LONDON – Until recently, the British Conservative Party was able to claim, with great credence, that it was the most successful political party in the Western world.
The party of Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher has dominated Britain for almost 200 years. For much of that time, the Conservatives were synonymous with good sense, fiscal acumen and cautious pragmatism. Scorned by progressive elites, allergic to ideology, provincial rather than urban, the Conservatives rejoiced to be the solid party of the boring middle class.
No more. Today, the Conservatives are synonymous with chaos.
Liz Truss, the latest Tory chancellor to crash and catch fire, must bear her share of the blame. There are good reasons as to why she was forced resignation after only 44 days, the shortest time in history. It’s a foolish notion to assume that she can be fired most advanced Treasury officials, reinventing economic management laws and challenging the collective wisdom of financial market. There will be only one outcome.
But the bigger truth is that Ms Truss’ misfortune is a symptom rather than the cause of Britain’s chronic governance crisis, which has made this country – once respected around the world – become a global laughing stock. Remember that the Conservative Party chose her, even though she was clearly unfit for the job. You don’t need Nostradamus’ prior vision to know she’s going to fail. For her failure as prime minister and the dire state of the country, the Conservative Party bears joint responsibility.
Oscar Wilde once wrote that losing a parent can be seen as a misfortune, but losing two looks like carelessness. The Tories’ loss of two prime ministers in a three-month period shows that, more than carelessness, they are losing control. The government has had its fourth finance minister this year; one of them, Kwasi Kwartengcrashed the pound and ruined the party’s reputation for good financial management.
Like Republicans in the United States, the Conservatives are detached from reality. In a generation, they have become a group of authoritarians, incompetent and ideological. Like a purebred that has run one race too much, it needs to be taken out to the lawn. After a decade or two in the wilderness, perhaps the team can bounce back – although it doesn’t rule out the possibility that it will end once and for all.
It’s still a shortcut. After Ms. Truss resigned, the party announced plans to organize another leadership election, for the second time in three months. As with the elections that Boris Johnson and Ms. Truss have anointed as prime minister, the choice will be made jointly by Tory lawmakers and party members. Even if, by some luck, a pretty good candidate won, it didn’t help their luck. The Party is plagued by internal feuds, personal grudges, and ideological disagreements to the point of irreversibility.
This is a dangerous time. Britain is perhaps facing its biggest economic, political and even constitutional crisis since World War II. It is surprising to expect that the Conservative Party, which has caused such damage over the past decade, may finally be reasonably close to taking power. Two years may pass before next general election. But Britain needs one right now.
Must admit Keir Starmer, leader of the Labor opposition, lacks charisma. While not brilliant, he still fits the recent model of global leaders – Joe Biden in the US and Anthony Albanese in Australia being two examples – who are reassuring even when they’re not burning. world. His frontline legislators also look more competent than the Tory insols. Nor are they hurt by failure or harmed by failure.
More and more Tory voters, let alone the rest of the country, are getting ready to give them their time of day. That is why a general election is in the national interest. It seems foolish to expect the Conservative Party, which is staring at almost certain defeat, to call an election. But one of the glories of the traditional Conservative Party is its willingness to put country before partisan.
This doctrine was coined by – who else? – Winston Churchill in one of his last acts before resigning as prime minister in 1955.” first mission of a member of Congress,” he told an audience at his constituency in Woodford, “is to do what he thinks in his faithful and disinterested judgment is right and necessary for the the honor and safety of Great Britain. “
This rhetoric may be orotund, but the argument is irrefutable. That will be well understood by the patriotic and fair-minded Conservative Party, which ruled Britain with such wisdom 70 years ago. In contrast, the Conservatives today cling to power for the sake of power. Besides doing further damage to their own party’s long-term reputation, their bigotry is ensuring British domination.
Peter Oborne (@OborneTweets) is a former chief political commentator for The Daily Telegraph and the author, among other books, of “The Attack on Truth: Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and the emergence of a barbarism” new morality.”
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