1. Boris Johnson's Frustrations
2. The Artless Politics of Liz Truss's Cabinet
3. Royalism and Labourism
4. Defending Tory Party Democracy
5. Conservative Party Membership Since 2001
A new Prime Minister, a new monarch, and yet nothing about Britain's self-inflicted economic crisis. Such are the fickle habits of the internet. We began with Boris Johnson's final days, or rather reports that he was annoyed and frustrated with his overthrow by Tory MPs. He only had himself to blame. We then moved swiftly to Liz Truss and her new government. As commented on here many times, despite having enjoyed parliament for 12 years she is bad at politics and has little nous. How she balanced, or rather didn't balance the politics of her first government was but a harbinger of things to come. Then the Queen passed away, and tributes gushed in from all quarters. Some folk were mystified to find Keir Starmer and most of the Labour Party join in. As a corrective, it was necessary to write something on the seemingly contradictory but obsequiously loyal relationship Labourism has with the monarchy. While we're talking undemocratic institutions, John Rentoul and others chimed in at the start of the month against the idea Tory members should choose their leader - it should be up to MPs. This daft argument, beloved of authoritarians everywhere, is corrosive of the poor quality democracy we already have. Socialists should stand for the democratisation of all political institutions, and that even includes the Tory party. And lastly, because there was a Tory leadership contest it was necessary to consider the current membership figures. TL;DR they're more or less static since 2019.
A couple of items from the end of September for your perusal. Both on the crisis Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng have unleashed. First is the short piece on naked Toryism. I.e. The shot of Truss adopting the strategy of open class rule without bothering at trying to win the consent of the governed. And the chaser is how Truss is dooming the Tory party. Three pollsters have awarded Labour leads of 30 points or more - figures not afixed to the Conservatives since the darkest says of John Major's premiership. What this means for us is this coming week's party conference is going to be very interesting.
Barring unforeseen events, the next month is likely to be a festival of Tory infighting, tantrums, toys out of the pram, and other fireworks. All being well, I'll be around to chronicle it. If you haven't already, don't forget to follow the free weekly newsletter, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog too! Following me on Twitter and Facebook are cost-free ways of showing your backing for this corner of the internet.
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«Three pollsters have awarded Labour leads of 30 points or more»
ReplyDeleteBut the local council results that out blogger reports are rather different, even if local council elections are often a vehicle for protest votes. If "the economy" (that of "Middle England" affluent voters) continues to do very well the Conservatives might do well in national elections as most voters vote their interests. Even if their globalist neoliberal minority and the right-wing media supporting them might try to throw the election to the globalist neoliberal Starmer, just as in 2019 the globalist neoliberal minority of Labour tried to throw the election against internationalist social-democrat Corbyn.
As to most voters voting their interests, here is a report about a minority who probably don't:
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/uk-news/tories-renters-truss-landlords-eviction-b2189028.html
“Private renters are deserting the Tories following fears that Liz Truss will water down promises of new powers to challenge bad landlords, a poll says. One in three tenants who voted for the Conservatives at the 2019 general election – a total of 400,000 people – now plan to vote for another party, the survey has found. This so-called “rent wall” could deprive the Tories of key swing seats such as Hastings and Rye, Milton Keynes North and Gloucester, the analysis suggests.”
I amazed that that there are 400,000 renters who vote for the party of ultra-rentierism. That's on a totally different scale of delusionism from the 30% of "Remainer" tories who voted for "get Brexit done" Johnson in 2019, as membership of the EU was a largely political issue, affecting their material interests very little, unlike rentierism.