Finding Amusement In the Collapse of the Conservative Party? It's Understandable – Yet Totally Wrong

There have been times when Tory figureheads have sounded reasonably coherent on the surface – and alternate phases where they have sounded wildly irrational, yet were still adored by their base. We are not in that situation. A leading Tory left the crowd unmoved when she addressed her conference, even as she presented the red meat of border-focused rhetoric she assumed they wanted.

The issue wasn't that they’d all awakened with a revived feeling of humanity; instead they were skeptical she’d ever be in a position to implement it. Effectively, a substitute. Tories hate that. An influential party member reportedly described it as a “jazz funeral”: boisterous, vigorous, but still a goodbye.

Future Prospects for this Party Having Strong Arguments to Make for Itself as the Top-Performing Political Organization in Modern Times?

Certain members are taking renewed consideration at Robert Jenrick, who was a firm rejection at the outset – but with proceedings winding down, and everyone else has left. Another group is generating a buzz around a rising star, a young parliamentarian of the 2024 intake, who appears as a traditional Conservative while saturating her online profiles with anti-migrant content.

Could she be the standard-bearer to challenge opposition forces, now surpassing the Conservatives by a substantial lead? Does a term exist for overcoming competitors by adopting their policies? Furthermore, assuming no phrase fits, surely we could adopt a term from combat sports?

When Finding Satisfaction In Such Events, in a How-the-Mighty-Are-Fallen Way, in a Just-Deserts Way, It's Comprehensible – Yet Completely Irrational

It isn't necessary to look at the US to understand this, nor read the scholar's seminal 2017 book, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: every one of your synapses is shouting it. Moderate conservatism is the key defense resisting the radical elements.

His research conclusion is that political systems endure by appeasing the “elite classes” happy. I have reservations as an organising principle. It feels as though we’ve been indulging the privileged groups over generations, at the expense of other citizens, and they never seem sufficiently content to stop wanting to make cuts out of social welfare.

However, his study goes beyond conjecture, it’s an archival deep dive into the pre-Nazi German National People’s Party during the interwar Germany (in parallel to the British Conservatives in that historical context). When the mainstream right falters in conviction, if it commences to pursue the rhetoric and gesture-based policies of the far right, it cedes the steering wheel.

There Were Examples Similar Patterns In the Referendum Aftermath

Boris Johnson associating with Steve Bannon was one particularly egregious example – but extremist sympathies has become so pronounced now as to overshadow all remaining Tory talking points. Whatever became of the established party members, who value predictability, conservation, legal frameworks, the national prestige on the global scene?

Where did they go the reformers, who defined the nation in terms of economic engines, not tension-filled environments? Let me emphasize, I didn't particularly support any of them as well, but the contrast is dramatic how those worldviews – the one nation Tory, the Cameroonian Conservative – have been eliminated, in favour of ongoing scapegoating: of migrants, Islamic communities, welfare recipients and activists.

They Walk On Stage to Music That Sounds Like the Opening Credits to the Popular Series

Emphasizing positions they oppose. They portray protests by elderly peace activists as “displays of hostility” and use flags – national emblems, Saint George’s flags, any item featuring a bold patriotic hues – as an open challenge to anyone who doesn’t think that total cultural alignment is the ultimate achievement a person could possibly be.

There appears to be no any natural braking system, that prompts reflection with core principles, their own hinterland, their own plan. Any stick the Reform leader offers them, they’ll chase. Consequently, no, it’s not fun to watch them implode. They are dragging civil society down with them.