Friday 6 October 2023

The Tories have spent 7 years digging their own grave

The Tory party is in an almighty mess. Their shambolic annual conference ended this week with Sunak formally announcing the scrapping of the HS2 high-speed rail line north of Birmingham, but that was just one of the bizarre things that happened at the GMEX centre in Manchester. After spending days damping down speculation about the decision, it turns out he filmed a video clip a few days before where he says HS2 is being ditched. They have been working on it in secret for days if not weeks. Unfortunately, nobody outside a small circle was consulted.

The replacement plan is nothing more than a hastily cobbled-together list of previously announced/postponed/scrapped projects, some of which he personally scrapped over the last couple of years. Embarrassingly, some projects on the list had already been completed years ago! One, the Leamside railway in Durham was announced on Wednesday and scrapped on Thursday! Even the writers of The Thick of It couldn't have imagined a scenario like it.

Twitter is full of re-tweets of ministers (Harper, Hunt, and Hands, et al) giving their unequivocal support for HS2 over the years, only to back Sunak - an unelected prime minister with no mandate - scrapping it on a whim. This was typical from the very transport minister who took the final decision to ditch HS2:

Nobody has any faith any of the new 'plan' will ever go ahead.

The southern bit is unraveling as well when we hear that the last six miles from Old Oak Common to Euston will only get finished if the private sector raises the money. Who is going to invest in a project that may never be finished with a line that ends six miles short of Euston?

The project's costs were spiraling partly because of all the expensive tunneling going on in southern England to protect the landscape, urged on by Tory MPs no doubt. So, far from leveling up, HS2 has improved the south further tilting the balance in their favor - as Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham pointed out.

All of that came on top of a poorly attended conference, a lot of factional in-fighting, and future leadership candidates like Mark Harper and Penny Mordaunt maneuvering in case a vacancy soon arises, which is eminently possible and certain by the end of next year.  

Nigel Farage was caught singing and dancing with Priti Patel like it was the last days of the Hitler regime in a Berlin bunker. The country is in decline and the Tories don’t stand a chance so it’s not obvious what they have to be merry about.  Their candidate lost his deposit last night in the Rutherglen by-election, which Labour took from the SNP with a 20% swing. It was a portent of the coming disaster. 

Truss and Braverman apparently were the only two speakers to attract big audiences and there was a warm reception for Farage, not as the man who destroyed the party but - according to some - as a future MP and leader. It's not unbelievable, is it? 

Before that, in their own speeches, ministers were raising an army of straw men. Nobody knows who has ever proposed we have seven rubbish/recycling bins or put a tax on meat, but no matter, Sunak, and his cabinet will be sure to block both if they ever come up. The government is firmly against the unthinkable- which nobody is thinking anyway. We are now all being taken down the rabbit hole.

I saw Theresa May asked by one interviewer if Britain is now firmly into post-truth politics. She denied it but I am sure that we are.

David Gauke, former Justice secretary, has an article for The New Statesman: The Conservative party is Disintegrating, something I have believed is a certainty after Sunak loses the next election. 

He says there were two conferences in the GMEX, one that Suank wanted and the second which the members wanted with a "war on the woke, tougher sentences for criminals, a crackdown on immigration and tax cuts."

It wasn't that long ago that the party thought Farage was politically toxic, Gauke says, but it's quite possible even likely that the former UKIP leader will join the Tories after an election defeat and could stand as a Tory MP in a future by-election. "After that, who knows?" he writes.  Quite.

A schism on the right in British politics is coming. If Farage does become leader the transformation of the Tories into a populist, right-wing authoritarian, neo-fascist party will be complete - and they will never be elected again

This is essential if we are to return to sensible, moderate policies that could improve the lot of people in this country. UKIP has to be put back in its box and Farage is the man to do it.

They have spent the last seven years digging their own grave and it's time the coffin was lowered in.

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