It seems to me that the main mission for the new Conservative leader is to transform the Tories into a party of grown-ups who aren’t barking mad racists. They’ve been shown how this can be done by the king of barking mad racists, Boris Johnson. He purged the party of the centrists and adults in 2019. The new leader should remove the whip from a good couple of dozen of their MPs,who would be a better fit in UKIP anyway, and call an election.
Rees Mogg, Davis, Braverman, Patel, Gullis, Dorries, Jenkyns, Baker, Bone, Chope. Get shot of the lot. Yes, a period of opposition will surely follow, but that wouldn’t be a bad thing given the current circumstances. Call it a ‘period of healing’. Alas, I’ll wager a pound that they won’t do this.
It seems to me that Labour should be pitching rejoining the Single Market as their central policy. A negotiated membership, supported by a referendum. It’s a policy that is sound politically, economically and that can be used as a means to solve many other issues, including the NI Protocol. Best of all? There’s huge popular support for this in the electorate. Huge.
Divisive? Oh yes, the Tory party will literally rip itself to pieces in a foaming, rabid act of self destruction. The Daily Mail will go full Gestapo for all to see. It’d be the finest Labour policy of the post war period. Alas, I’ll wager another pound that they won’t do this. The Lib Dems should prepare themselves for a place in a coalition government.
It also seems to me that political parties of all persuasions, here at home and elsewhere, would do very well to introduce a ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test to weed out the potential fascists, weirdos, sexual deviants and corrupt narcissists. I’m sorry to have to say this, but Joe Public has not demonstrated the sort of smarts to suggest they’d reject the second coming of Adolf.
I’d boldly wager a third pound that this wont happen anytime soon either. But I’ve seen the list of candidates for the Tory leadership, and that bet is already won.
The Mexile 
Politics of the party system gets more like sport every year. Policy takes a deep second to personality. It has always been that way, back to the Greek democracies but it seems much more pronounced today. Your star striker or my QB have the headlines, Johnson, Trump and Le Pen are bigger than life because of the sport mentality of political parties.
I compare it to the Ohio State-Michigan rivalry, the rabid fans profess to hate each other over their sport teams. Party politics acts the same. I fear, I’m guilty of this thought pattern as well. Not the Michigan people but the GOP folk, I find myself avoiding their company more after the Trump years. I fear he leads a modern day fascist movement, having hijacked the Republican Party. It is not sport, fascism kills people as a matter of policy if given the chance-nature of the beast. I’ll keep its adherents at arm’s length for the duration. Family, friends, neighbors, it does not matter-arm’s length or more from now on until the fascist movement passes out of the GOP.
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Trumpists in particular spout a lot of text book fascist crud. I spoke to a few in the US at the end of last year. They are cheerfully, often politely, always resolutely fascist. But they haven’t all cottoned on yet how this works.
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