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Throughout history when Tory figureheads have seemed reasonably coherent superficially – and different periods where they have come across as wildly irrational, yet continued to be cherished by their base. This is not that situation. One prominent Conservative left the crowd unmoved when she spoke at her conference, despite she threw out the divisive talking points of anti-immigration sentiment she believed they wanted.

It’s not so much that they’d all woken up with a fresh awareness of humanity; more that they were skeptical she’d ever be equipped to follow through. In practice, fake vegan meat. Tories hate that. One senior Conservative was said to label it a “jazz funeral”: noisy, vigorous, but still a goodbye.

Future Prospects for the Group With a Decent Case to Make for Itself as the Top-Performing Governing Force in Modern Times?

Some are having renewed consideration at Robert Jenrick, who was a definite refusal at the start of the night – but now it’s the end, and everyone else has withdrawn. Others are creating a excitement around a newer MP, a young parliamentarian of the 2024 intake, who looks like a traditional Conservative while filling her socials with border-control messaging.

Is she poised as the leader to challenge the rival party, now surpassing the Tories by 20 points? Is there a word for defeating opponents by adopting their policies? Furthermore, assuming no phrase fits, surely we could adopt a term from combat sports?

If You’re Enjoying Any of This, in a Schadenfreude Way, in a Serves-Them-Right-for-Austerity Way, It's Comprehensible – Yet Absolutely Bananas

You don’t even have to look at the US to know this, or consult Daniel Ziblatt’s seminal 2017 book, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: every one of your synapses is screaming it. Centrist right-wing parties is the essential firewall preventing the far right.

His research conclusion is that representative governments persist by appeasing the “propertied and powerful” happy. Personally, I question this as an fundamental rule. It feels as though we’ve been indulging the affluent and connected for decades, at the detriment of everyone else, and they don't typically become adequately satisfied to halt efforts to take a bite out of public assistance.

But his analysis isn’t a hunch, it’s an archival deep dive into the Weimar-era political organization during the Weimar Republic (in parallel to the British Conservatives in that historical context). As moderate conservatism becomes uncertain, as it begins to chase the rhetoric and superficial stances of the far right, it transfers the control.

There Were Examples Similar Patterns Throughout the EU Exit Process

The former Prime Minister cosying up to an influential advisor was a notable instance – but extremist sympathies has become so evident now as to overshadow all remaining party narratives. Whatever became of the old-school Conservatives, who treasure continuity, conservation, legal frameworks, the UK reputation on the world stage?

What happened to the modernisers, who described the United Kingdom in terms of economic engines, not powder kegs? Let me emphasize, I didn't particularly support either faction as well, but it’s absolutely striking how such perspectives – the broad-church approach, the reformist element – have been erased, in favour of constant vilification: of immigrants, religious groups, welfare recipients and demonstrators.

They Walk On Stage to Melodies Evoking the Theme Tune to the Popular Series

While discussing what they cannot stand for any more. They describe demonstrations by older demonstrators as “carnivals of hatred” and display banners – British flags, patriotic icons, all objects bearing a splash of matadorial colour – as an clear provocation to anyone who doesn’t think that being British through and through is the highest ideal a person could possibly be.

We observe an absence of any built-in restraint, encouraging reassessment with their own values, their own hinterland, their original agenda. Any stick Nigel Farage presents to them, they’ll chase. Consequently, no, it isn't enjoyable to watch them implode. They are pulling civil society into the abyss.