In May 2024 just before the July Election Geoffrey Wheatcroft published a new book on the history and decline of the Tory Party. He has predicted this before but Bloody Panico (Verso, May 2024) hits the zeitgeist.
The Tories were reduced to 121 seats on July 4th with a range of well-known Tory MPs losing their seats. Whatever the view on Starmer there was a cause for brief celebration on July 5th, as there was on 2nd May 1997 when Blair came to Office.
Wheatcroft’s book underlines that the Tories are the architects of their own destruction. What comes next on the right and far right of politics is concerning.
There is a Great Moving Right Show in progress. Some figures on the Tory hard right like Truss and Braverman are arguing that numbers of Tory MPs are not really Tories and look to Trump and Musk’s tour of destruction as the way forward.
Other right-wing Tories speculate about a deal or a merger with Reform UK Ltd- Jenrick and Rees Mogg. You cannot of course merge or do deals with a limited company and the history of the last 15 years underlines that the only person who ultimately benefits from efforts to work with Nigel Farage is Nigel Farage.
The left need to redouble efforts to combat racism- Stand Up To Racism is holding an event on 1st March and there is a broad Summit of Resistance on 29th March
A striking extract from Wheatcroft’s book:
Lord Salisbury, Stanley Baldwin,Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher each led the Conservatives for roughly fifteen years. In the thirty three years since the fall of Thatcher the Tories have had nine leaders including five Prime Ministers in the space of seven years..2022 will be remembered as the year of two monarchs and three prime ministers, not to mention four chancellors of the exchequer, five education secretaries and more than thirty resignations from Government.
Strong and stable it has not been
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