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There have been times when Conservative leaders have sounded reasonably coherent on the surface – and other moments where they have sounded completely unhinged, yet continued to be cherished by their party. Currently, it's far from either of those times. One prominent Conservative didn't energize the audience when she addressed her conference, while she offered the provocative rhetoric of anti-immigration sentiment she assumed they wanted.

This wasn't primarily that they’d all arisen with a fresh awareness of humanity; more that they didn’t believe she’d ever be equipped to implement it. It was, an imitation. Conservatives despise that. An influential party member reportedly described it as a “jazz funeral”: boisterous, energetic, but nonetheless a goodbye.

What Next for the Organization That Can Reasonably Claim to Make for Itself as the Most Accomplished Governing Force in Modern Times?

Some are having another squiz at Robert Jenrick, who was a definite refusal at the start of the night – but with proceedings winding down, and everyone else has departed. Others are creating a interest around a newer MP, a 34-year-old MP of the 2024 intake, who looks like a countryside-based politician while saturating her social media with immigration-critical posts.

Might she become the standard-bearer to beat back the rival party, now leading the Tories by a significant margin? Does a term exist for overcoming competitors by adopting their policies? Furthermore, should one not exist, maybe we can use an expression from combat sports?

When Finding Satisfaction In Such Events, in a Schadenfreude Way, in a Just-Deserts Way, One Can See Why – However Totally Misguided

You don’t even have to examine America to know this, nor read Daniel Ziblatt’s seminal 2017 book, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: your entire mental framework is shouting it. Centrist right-wing parties is the key defense against the radical elements.

Ziblatt’s thesis is that representative governments persist by satisfying the “propertied and powerful” happy. I’m not wild about it as an guiding tenet. It feels as though we’ve been catering to the affluent and connected for ages, at the cost of other citizens, and they rarely appear quite happy enough to stop wanting to take a bite out of social welfare.

But his analysis goes beyond conjecture, it’s an thorough historical examination into the pre-Nazi German National People’s Party during the Weimar Republic (in parallel to the UK Tories around the early 1900s). Once centrist parties falters in conviction, if it commences to pursue the buzzwords and symbolic politics of the radical wing, it hands them the steering wheel.

Previous Instances Showed Some of This Throughout the EU Exit Process

The former Prime Minister cosying up to an influential advisor was one particularly egregious example – but radical alignment has become so pronounced now as to eliminate competing party narratives. Whatever became of the traditional Tories, who treasure continuity, preservation, legal frameworks, the pride of Britain on the world stage?

What happened to the progressives, who portrayed the United Kingdom in terms of powerhouses, not tension-filled environments? To be clear, I wasn’t wild about both groups either, but it’s absolutely striking how those worldviews – the broad-church approach, the reformist element – have been erased, replaced by relentless demonisation: of immigrants, Islamic communities, benefit claimants and demonstrators.

They Walk On Stage to Themes Resembling the Opening Credits to the Popular Series

And talk about positions they oppose. They characterize demonstrations by 75-year-old pacifists as “displays of hostility” and use flags – British flags, English symbols, anything with a bold patriotic hues – as an direct confrontation to anyone who doesn’t think that being British through and through is the best thing a person could possibly be.

There doesn’t seem to be any inherent moderation, that prompts reflection with their own values, their historical context, their stated objectives. Whatever provocation the political figure presents to them, they’ll chase. So, no, there's no pleasure to see their disintegration. They are pulling democratic norms down with them.