Its vagueness over handling Brexit is echoed in other policy areas.
A week after the Labour party held a jubilant conference that demonstrated heretofore unknown reserves of unity behind old lefty Jeremy Corbyn, it is now the Conservatives’ turn. And the results are underwhelming. Do the Tories know what they believe in anymore?
Chancellor of the Exchequer Phillip Hammond has spent much of the post-election period talking up a softening of Brexit positions, maybe including a long transition period. He gave a speech on Monday attacking Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party as “dinosaurs” who would bring Venezuela-style poverty to the United Kingdom. The terms were dire, but the problem for Hammond is that he did not make much of a case for voting for the Tory party. How would the Tory agenda help young working people get into a home they own and participate in the economy? He said nothing.
The Tory problem goes all the way to the top. Party leader Theresa May has not provided real clarity about what kind of Brexit she wants. Even after her speech in Florence, it’s not a sure thing whether the United Kingdom will seek a solution that involves remaining in the single market but not in the customs union. Instead, all we know is that May wants to seek positive, non-punitive solutions with her European partners. She wants no land border controls with Ireland, though the U.K. seems to be committed to leaving the customs union that makes such border controls unnecessary.
Beyond that, the reporting from the conference is almost all about internal Tory-family psychodrama — that is, about Boris Johnson. The foreign secretary and incidental Muppet impersonator either is or isn’t trying to maneuver May out of the top spot. May should sack him for giving his pro-Brexit bombast interviews to the press, or so all the questions from the press imply.
The lack of cohesion makes you wonder if the Tory party has the right generation in power, because elsewhere, in “fringe” events around the Tory party conference, a different set of stars were holding forth before energetic crowds.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a Conservative MP who, for good and ill, reminds everyone of a 19th-century Tory, demonstrated his unflappability before the anti-Tory anger of Britain’s youth. A protester who confronted him, shouting “Tories out!,” was met with an almost unnerving level of patience and good humor by Mogg, who wanted to know what the protester disagreed with him on. They had a short, unenlightening discussion about the government’s success in getting people onto the employment rolls. Mogg’s eerie calm won him more than a few fans.
The lack of cohesion makes you wonder if the Tory party has the right generation in power, because elsewhere, in ‘fringe’ events, a different set of stars were holding forth before energetic crowds.
In another fringe event, the leader of Scotland’s Conservative and Unionist party, Ruth Davidson, was cracking jokes about her lesbianism and discussing the mechanics of her own success in the election, while batting away any speculation that she might like to run the party one day. “I don’t think the party needs saving,” Davidson said. “I think it needs to get over its current nervous breakdown and man up a bit.” Something winning about that line. Asked about her party getting “into bed” with the conservative Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland, she shot back, “I’m not sure [DUP leader] Arlene Foster would be comfortable in a bed with me.”
Davidson’s long interview with Matt Chorley of the Times sparkled by showing just how intriguing she could be while remaining politic. She blamed the Tory manifesto for the election woes, particularly how its most controversial portions had not been introduced to the public earlier. But she deftly papered over any splits within the party itself. She defended Boris Johnson’s interviews, saying they were “in line” with the party’s position, though she also seemed to distance herself from him, saying that she wouldn’t dare guess what he’s thinking from moment to moment.
Overall there is a sense that the Conservative party hasn’t adjusted to the new era of politics that its former leader, David Cameron, ushered in by calling the referendum on Brexit. The Labour party is far more divided about Brexit when you drill down into it, but all the public splits and wedges are still currently working against the Tories. Perhaps their plan for success should include a plan of succession, from this confused generation to another with more conviction.
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