Loved this piece. Excellent description of what’s happening to the Tory party & its journey to self destruction. They deserve complete annihilation in the general election for the suffering they’ve caused to this country.
Personally I'm looking forward to a Tory wipe out that leaves the Five Families with so few MPs they'd struggle to fill a shed, let alone their vaulted "Star Chamber".
Tremendous article, the more powerful as it is both obvious and overdue. My father was one of these conservatives, even though he had a reputation for right wing demagoguery. He was foremost a traditonalist and a democrat. He and many others such are no longer with us and nor is the Tory party.
Why is the population of the U.K. unable to hit the streets to protest against the far right coup, like the Germans have all weekend? When will they say ‚enough is enough‘? The GE might not be held until end of this year. So much damage can and will be done in the meantime.
The group SODEM is at Westminster every Wednesday when Parliament is sitting. We are about 10-15 people, in a city of 8 millions!
I really do wonder when these golden times of decent, level-headed, conservative politicans are supposed to have taken place.
Because in the 1980s - which is more than a generation ago - the face of conservatism was Thatcher in GB, Reagan in USA (and Kohl in Germany), and none of them, or their prominent party members, were decent, level-headed, fact-oriented at all.
Thatcher openly said that she deliberatly killed off steel and coal industry in the North with the explicit purpose of killing of the strong unions (back then, I didn't know the background of Winter of Discontent turning a large part of British population against unions as unreasonable in general, I though it was general hate from rich conservatives against unions and normal workers).
Yes, in the 1980s steel and coal was dying in western countries because of employee cost, but the right way to deal with this was government helping to transition into new industries, as North-Rhine Westfalia did for the Ruhr valley region, not simply destroy the industry and let the whole region fall into poverty.
Plus the whole Falkland war stupidity, of whipping up patriotic fervor, let some people get killed just to improve her own rating.
Reagan started the lie of welfare queens with cadillacs, while cutting worker protections. And Kohl sat out any active improvement program, letting everything rot and fall into disuse during 16 years, instead of actually adapting the infrastructure and society to changing times.
While I don't have enough details on earlier decades, conservatives by their very nature seem to be power-hungry 1% people who see politics and life as a game because they never risk anything even when their plans fail, and whose policies are oriented first at keeping their power, not the good of the state, across different countries with different systems.
That view of life is against experts and their advice, because that would be counter to keeping their power - experts told Kohl of what actions were necessary now in small steps to avoid big problems later, things like repairing and rebuilding bridges, but cutting taxes was more important to their client base, so repairs were delayed to next year, and next year...
And they see as real threat not the ideological enemies from the other party - that's rhethoric for gullible voters and sun-readers - but the people in their own party competent at political machinations, because those can kick them out of lucrative career and delegate them from minister to back-bencher, so that's what their actions are about.
That it's not good for the party or the country to disable all internal opposition by side-lining them, only leaving yes-men in the upper places, doesn't matter, because that's a problem for the successor, not for them.
But I think that's why a party can "suddenly" implode - no real competent people left if you start with only 1%, then get rid of anybody with their own opinion and charisma for a good decade or more.
“Unable to use the instruments available to it through EU membership and the Dublin Convention, the UK became, for the first time in its history, a destination for ‘boat people.’”
I’m aware, of course, of the claim it is so but it doesn’t seem to stack up. The UK was still bound by/ able to use Dublin III (including the returns policy) until the end of the transition period at the end of December 2020 (for confirmation, see HOC Research Briefing: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9031/#:~:text=The%20Dublin%20III%20Regulation%3A%20a,the%20UK%20from%20January%202021.). And yet small boat crossings began in 2018 and started to rise steeply in 2019 and, continued to rise even more steeply in 2020 - during the whole of which time the returns policy was still in place. And, yes, they rise even more after that - but it seems clear that the end of returns isn't the only factor, and isn't even the prime factor in the sense that other things started the rise in numbers first (maybe ending returns then intensified it, maybe that became the prime factor, though maybe the increase would have continued anyway).
Loved this piece. Excellent description of what’s happening to the Tory party & its journey to self destruction. They deserve complete annihilation in the general election for the suffering they’ve caused to this country.
Personally I'm looking forward to a Tory wipe out that leaves the Five Families with so few MPs they'd struggle to fill a shed, let alone their vaulted "Star Chamber".
Tremendous article, the more powerful as it is both obvious and overdue. My father was one of these conservatives, even though he had a reputation for right wing demagoguery. He was foremost a traditonalist and a democrat. He and many others such are no longer with us and nor is the Tory party.
