It doesn’t take much reading of today’s news and social media streams to work out that the Conservatives are now fully into clutching at straws mode when it comes to saving themselves and the forlorn hope that they will somehow find the credibility to deliver a record fifth victory in the next General Election – whenever it should come.
That a government that was elected with an 80-seat majority in December 2019 (yes – it’s actually the same one!) should have fallen so far in the polls in less than 5 years is in itself a very profound tell about the state of the conservative party today. And that’s before we consider that we are on the third Prime Minister to have welded themselves to the keys of No.10 during the time between.
To believe that their demise is all down to a poor run of leaders would be foolish of us all, for no better reason than the Tories have themselves elected as leaders (and therefore as Prime Ministers), the best that they have got.
Yes, it could be argued that the right person didn’t get the chance when they should have got there. But that itself sends just as powerful a message that tells us the Party is filled up with people who don’t work in a democratic way, or in anything like the sense we should be able to expect from an organisation that brings people together to do the best possible for the electorate.
The truth nobody will face in politics is that the days of the big beasts of politics are now long gone. The ability to look good carrying a ceremonial sword or time served as an establishment public servant in a top job are not qualifications for leading a country at any time, least of all when we are facing the uncertain and turbulent times that we are now in.
Decades of weak leadership, then awarding top jobs to politicians who are even weaker than they are, has meant that the politicians we see leading all the political parties today, keep getting even weaker leaders. Each and every time that there is a change.
Under the current system, the only way that politics can therefore change is if the political parties change themselves. And that would mean the current crop of politicians that we see in the news each day giving up their seats and walking away in the same way that we might ask turkeys to vote for Christmas.
There is a good chance that the result of the General Election will be nothing like the polls are currently suggesting. And we should all be minded that the collapse of one 80-seat majority and the numbers that underpin it in less than 5 years can also work the other way.
However, if the Tories want to be taken seriously by anyone other than themselves again, they will have to accept that it has been a long time since any of their politicians have behaved like they are genuine conservatives.
Both the public and their own membership are crying out for genuine public representation and leadership. Not more glory-chasing and media headline obsessives who believe that they are the only ones that matter and that politics is nothing more than a game.
image created using Microsoft Designer
Adam Tugwell 