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Throughout history when Tory figureheads have seemed almost sensible outwardly – and alternate phases where they have sounded animal crackers, yet continued to be cherished by their party. We are not in such a scenario. Kemi Badenoch failed to inspire attendees when she addressed her conference, even as she offered the divisive talking points of anti-immigration sentiment she believed they wanted.

It’s not so much that they’d all awakened with a renewed sense of humanity; more that they didn’t believe she’d ever be able to follow through. Effectively, fake vegan meat. Conservatives despise that. An influential party member reportedly described it as a “jazz funeral”: loud, animated, but ultimately a farewell.

What Next for the Organization With a Decent Case to Make for Itself as the Most Accomplished Governing Force in the World?

Certain members are taking renewed consideration at Robert Jenrick, who was a definite refusal at the outset – but with proceedings winding down, and rivals has withdrawn. Another group is generating a excitement around Katie Lam, a 34-year-old MP of the 2024 intake, who looks like a traditional Conservative while wallpapering her socials with border-control messaging.

Could she be the figurehead to counter opposition forces, now outpolling the Tories by a substantial lead? Is there a word for defeating opponents by becoming exactly like them? Moreover, if there isn’t, surely we could use an expression from martial arts?

When Finding Satisfaction In Any of This, in a How-the-Mighty-Are-Fallen Way, in a Just-Deserts Way, That Is Understandable – But Absolutely Bananas

One need not examine America to grasp this point, or reference a prominent academic's influential work, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: your entire mental framework is screaming it. Centrist right-wing parties is the essential firewall resisting the extremist factions.

Ziblatt’s thesis is that democracies survive by keeping the “propertied and powerful” happy. I have reservations as an guiding tenet. It seems as though we’ve been indulging the privileged groups over generations, at the expense of everyone else, and they never seem quite happy enough to halt efforts to reduce support out of public assistance.

However, his study goes beyond conjecture, it’s an thorough historical examination into the pre-Nazi German National People’s Party during the Weimar Republic (along with the British Conservatives in that historical context). Once centrist parties becomes uncertain, if it commences to pursue the buzzwords and symbolic politics of the extremist elements, it transfers the steering wheel.

Previous Instances Showed Similar Patterns During the Brexit Years

A key figure aligning with an influential advisor was one particularly egregious example – but far-right flirtation has become so obvious now as to eliminate competing party narratives. Whatever became of the old-school Conservatives, who prize stability, preservation, governing principles, the national prestige on the world stage?

Where did they go the modernisers, who defined the country in terms of growth centers, not powder kegs? Don’t get me wrong, I had reservations regarding both groups too, but it's remarkably noticeable how those worldviews – the one nation Tory, the Cameroonian Conservative – have been erased, replaced by constant vilification: of migrants, religious groups, welfare recipients and protesters.

Take the Platform to Melodies Evoking the Opening Credits to Game of Thrones

And talk about positions they oppose. They describe protests by 75-year-old pacifists as “displays of hostility” and employ symbols – British flags, patriotic icons, all objects bearing a splash of matadorial colour – as an clear provocation to individuals doubting that being British through and through is the ultimate achievement a human can aspire to.

There appears to be no any built-in restraint, where they check back in with core principles, their own hinterland, their original agenda. Any stick the political figure offers them, they follow. Therefore, definitely not, it’s not fun to see their disintegration. They are pulling social cohesion into the abyss.