The Telegraph's editor doesn't mince his words. Mid-term blues does not begin to describe the Conservative Party’s woeful performance in government since 2019 according to Allister Heath in his weekly column today. This article is the latest in a series of blistering attacks on the Johnson administration by its own side. If it can’t keep even Tory supporters happy what hope is there?
The list of charges against it is long, serious and well-documented including:
“…a shocking inability to control events, a lack of interest in gripping and remodelling the machinery of state, and an unhealthy obsession with polling.
Its policy failures are multiplying, not least its lazy adoption of a centre-Left agenda on tax, spending, economics, the environment and regulation, its striking feebleness on wokery and motorway protests, its lack of bite on crime and illegal Channel crossings, the almost complete lack of interest in monetary policy and now its dire mismanagement of a sleaze row that started with one MP and has exploded into a dispute over the outside interests of all politicians. What an underwhelming administration this is turning out to be.
For real Tories, whose disillusionment is now at an advanced stage, this represents a calamitous wasted opportunity to wrest the country away from decline, to permanently alter its direction.
Instead, there is no discipline, no focus, no ability to prioritise, to think several steps ahead, let alone to deliver real reform. The blob is in charge almost everywhere, with mainstream, establishment candidates appointed to run the NHS, regulatory agencies, the Bank of England, quangos and of course cultural institutions.
There have been a handful of exceptions, driven by Liz Truss, with the brilliant Baroness Falkner now in situ at the Equality and Human Rights Commission and the great Katharine Birbalsingh at the Social Mobility Commission. But why only them? And why are public sector unions being allowed to flex their muscles unchallenged in schools and hospitals? It’s heart-breaking.
It isn’t too late for Boris Johnson to turn things around, but for now the outlook is dismal. When I ask Tories what is going on, they shrug, point to the fact that they are still, usually, ahead in the polls, and thank God for the lacklustre Keir Starmer. When I then ask them what they think the purpose of the Government is, they look at me with incomprehension, chant their “levelling up” mantra or assure me that things would be even worse under Labour. The latter is right, of course, but hardly a ringing endorsement.”
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it:
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