that Sunak's government is dropping plans to shred more than 4,000 EU laws within months, discipline was at risk of completely disintegrating on the right of the party.
Johnson is getting his retribution in as failed Cabinet ministers (who should never have reached that level of appointment) from Dorries, to Patel and Rees-Mogg fly the pre-Brexit and anti-woke flag on GB News and at the Conservative Democratic Organisation, whose whole purpose for being seems to be to undermine Sunak.
The allegations are flying.
The prospect of there being rebellions in the Commons on post-Brexit legislation appears to be high.
Sunak must be reminded of the dying days of John Major's administration, when those he termed ‘the bastards' ground his command of the party down, and made clear that its days in power needed to come to an end. The impression that there was unity within the Tory coalition was shattered back then, and it is being shattered now.
What is more, on both occasions the party is being shredded by people hopelessly out of touch with what the public want. Most people in the U.K. now realise that Brexit was a massive mistake. And as the Guardian noted when it did recent focus group research on why former Tory voters switched to the LibDems, people have no time for the Tory anti-woke and identity politics agenda that these opponents of Sunak promote.
The Tory right wing had nothing to say that now resonates with this country. But they can make Sunak look incompetent, out of control and powerless. That is enough to end his chances of re-election. When governments have to lose elections, because oppositions (and most especially the one we have) rarely win them, this is the biggest likely indicator that there is that the Tories have no hope at the next general election, and maybe for a while after it.
In that case there is little doubt that Starmer is heading to be prime minister. Neoliberalism is safe for a few more years then. It's just that the custodian will be changed.
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The Conservative Party is looking more and more like a cult.
Only one cult? And not just Johnson’s hat in the ring, Patel, Braverman and possibly Wallace (the John Major choice).
John, people might disagree over the classification but the defining behaviour is consistent.
They have copied the U S Republicans – supply side solutions, photo ID for voting, obsession with woke and fake patriotism- and now the terminal descent into unreality and hubris.
Or maybe a bunch of useless cults?
I do wish you would learn to spell
🙂
‘Love the barbed comment at the end of the post and very much agree.
These ‘bastards’ are what they are in more ways than one. There seems to be some sort of denial as to what havoc they have wreaked over these years. The fact that they have also taken control/acquired a media outlet of their own is also very telling.
What is self evident however is the blame culture in Tory politics – this ability they have to deflect any of their deficiencies onto others and even those in the same party. They constantly talk about personal responsibility and accountability but obviously this does not apply if you are in power where some sort of notion of sovereignty take over!
This is why we need to lock them out or at least make them compromise through a better political system than FPTP.
Strangely reminiscent of the way the PLP treated Jeremy Corbyn. That ended well too.
If readers are looking for a solution how to move beyonf neoliberalsim and the conditioning that there is only one way to approach problem solving, through standard conventional wisdom, there is an interesting example from Ukraine.
I know little about military theory, but it seems that the modern exemplar of outstanding leadership and tactical military insight under real pressure is the Ukrainian General who masterminded the crucial defence of Kyiv in the first critical and decisive days of the invasion, and subsequently plans Ukraine’s operations; is Oleksandr Syrsky. Syrsky was trained at the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School, and the Russian Army. He understands Russian methods, but swiftly absorbed Western tactics.
The important point I wish to focus on, is that Syrsky had originally discounted the Russians attacking Kyiv for the Donbas; because he knew it was an exceptionally difficult operation, and knew the Russiand knew this very well. They attacked where least expected. He adapted to the sudden change to circumstances; following the evidence demonstrating that the theory he had assumed, was wrong, and developed two-circle defence of Kyiv, even ” locating the circles as far apart as possible in order to protect the city against artillery strikes” (CEPA). The CEPA article observes: “Alongside a nimble approach to tactics and the skillful use of surprise and deception, he has recognized the central importance of morale and motivation”. Syrsky observed of his decision to ignore the expectations of theory:
“Regardless of what I believed or didn’t believe, how it all seemed, I still carried out the activities required.”
I am struck by the fact that it is exactly the failure to do this in Britain; to adapt to recalcitrant facts; to the evidence that theory does not apply, that the theory does not fit the facts; to have the capacity to discount the expectations of precedence and conventional wisdom that both Sunak in government, and Bailey in the BoE simply are incapable of exhibiting. When the going is tough – is always the moment when you discover you are led by entirely the wrong people; and you are being led to disaster.
Good narrative
John Warren’s contribution reminds me that contemporary thinking about the economy is now so divorced from reality that it has indeed become a matter of faith/religion and no longer approaching anything remotely like rationality or logic in its effects on society.
The only place displaying any rationality at all in this, is the inner circle of capital itself because it is only capital that pursues its own self-interest, it’s own survival at all costs – not society. This is something that Ayn Rand constantly misrepresented as society’s objective, yet human history tells us differently.
Also at work is the mistaken belief that capital is entitled to think of themselves first because it is their money, their exitance that drives life on earth apparently.
Of course, they have hierarchy and history all completely wrong about that too.
I suspect most of the electorate in the UK thought Brexit would be a massive mistake, which perhaps explains why they didn’t vote for it.
In the Conservative world view of absurd pretensions, Rees-Mogg is claiming the Russian invasion of Ukraine would have succeeded; but for the intervention of – Brexit. Brexit! The interesting point about this mere eccentricity is that the argument so over-reaches itself it reveals somewhat clumsily the standard technique the Right is obliged to use when things are awry: it simply turns the facts on their head.
Putin has clearly been testing the Unity of the West, and its weaknesses; since his own internal resolution of internal threats to the Russian regime was resolved, eventually in the Chechen wars, 1994-5, and the total destruction of Grozny, 1999-2000; using methods of destruction he later applied in Ukraine. Able then to turn and look outward, Putin quite obviously has considered the West weak, consumed by greed, and lacking resilience. He gradually exploited these perceived wekanesses through the seduction of Europe with Russian oil and gas; and unarguably targeted money-grubbing Britain, by flooding London and notably the weak-willed Conservatives, with cash-rich Oligarchs; buying London property on a large scale, and even funding the Conservative Party.
Brexit was undoubtedly a destructive political factor in both Britain and Europe that would encourage Putin’s belief that the West, and notably Europe, was breaking down; dissolving in internal acrimony, and opening exploitative opportunities for Putin from the fall-out; creating an environement in which Europe suffered a loss of strategic focus beyond itself, that unquestionably offered more scope that emboldened Putin. Advocates of Brexit have never faced the geoplitical consequences of their irresponsibility. Rees-Mogg is indulging in silly grandstanding; but that should be no surprise to anyone. The only question his intervention should raise is; if he thinks that half-baked proposition will hold political attention; what is the particular rank difficulty the Conservatives are currently drowning in (given they are awash in sinking ships); from which he is attempting to deflect attention?
He is mad