Conservative Party (UK) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Guardian reports that party chiefs warn against plot to install David Davis as leader before the summer holidays.
Source: Let Theresa May stay at No 10 for the summer, top Tories tell MPs | Politics | The Guardian
Whilst, it’s clear that May’s going, the golden questions are ‘when’ and ‘who’.
But the ‘elephants in the room‘ are fear of losing an early election and bringing in a Marxist government to the UK.
It’s worth exploring how the politics of the major parties have changed in recent years.
Firstly, let’s remember that the Labour Party was hijacked by shadowy Far-Left radicals, for whom Jeremy Corbyn is their puppet. For me, Jeremy Corbyn is the ‘Pied Piper of Islington‘ and we know how that story ended. Tories are worried about precipitating a Marxist government in the UK, either with or without a revolution. The first paradox for Labour is that the Far-Left radicals hold increasing power, not the legally elected MPs. There is a second paradox for Labour. The Marxist experiment has failed in practice and socialism, with ‘big government’ has been widely discredited. The fault line for socialism has shifted from radicalism to being the new conservatives, desperately trying to preserve the welfare state but that has been widely discredited by both exploitation and ineffectiveness. Yet Corbyn and his shadowy Far Left supporters ignore the evidence, passionately believing that the end justifies the means. This is the risk of the ‘Pied Piper of Islington’.
Secondly, we need to look at the Conservative Party and their supporters. Traditionally, conservatism has been about preserving ‘ old values’. When existing institutions have become bloated by socialism, we find that conservatism has embraced a form of radicalism. The champions of radical ideas have become the ‘New Right‘. But there have been two prevailing targets, firstly, bureaucracy at home, viz. the public sector, and secondly, bureaucracy in Europe, viz. the EU. The ‘New Right’ are sometimes called neoliberals, passionately believing in the indefinite expansion of market forces. We have seen the left and the right of the Conservative Party championing polarized positions. The left of the conservative party championed social and economic liberalism, moving with the times and supporting a measure of progressivism. It’s not clear whether the right of the Conservative Party are simply champions of ‘Old Conservatism’ supporting hierarchy, aristocracy and the individual over the state. At the same time, it’s necessary to understand the voters who favour conservatism. When I talk to many traditional Conservative voters they cannot articulate their politics – most are simply in fear of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Government and a potential Marxist state.
We also need to pick up a third thread. The Conservatives have been too weak to embrace radicalism. Since the 2008 financial crash, the Conservatives have favoured prolonged and progressive austerity, rather than radical change to the public sector. By comparison, the late Margaret Thatcher was a champion of radical change and the ‘New Right’.
But there is perhaps a fourth thread, namely the ‘push-back of the people’. The people are tired of austerity which has resulted in a collapse of public services and secondly the people are increasingly angry at the emerging economic hardship of Brexit.
The Conservatives know that to win the next election and keep Britain from possibly becoming a Marxist state, they must choose a ‘champion of the people’. It’s unlikely that the big beasts of the party, including Davies, Johnson and Hammond, can become a popular champion.
Personally, I believe that there’s a popular appeal with:
- World class public services, recognizing the need for radical reform to offer the world’s best public services with oustanding value for money
- Maximizing value for money in public services as an ethos across central and local government
- Strong and effective law and order, with an appropriate defense force
- Taxes low enough to attract investment and highly skilled professionals
- Preserving the integrity of open markets
- Championing the peoples’ interests against extremism
- Equality of opportunity
- Mobilizing those out of work with public service
- A balanced approach to immigration, recognizing the need for expertise but also recognizing the size of the country and the changing demographic profile
- Soft Brexit, preserving Britain’s place in Europe and in the wider world.
Here’s an open question:
So who’s going to beat the ‘Pied Piper of Islington?’
Thoughts?
[For further reading I would recommend: ‘Beyond Left and Right: The Future of Radical Politics – Anthony Giddens]
Dr Alf's Blog 
Dr Alf’s analysis of the situation is a good one but there are several elephants in the room which have to be dealt with before his policies with popular appeal can be dealt with.
First, there is the future of work with AI and robotics, 3D printing and RPO threatening to destroy jobs and incomes faster than even a smart politician can create them. A strategy is required.
Second, there is the double-think of the public, many of whom want jobs to be earmarked for them but at the same time are not prepared to do the jobs that migrants do, and at the same time, are not prepared to raise their productivity (it fell again 2 weeks ago to just 21% below the average for the G7) and at the same time want immigrant numbers to fall with better border control.
Thirdly, we have the abusive pensioners and their fellow travellers, who think that they can go on using the NHS “free at the point of need” indefinitely.
Fourthly, there is the issue of Adult Social Care.
The bulk of the public do not want to care for their elderly relatives and are often unwilling and unable to pay for that care, as evidenced by the fact that many of them come into television studios crying crocodile tears at the treatment of their relatives in care homes, having first got their parents to sign over houses and bank accounts to them and then placed those parents in care homes many miles away from where they used to live.
The public have to get used to the idea of either paying for this care,nundertaking the care themselves or permitting euthenasia….The days of fence sitting and hand-wringing are well and truly over.
Overall, we have too many people in the UK, who are consuming much more than they produce to the point where perhaps what should be half the workforce is bludging the system.
It follows then that we have too few useful and productive citizens and that the system is geared towards rewarding bad and mendacious behaviours, which organisations like the BBC and the Guardian see as “rights”, when in fact they are nothing of the kind.
A new leader to replace May is needed now, and they will need to be telegenic, hard-headed realists that can deal with these 3 issues, solve youth unemployment and recreate self discipline in the population by delivering short sharp shocks (doing it slowly is not an option).
None of the present Cabinet is up to the job, so I advocate skipping several generations of so called “Big Beasts” and looking at people like Kwazi Kwarteng, who is switched on and can present difficult truths in a humourous way.
To pay for things we need new money from 4 sources:
1)Infrastructure bonds or “super gilts”
2)Citizenship bonds to attract wealthy inward investors prepared to employ the indigenous population
3)Export sales from a quadrupled export salesforce equipped with instant translator devices
4)Tourism from wealthy tourists extending their stays and spending more money each day
The public sector is bloated, inefficient and corrupt, so we need to be draining the swamp by shrinking it into affordability, rooting out abuse and using forensic accountants to audit the bank accounts of officials, ministers and top people in the NHS, and the emergency services plus those of relatives, spouses, lovers, mistresses, companies and partnerships (here and abroad), which they and those connected to them may own.
We need to look at who is holding the country back and who is helping it and in that regard the Monarchy helps but is overstaffed, the House of Lords hinders and should be abolished and replaced, the BBC tells lies and needs to be privatised and Channel 4 needs to be sold off.
We have jihadists and their sympathisers here, so all of them need to be interned and we have trendy heads and militant trades unionists who create trouble.
Both these last 2 need to be fired.