Regaining Trust

What does the Tory Party need to do to regain the trust of the electorate?

A leader has to emerge who isn't afraid of the ERG and is willing to speak the truth - that truth being that they were sold the Brexit pup by a serially lying charlatan who didn't even believe in it himself, but used it as a means to achieve power - power he was ultimately too flawed to wield properly. The fact Johnson is a liar is not a matter of opinion, it's a proven fact and the very reason the Parliamentary Tory Party wants shot of him.

Yes, there was the slenderest majority for Brexit, but the form that Brexit should take was never debated, nor the consequences, which were spun as Project Fear, which is now undeniably Project Reality. More now have come to the conclusion since 2016.

Of course, the emergence of a leader with the balls to do what's politically and economically necessary isn't going to happen at the present time - fanatics from the ERG are still spreading misinformation that the deluded soak up - and the deluded are predominantly Tories. Any new leader is constrained by circumstances and will have to go with the flow. Any MPs showing real leadership potential were thrown out of the party by Johnson.

Every member of the Cabinet is tainted by support for both Brexit and Johnson. Not one of them has the guts to spill the beans about there not being a single benefit to Brexit'; the Tory support based isn't yet ready for truth and still cries out for more lies to balance the truth. Additionally, Cabinet members were not selected for their expertise or probity, but because they were sycophantically loyal. What will happen is that we'll limp along for another 2 or 3 years with the dead weight of Brexit dragging the country down further into the gutter under the leadership of someone who knows Brexit is shit, but can't say so for fear of losing support. That support, however, will gradually wane as we approach a General Election. It's a one way path.

Any real leader would need to bide their time and accept that the Tory Party is inexorably destined to lose the next election as the situation deteriorates, possibly to the stage of civil unrest, like the Poll Tax Riots. That will be the time to step forward and inject some realism into the party. It would appear Ben Wallace has realised this and has withdrawn from the race for the poisoned chalice.

Then there's the matter of the Tory Party - the party that's done its best to marginalise and disenfranchise non-whites and has a longstanding problem with Islamophobia - having the choice of 4 (possibly more) non-white candidates. While the Parliamentary Party may whittle it down to 2 candidates, they may both be non-white, which may be a bridge too far for the wider party membership - and certainly for the wider, Tory-supporting electorate. That said, Tories have shown that they're fully willing to trash the pillars of Conservatism, and indeed the country, to achieve the destructive Brexit they want, so they may even bury their Islamophobia and vote for a Muslim leader, providing he or she is seen as a rabid Brexiteer that's happy to keep pressing the self-destruct button.

As for Suella Braverman - that's just a joke too far. She's despised in legal circles for her partisan advice as Attorney General. She has QC after her name, but that's an honorific given to all Attorney Generals, whether they took silk or not, which she hasn't. 

She's not incompetent on a Nadine Dorries scale of incompetence, but she gave legal advice that was designed purely as cover for Johnson's worst excesses - advice she knew to be false; Machiavellian advice. She's dangerous and she's ostensibly a fanatical Brexiteer. I say ostensibly, as no sensible person is a Brexiteer - politicians are fake Brexiteers and they use Brexit as a vote catcher, as Johnson did, but the vote catcher is based on lies.

Grant Shapps has launched his leadership campaign by saying; “I have not spent the last few turbulent years plotting or briefing against the prime minister. I have not been mobilising a leadership campaign behind his back.” Why ever not? Johnson was an absolute disaster, totally corrupt, a moral and ethical vacuum, simply the worst PM ever to hold the office and a national security risk, yet Shapps was content to let the guy continue in office against what's plainly the wishes of the majority of the Parliamentary Party. He's shot himself in the foot with stupidity if he thinks that's going to win any favours from backbenchers in the first round with that statement.

Yes - it seems the contenders are vying with each other to see which can appear to be the biggest bell end. The problem they all face is that the Parliamentary Party and the winder party have opposing agendas - the MPs don't want a Johnson facsimile, whereas the wider party does. Contenders have to show two faces simultaneously.

Whatever happens, we're in for a chaotic period till the next General Election as none of the candidates can display any leadership, even if they have it - for now they are forced to appear as facsimiles of Boris Johnson, and we know what that means. The failure of Brexit to deliver any benefits is being blamed on everyone, except Brexit itself - civil servants, lefty lawyers, the BBC, Remoaner Tories, Durham Constabulary, Meghan Markle, gravity or even the Pope - the usual suspects that the likes of the Tory propaganda machine  (Daily Mail, Sun, Express) deems to be traitors. It's like 1950s McCathyite USA.

Labour too is scared to mention that the Emperor has no clothes, but mainly because it understandably doesn't want to be dragged into a Brexit row until the runes are self-evident to even the most fanatical that Brexit is to blame, rather than Covid, Ukraine, traitors, baying mobs or the EU itself. It's a long-term strategy, but it annoys the hell out of those who have seen the light since the ridiculous notion of Brexit was first mooted.

Someone noted that Boris Johnson is the 3rd PM brought down by...... Boris Johnson....