Lying to the Queen about the proroguing of parliament. Going on a day trip to Barnard Castle. Partygate. Pincher-gate. Lying to parliament. Trashing the economy. Disrespecting the mother of a murdered trans teenager. The ministerial merry-go-round. D-day. Sky TV. Gamble-gate.
These are just a few of the highlights from the governments last five years in office. And yet, without any sense of irony, many Conservatives are suggesting that their party has just suffered its worst defeat ever because – it wasn’t right wing enough.
Not because its leader partied whilst we were unable to visit sick or dying relatives. Not that he lied about it. Not that they continue to eulogise the liar. Not that they gave us three prime ministers in as many years. Not that they forgot about public service. Not that they abandoned common sense and common decency. They lost, according to some, because they failed to out-Farage, Farage.
If it wasn’t so serious it would be laughable. But it is serious. Because, as I wrote right at the start of the General Election campaign seven weeks ago, governments need strong oppositions.
That is certainly the case when a party secures the sort of thumping majority that Labour won last Thursday. With 410 seats in the commons, the last thing Keir Starmer needs to worry about is rebellion from his backbenchers, or trouble from his troublemakers.
For the sake of democracy, it would be good if, diminished in parliament though it is, the official opposition could hold the government to account. Instead, it looks like the psychodrama that has plagued the Conservatives through Brexit and beyond is set to continue.
Week one of life in opposition and we have witnessed the former home secretary Suella Braverman comparing the Pride movement with a terrorist organisation. The ‘PopCons’ (Popular Conservatives) have hosted a conference, where one of the speakers berated David Cameron for suggesting that his proudest achievement was legalising gay marriage. And the now shadow minister Kemi Badenoch has suggested that Braverman is having a very public nervous breakdown.
If this type of behaviour, and tagging further to the right, is what the Tories think the solution is, then it is hard to imagine what they see as the problem.
For reference, the Liberal Democrats gained far more Conservative seats, and votes, than Reform did. Polling shows that, of all those who did vote Reform, only 38% of them would have supported a Tory in the absence of a Farage -backed candidate (19% would have voted Labour), and Reform finished runner-up in 98 seats – to Labour.
Unless, and until the Conservatives work out that it is the ‘Centre’ in the Centre-Right of its politics that has made them the most successful election winning machine on the planet, then they face a very long time in the political wilderness.
AS LABOUR RE-INTRODUCES US TO PROFESSIONALISM…
Meanwhile, Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves & co have reminded us of what quiet, competent, strategic government looks like. They have, as the saying goes, hit the ground running, and for a party that allegedly didn’t have a plan, well they haven’t done too badly in looking as though they have one.
