Writing for Prospect, she argues that one-nation Tories have no future in the party:
In May last year, I was at a dinner party discussing the results of that month’s European elections. Not one of the 10 people present had voted Tory. Neither had anyone done what nearly a third of the country did and voted for the Brexit Party, which was then giving refuge to many Conservatives who wanted to let off steam under Theresa May.
None of this would have been surprising, given that we were gathered in affluent, left-leaning Hampstead, but for the fact that our number included three Conservative peers, one Conservative Member of Parliament and one former Conservative MP.
We might have been members of the party but we couldn’t possibly vote for it.
1 comment:
But where does 'one nation Toryism' go now?
There is still a potential vote for a constitutionalist, moderately conservative, constructive, centrist party: loyal to local communities and national institutions, not overly upset by a degree of hierarchy, suspicious of innovation for its own sake, tolerating difference of opinion on modern social changes and mores.
I can't see either the Lib Dems or Johnson's Tories consistently capturing that sort of politics longterm for a great variety of very different reasons. And Starmer on his own might be able to with his cautious incrementalism, but not towing the Labour left behind him.
In Scotland, meanwhile, both the SNP and the Tories are in a dogfight for this very ground. In Wales, Labour is occupying it fair and square (although in some areas of that country, Plaid and the Tories also play the same tunes).
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