In all scenarios, there’s no way forward for the Tories electorally without accepting a certain number of lost causes.
It isn’t just pro-Brexit MPs who should be watching the Prime Minister carefully. It’s pro-Union ones: in other words, all of them.
Given that they saved the Party’s bacon, you would expect senior figures to say and do whatever it takes to keep them on side.
They want to know that their political leaders aren’t racist or judgemental or stuck in a 1950s parody – but they aren’t interested in hearing about these ideas primarily.
We must keep asking: ‘what’s the right level to pursue social repair?’ The nation is too large; the individual is too small. The community remains the right place.
It would be a huge waste to spend huge sums restoring the body of Westminster whilst decanting – probably permanently – its spirit.
A catspaw of Osborne? A competitor to Policy Exchange? A resource for a modernising leadership candidate? The truth is more subtle and interesting.
Detoxifying the Party never meant moving to the left – this year’s manifesto was well to the left economically of anything we advocated.
Even in an age where institutional attachments run shallow, too many young people are coming to share a deep-seating dislike of our Party.
Gender, race and sexuality dominated the early phases of Tory modernisation. The Prime Minister is now scaling the most challenging peak: class.
His time as an MP is surely coming to an end, but Conservatives will miss the former Chancellor’s enthusiasm for technology and global competitiveness.
“Theresa May and her Government will fight for those broadly small-l liberal, free-market values as hard as any previous Conservative government.”
The traditions and idiosyncrasies of our legislature are a precious inheritance, and the Prime Minister must preserve them.
Our system of government is broken, and voters feel powerless. Only a radical overhaul of Whitehall can address these problems.