Linschoten
Ad Honoris
- Aug 2010
- 16,214
- Welsh Marches
That is true, there is a serious disconnect between regular Tory voters/party members and and many of the MPs and the party hierarchy. I don't think it is a simple right-left issue (though it is to some extent), more to the fact that many of the MPs are not really conservative in any proper sense, but are metroplitan careerists who largely subscribe to the liberal consensus that dominates the mainstream media, academia, etc., and view many of the people who vote for them with a certain disdain. The party has usually been able to get away with this because it needs to be able to appeal to floating voters in the centre ground, and people of more conservative or more right-wing views (as I have indicated, I think the two are not quite the same) have nowhere else to go, populist nationalist parties having less appeal in Britain than on the in some Continental countries; but it cannot get away with failing to deliver on Brexit or delivering a watered-down version, because disaffected Tory voters will turn to Farage's new party. By contrast to UKIP, which usually had mediocre candidates and some decidedly dubious ones, Fararge has recruited good middle-of-the-road candidates for his new party who will appeal to many Tory voters much more than the average Tory MP. It should be said that Tory MPs are pretty second-rate on the whole nowadays, the parliamentary party is dominated by professional politicians and no longer draws in people of substance who have achieved something in the outside world; no one could claim that most of the candidates for the Tory leadership are remotely impressive, or show any originality of mind, let alone cultural depth. So unless the next Tory leader shows real cunning and determination in dealing with the Brexit issue, there is a real danger that the Conservative party may suffer the same fate that the great Liberal party suffered after the First World War, and that politics as usual won't be resumed. The Brexit party is of course a one-issue party, but it just possible that it may morph into something more unless its raison d'etre is removed very quickly.I think so, the British electoral system seems to imply that happen.
Unless the tories make a complete fool of themselves, which is not impossible. My feeling (not being British I wouldn't know) is that many UK grassroots conservatives are quite unhappy with them, especially the way they've handled/ "handled" Brexit and migration related questions.