No.269 - The Return of the Grown Ups or the Start of the Tory Civil War?

Dear James,                                                                                                                                             

Well, no one saw that one coming! Rishi’s gone and done it. He’s sacked Suella and… wait for it… brought back David Cameron as Foreign Secretary! Bold, desperate, stupid? The start of a new episode or the eruption of the long delayed Tory Party civil war into the open? Only time will tell.

Before we jump to conclusions, wait for the Brexiteer backlash. They must be hopping mad. Suella must be seething. Boris and Truss must see it as a further betrayal and Nigel Farage will be whooping with joy for his next go at political prominence. After all, Cameron was the guy who proposed the Brexit referendum in the first place assuming that the majority would say No. Through a Leave campaign of distortions and downright lies` the voters said… “er Yes, perhaps”. Cameron has regretted his decision ever since. Sat in his gipsy caravan ‘office in the garden ‘ of his country home for the last seven years, he has been nursing his wounds, written his autobiography and suffered the years of ignominy and derision by, for different reasons, Brexiteers and Leavers alike. In the meantime Brexit has festered just below the political surface challenging the current Brexiteer incumbents with their failure to deliver any of the ‘Brexit opportunities’ and presiding over the seething resentment of the Leavers at the lies and deceit of successive governments to convince the country that they knew what they were doing. They clearly did not!

With today’s reshuffle Sunak has bet the house! After massive by-election defeats destroyed any hopes of winning the next election he has acted boldly or desperately, depending on your political persuasion. His image as PM has been damaged by dither and delay and Suella only made things worse. He’s tried to mend our relationships with the EU, resuscitated our participation in some EU projects and become ‘Mr Euro-nice’ to contrast with Boris and Truss’s confections of ‘Mr & Mrs Euro-nasty’. But it hasn’t worked. Your party James was stripped by successive Brexiteer governments of the genuine talent. Dominic Grieve, Ken Clarke, Rory Stewart, Amber Rudd and Philip Hammond and many more were ignominiously ejected from government roles in Boris’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in 2019. You were left with successive cabinets of the lesser talents. And those were on a good day! On the many bad days,  your party has been a hollow husk of confusion and indecision. The nation has looked on in dismay. We know we’re better than that!

To keep the Tory Party together Rishi Sunak, until today, has allowed the Brexiteers to keep their symbolic marker in government by recruiting Suella to one of the great Offices of State. The lady however, has turned out to be just the latest example of right wing Tory zealotry to the point where she actively equated the overtly aggressive ‘bother boys’ of Robinson’s English Defence League with the largely peaceful demonstration of the Pro-Palestinian marchers at the weekend.

Rishi Sunak has attempted to ‘reset’ his government several times since becoming PM but this is the biggest reset yet. A few weeks ago he tried to sell himself as ‘The Change Candidate’. No one believed him. Today Rishi has plucked up all his courage and decided to go for broke. Will it stick?Mmm… room for doubt there, James. Sunak’s problem within your party is, of course, that your Tory die hards refuse to accept change because now change signifies change back to sensible policy delivered by sensible people? The appointment of Cameron says it all. Perhaps the era of populists and ideologues really is at last over. The direction of travel is now back towards the centre of British politics. It’s just been announced that Therese Coffey has lost her job at Environment. New faces are being brought in. No 10 is in ferment. The times, they are a changing? Or perhaps not.

Which, of course brings us back to you, James. Nail biting times I guess? Sitting there waiting. Best keep your head down as usual? It’s worked before. Perhaps it’ll work again?

No matter what happens, may I take this opportunity to wish you the very best of luck? It may be a quality sorely needed by MPs in the current situation!

BH - Your Concerned Constituent

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