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It's Sunak's doom loop: the more desperate and cruel the Tories become, the more voters reject them (Guardian/opinion)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/30/rishi-sunak-doom-loop-cruel-tories-conservativesIt’s Sunak’s doom loop: the more desperate and cruel the Tories become, the more voters reject them
Polly Toynbee
The hatred these Conservatives feel for their country isn’t just because of the polls: they also despise the sea change in British politics
Tue 30 Apr 2024 04.00 EDT
The prime minister rounds up asylum seekers on the eve of local elections, not to sway voters but to appease the hyenas lurking on his backbenches. He will boost the army by sacking 70,000 civil servants, never mind the Institute for Government calling those sums purely “fictitious”. The Tory right’s rollercoaster death plunge would be entertaining if we weren’t all aboard.
Now their time is up, such Conservatives think the end of the world is nigh. If the approaching moderate social democratic government looks to them like Armageddon, that’s because they have become cultish fanatics.
Look at the frantic writings of their press. Here’s Allister Heath, the Sunday Telegraph’s editor: “Britain is already too far down the road to serfdom to turn back now”; “For the first time in my life, I’m now beginning to think Britain is finished”; “Middle England has been betrayed by Britain’s feckless new establishment.” His columnist Janet Daley echoed: “Betrayed voters are finally exacting revenge on our arrogant elites.” Another colleague, Sherelle Jacobs, wrote: “Britain has become a lawless country where good people have to live in fear” and “Endemic misery is pushing Britain towards a civilisational catastrophe.” That doomery reverberates among those Tory backbenchers who can’t tell the difference between their personal imminent loss of power, status and seats and “civilisational catastrophe”. The reason they are losing is because they have lost their reason.
A rather lazy view is that Labour will win only because of serial Tory abominations: no party could survive this record of misgovernment, and the pendulum was anyway overdue for a swing. But here’s the great question: is there something deeper, a quiet sea change in the public mood, in social attitudes and political expectations beyond a mere rejection of the present shower? Younger generations are refusing to turn Tory as they age, the way previous cohorts reliably did: is that just temporary indignation over their housing and hardship, or something epochal? Let’s take a deeper dive on issues Tories regard as their home turf.
[...]
Polly Toynbee
The hatred these Conservatives feel for their country isn’t just because of the polls: they also despise the sea change in British politics
Tue 30 Apr 2024 04.00 EDT
The prime minister rounds up asylum seekers on the eve of local elections, not to sway voters but to appease the hyenas lurking on his backbenches. He will boost the army by sacking 70,000 civil servants, never mind the Institute for Government calling those sums purely “fictitious”. The Tory right’s rollercoaster death plunge would be entertaining if we weren’t all aboard.
Now their time is up, such Conservatives think the end of the world is nigh. If the approaching moderate social democratic government looks to them like Armageddon, that’s because they have become cultish fanatics.
Look at the frantic writings of their press. Here’s Allister Heath, the Sunday Telegraph’s editor: “Britain is already too far down the road to serfdom to turn back now”; “For the first time in my life, I’m now beginning to think Britain is finished”; “Middle England has been betrayed by Britain’s feckless new establishment.” His columnist Janet Daley echoed: “Betrayed voters are finally exacting revenge on our arrogant elites.” Another colleague, Sherelle Jacobs, wrote: “Britain has become a lawless country where good people have to live in fear” and “Endemic misery is pushing Britain towards a civilisational catastrophe.” That doomery reverberates among those Tory backbenchers who can’t tell the difference between their personal imminent loss of power, status and seats and “civilisational catastrophe”. The reason they are losing is because they have lost their reason.
A rather lazy view is that Labour will win only because of serial Tory abominations: no party could survive this record of misgovernment, and the pendulum was anyway overdue for a swing. But here’s the great question: is there something deeper, a quiet sea change in the public mood, in social attitudes and political expectations beyond a mere rejection of the present shower? Younger generations are refusing to turn Tory as they age, the way previous cohorts reliably did: is that just temporary indignation over their housing and hardship, or something epochal? Let’s take a deeper dive on issues Tories regard as their home turf.
[...]
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Wikipedia: Polly Toynbee
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Toynbee
