The truth is that the Conservative system was not broke before 1998 and didn’t need fixing; and that the 1998 constitutional reforms were a failure.
If we do not leave the E.U. on terms that are acceptable to the members of the Party, large numbers will leave it. Here’s how we got here.
At the heart of May’s operation, this staunch Conservative is now mulling potential ways to a second referendum with Labour MPs.
Plus: But her deal’s so bad I’d rather Remain. Robbins is the real Rasputin, not Timothy. Would I really vote Tory tomorrow? And: Carry on Cocks and Dicks.
A new leader would need a new plan to reverse this evident humiliation of May’s leadership and of British statecraft.
There are indeed mechanisms for mitigating damaging immigration flows, but these are tightly constrained.
And, late in the day, the Prime Minister bows to our advice, and rushes on to Marr, today, to make the case for her new proposals.
Sooner or later, it will hold a leadership contest in which its members will actually get to decide the winner – and perhaps our next Prime Minister.
But unless his fully-developed vision of the future can capture heart-and-minds, I’d expect control of the party to stay with the mainstream.
Plus: Hammond’s blunder. Peers’ folly. Stephen Hawking is not, repeat not, controlled by MI5. And: my inner Mary Whitehouse meets Katie Hopkins’ slack vagina.
The most senior Minister in place at home has a great task before him – helping his country find a new international role (and restoring the morale of an exhausted department).
Human rights should be at the very heart of foreign policy.
The media never understood him, and was surprised both by his successes and his failures.
Far from being a johnny-come-lately to the cause of defending the National Health Service, support for it once cost the former Cabinet Minister his job.
The one-time Shadow Minister for Europe on the the Lisbon Treaty, William Hague, immigration – and the time when Cameron rebelled against the party line on the EU.