Tory Party Responsibilities

As I write this letter, it is a grey wet autumn morning. Rishi Sunak looks to be the next conservative Prime Minister. It appears that Boris never really had the numbers outside his head. People will talk about mandates, but the reality is that in a parliamentary democracy we elect MPs and they are responsible for the government and electing the Prime Minister.

Going forward this is an important point to remember. As Sunak battles the economic disasters befalling us all, there will be attempts to change the narrative. This attempt to change history would suggest that Truss was an aberration, and Johnson was a great PM worthy of comparison with Churchill who sorted out Brexit whatever the evidence to the contrary. The reality is that the leadership of the Conservative Party has been created by Conservative MPs aided by the party membership. They bear the responsibility for the situations that we are now in: inflation, labour shortages and cost of living amongst others. Johnson did his utmost to destroy our institutions and the rule of law, and Truss the continuity candidate tanked our economy by following an ideological line fully endorsed by members of a party which has lurched to the right.

Like turkeys voting for Christmas, it is unlikely that this group of Conservative MPs, who have saddled us with such incompetent leadership, will go for a general election. Most would lose their seats. These MPs will try to hang on for the full five year term and hope things will improve over the next couple of years. Many will argue things cannot get worse. They will blame all the problems on the war in Ukraine, the pesky Europeans, the unions and other assorted groups. They will not take responsibility for their own incompetence. This is the way of populists. It is not the way of responsible politicians in a liberal democracy.