Why is the population of the U.K. unable to hit the streets to protest against the far right coup, like the Germans have all weekend? When will they say ‚enough is enough‘? The GE might not be held until end of this year. So much damage can and will be done in the meantime.
The group SODEM is at Westminster every Wednesday when Parliament is sitting. We are about 10-15 people, in a city of 8 millions!
I despair!
Another well aimed and eloquent piece Matt.
One small pedantic point: I would have said "...when those fantasies deflated ..." rather than burst.
I really do wonder when these golden times of decent, level-headed, conservative politicans are supposed to have taken place.
Because in the 1980s - which is more than a generation ago - the face of conservatism was Thatcher in GB, Reagan in USA (and Kohl in Germany), and none of them, or their prominent party members, were decent, level-headed, fact-oriented at all.
Thatcher openly said that she deliberatly killed off steel and coal industry in the North with the explicit purpose of killing of the strong unions (back then, I didn't know the background of Winter of Discontent turning a large part of British population against unions as unreasonable in general, I though it was general hate from rich conservatives against unions and normal workers).
Yes, in the 1980s steel and coal was dying in western countries because of employee cost, but the right way to deal with this was government helping to transition into new industries, as North-Rhine Westfalia did for the Ruhr valley region, not simply destroy the industry and let the whole region fall into poverty.
Plus the whole Falkland war stupidity, of whipping up patriotic fervor, let some people get killed just to improve her own rating.
Reagan started the lie of welfare queens with cadillacs, while cutting worker protections. And Kohl sat out any active improvement program, letting everything rot and fall into disuse during 16 years, instead of actually adapting the infrastructure and society to changing times.
While I don't have enough details on earlier decades, conservatives by their very nature seem to be power-hungry 1% people who see politics and life as a game because they never risk anything even when their plans fail, and whose policies are oriented first at keeping their power, not the good of the state, across different countries with different systems.
That view of life is against experts and their advice, because that would be counter to keeping their power - experts told Kohl of what actions were necessary now in small steps to avoid big problems later, things like repairing and rebuilding bridges, but cutting taxes was more important to their client base, so repairs were delayed to next year, and next year...
And they see as real threat not the ideological enemies from the other party - that's rhethoric for gullible voters and sun-readers - but the people in their own party competent at political machinations, because those can kick them out of lucrative career and delegate them from minister to back-bencher, so that's what their actions are about.
That it's not good for the party or the country to disable all internal opposition by side-lining them, only leaving yes-men in the upper places, doesn't matter, because that's a problem for the successor, not for them.
But I think that's why a party can "suddenly" implode - no real competent people left if you start with only 1%, then get rid of anybody with their own opinion and charisma for a good decade or more.
Great as always, but I am not convinced by this:
“Unable to use the instruments available to it through EU membership and the Dublin Convention, the UK became, for the first time in its history, a destination for ‘boat people.’”
I’m aware, of course, of the claim it is so but it doesn’t seem to stack up. The UK was still bound by/ able to use Dublin III (including the returns policy) until the end of the transition period at the end of December 2020 (for confirmation, see HOC Research Briefing: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9031/#:~:text=The%20Dublin%20III%20Regulation%3A%20a,the%20UK%20from%20January%202021.). And yet small boat crossings began in 2018 and started to rise steeply in 2019 and, continued to rise even more steeply in 2020 - during the whole of which time the returns policy was still in place. And, yes, they rise even more after that - but it seems clear that the end of returns isn't the only factor, and isn't even the prime factor in the sense that other things started the rise in numbers first (maybe ending returns then intensified it, maybe that became the prime factor, though maybe the increase would have continued anyway).
What seems to have begun the ‘small boat’ crossings was closing down/ wiring off other routes/ methods. See letter in Guardian from ex-HO worker: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/oct/01/the-only-way-to-stop-small-boat-crossings
Chris Grey
A brilliant analysis of where we are today. These Tory grifters must be consigned to history.
Great article. Is it just me who now wants to start a punk band called Toxic Mad Fascists?
Cracking.
Phil Burton-Cartledge wrote this in ?2020. Seemed optimistic then, but becoming ever more true by the day. https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2630-falling-down
Great article, Matt. Two points: methinks Rwanda was dreamt up by Johnson to deviate attention from Partygate.
Second, Farage didnt conquer the Tories, but influenced them towards the lunatic fringe.
In that sense, he did prevail over them.
He still has eyes on leading this lot of criminals.
You're on fire Matt. Thanks.