In a tumultuous week for the UK Conservative Party, former leaders cosy up to Donald Trump, conspiracy theories gain traction, and the party’s rightward drift threatens to plunge it into the shark-infested waters of national populism, leaving the Tories bleeding and inviting extremist elements to save them from annihilation. Here’s the full story.
Curiouser and Curiouser
It would be so nice if something made sense for a change. However, in the UK, in the modern era, not much does.
A Peculiar Place
In the past week, the party in charge of the UK for the last fifteen years, the Conservatives, have found their party in a peculiar place.
With Friends Like These
Former Prime Ministers are cozying up to Donald Trump and his cronies, former Home Secretaries are peddling great replacement conspiracy theories in national newspapers, and a former Conservative Deputy Chairman had the whip removed, not for the blatantly Islamaphobic nonsense he had said on the right wing “news” channel GB News, about the sitting Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, but for his refusal to apologize for it.
We All Have Bad Days
So, all in all, it’s not been a great week for the Tory party, but this shouldn’t be a great surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.
Further to the Right
Since coming to power, the Tories have drifted further and further to the right on almost every conceivable issue or policy.
Hug a Hoodie
It’s hard to remember, but there was once a time when David Cameron was hailed as the soft, kind-hearted, less nasty side of the Tories – he was socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
“Structural Islamophobia”
Those days are long gone. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) has, within the last few days, sounded the alarm on what it deems the Conservative Party’s “structural Islamophobia.”
Are the Islamists in the Room With Us?
This outcry stemmed from a badly written, poorly thought out, and conspiratorial-sounding article by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman in the Telegraph where she claimed, in writing, that “Islamists” are now in charge of Britain.
No Action
This is while she is still a member of the current party in charge of the UK. No action has been taken against her.
Great Replacement
This rhetoric is dangerously close to the great replacement conspiracy theory, in which unspecified elites are working tirelessly to replace white Europeans with refugees or immigrants from Muslim-majority countries for unknown or nonsensical reasons.
Protesting Too Little
Former Prime Minister Liz Truss, whose short reign brought the country to the very edge of ruin, sat silently next to Steve Bannon after CPAC, the largest gathering of far-right, Trump-supporting, democracy-denying lunatics in the Western world, as he described the far-right agitator Tommy Robinson as a “hero.”
“A Bigger Bazooka”
Truss also used language that wouldn’t be out of place in the world’s most boring action movie, saying at CPAC that conservatives “need a bigger bazooka in order to be able to deliver.”
Lacking Humor
Considering she said this at a conference whose open disdain for democracy teeters on armed insurrection, it would be funny if it wasn’t so alarming.
Islamist “Mates”
This brings us to the unfortunate case of Lee Anderson, who claimed on air that Sadiq Khan, Labour’s Mayor of London, had given away control of the capital to his Islamist “mates.”
Refusal to Apologize
His conservative whip has been suspended, but this seems to stem more from his refusal to apologize than his statement’s actual content.
“Conspiracy Fueled Waters”
So, what is going on in the party of government?
Why is it that, according to Professor Tim Bale, the UK’s leading academic expert on the Conservatives, the party is perilously close to departing from “the mainstream centre-right and sailing off into the shark-infested, migrant-bashing, war-on-woke, multiculturalism-has-failed, conspiracy-fueled waters of national populism.”
A Party in Name Only
Ultimately, it comes down to a party without a rudder, a party held together not with coherent policies and achievable goals, but a party in name only, held together with animosity towards the other, almost innumerable, factions within it, whose only reason for governing is that they feel they have the right to govern.
Deep Wounds
An old adage in the news media is that “if it bleeds, it leads,” and the Conservative Party is bleeding from several deep, putrid wounds.
Clickbait
Every policy they announce that causes them to drift further to the right, every time there is an outrage over what one of their members has said, every decision they make that caters more and more to the worst elements within their ranks, is another day that they are in the headlines.
Grievance Politics
For all that many in the UK hold the British, and the English especially, as a common sense lot, not like that rabble overseas, the chum the Tories are throwing overboard seems to attract the worst kind of support from the country’s right-wing.
Seeping In
There are many in the UK and in other right-wing organizations and political parties abroad who are rubbing their hands with glee as the current populist, anti-immigrant, far-right rhetoric seeps further and further into the festering wounds of the UK Conservative Party.
Quite the Legacy
The Conservative policies of the last fifteen years have failed, Britain is on the very edge of economic collapse, the NHS is failing, and the social security net of the welfare state has been so thoroughly gutted as to functionally no longer exist.
Loud Minority
So, desperate to hold onto power, they turn to the darker side of their ideology, finding a loud minority, smiling with shark tooth grins, beckoning them to bring their bleeding bodies further into the water.
Blood in the Water
That is why they are in the headlines, that is why there has been little to no action on their insane comments, and that is why they are permitting stranger and more dangerous ideas to leak into them and then back out into the body politic of the United Kingdom.
Doomed to Repeat History
They are sending up a flare, inviting all who previously would be too extreme for the common sense, stiff upper lip, lovers of the traditional Tory party to come and save them from annihilation.
We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat
The sharks are circling, and the more that what is left of the Tories allow their far-right rhetoric to bleed out into the water of political discourse, the closer our delicate little boat comes to sinking.
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Grant Gallacher is a seasoned writer with expertise in politics and impactful daily news. His work, deeply rooted in addressing issues that resonate with a wide audience, showcases an unwavering commitment to bringing forth the stories that matter. He is also known for satirical writing and stand up comedy.