We face an unprecedented number of ex-prime ministers trying to spin their legacies, and an unprecedented number of outlets in which they can do so. This will not be helpful.
Conservative backbenchers have not cheered their leader so loud and long for months.
Streeting celebrated the split in the Conservative Party on the smoking ban, and Labour’s “dominance in the battle of ideas”.
It is a childish fantasy to suppose that defenestrating the PM would lead to success at the polls.
A mandate for abolition provided by a manifesto pledge might be easier for the markets to accept than just ignoring it in the pursuit of tax cuts, as Liz Truss attempted.
I have a theory: more often than not, a political party is better at evaluating its opponent’s political weaknesses than its own.
Even May’s most ardent armchair critic would at least acknowledge she has enjoyed an Indian summer on the backbenches.
The authors are entitled to their dismal view of Britain’s recent past, but it does not strike one as a conservative view.
Imagine Conservative Party Conference but with more red hats, less drinking, and people actually attending the main speeches (unless Liz Truss is on stage).
There is some truth to the claim that there has been a big shift in power away from Parliament and a narrowing of politics – but in the British constitution, a government with a majority could fix that.
Or: “Why Marjorie Taylor Greene was not entirely wrong to tell the Foreign Secretary to kiss her ass”.
Conservatives must realise that there are an awful lot of people who might share their revulsion at the excesses of hyper-liberal politics but are still not going to vote Tory. We’re fed up of our stagnant economy.
The task of changing public opinion falls to the wider conservative movement – to pressure groups, think-tanks, columnists, and associated auxiliaries. The trouble is that, at the moment, most of the people in those categories are training their fire on the Conservative Party.
As long as the PopCons remain a vehicle for libertarianism, they won’t be able to offer anything more useful than politically toothless gestures against left-liberalism.
Unless the Prime Minister can prove to voters he’s not just talk, it’s no wonder that voters are ditching the Conservative Party from both sides.