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On various occasions when party chiefs have appeared moderately rational on the surface – and other moments where they have sounded animal crackers, yet remained popular by party loyalists. We are not in such a scenario. A leading Tory left the crowd unmoved when she addressed her conference, despite she offered the red meat of migrant-baiting she believed they wanted.

This wasn't primarily that they’d all woken up with a fresh awareness of humanity; more that they lacked faith she’d ever be in a position to implement it. In practice, an imitation. Conservatives despise that. One senior Conservative was said to label it a “jazz funeral”: loud, animated, but ultimately a goodbye.

Future Prospects for the Group Having Strong Arguments to Make for Itself as the Top-Performing Governing Force in the World?

Some are having renewed consideration at a particular MP, who was a definite refusal at the beginning – but now it’s the end, and other candidates has left. Another group is generating a excitement around Katie Lam, a 34-year-old MP of the newest members, who presents as a traditional Conservative while wallpapering her online profiles with anti-migrant content.

Is she poised as the figurehead to challenge the rival party, now leading the Conservatives by 20 points? Is there a word for beating your rivals by adopting their policies? And, assuming no phrase fits, surely we could use an expression from martial arts?

When Finding Satisfaction In Any of This, in a Schadenfreude Way, in a Serves-Them-Right-for-Austerity Way, It's Comprehensible – However Completely Irrational

You don’t even have to examine America to know this, or reference a prominent academic's influential work, Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy: all your cognitive processes is shouting it. Centrist right-wing parties is the key defense resisting the far right.

His research conclusion is that democracies survive by satisfying the “propertied and powerful” happy. I’m not wild about it as an fundamental rule. One gets the impression as though we’ve been catering to the privileged groups for ages, at the cost of everyone else, and they rarely appear adequately satisfied to cease desiring to reduce support out of public assistance.

But his analysis is not speculation, it’s an archival deep dive into the historical German conservative group during the pre-war period (along with the UK Tories around the early 1900s). Once centrist parties becomes uncertain, if it commences to adopt the terminology and superficial stances of the radical wing, it cedes the steering wheel.

We Saw Comparable Behavior During the Brexit Years

Boris Johnson aligning with Steve Bannon was a clear case – but far-right flirtation has become so obvious now as to eliminate competing party narratives. Where are the established party members, who treasure predictability, tradition, legal frameworks, the national prestige on the world stage?

Where did they go the reformers, who described the nation in terms of growth centers, not powder kegs? Let me emphasize, I had reservations regarding both groups either, but it’s absolutely striking how such perspectives – the broad-church approach, the reformist element – have been marginalized, replaced by relentless demonisation: of migrants, Islamic communities, welfare recipients and protesters.

Take the Platform to Music That Sounds Like the Opening Credits to Game of Thrones

And talk about what they cannot stand for any more. They describe rallies by elderly peace activists as “carnivals of hatred” and display banners – union flags, English symbols, all objects bearing a splash of matadorial colour – as an direct confrontation to those questioning that complete national identity is the ultimate achievement a person could possibly be.

We observe an absence of any built-in restraint, encouraging reassessment with their own values, their own hinterland, their stated objectives. Whatever provocation the Reform leader presents to them, they’ll chase. So, absolutely not, there's no pleasure to watch them implode. They are pulling social cohesion into the abyss.