If Boris Johnson is to have any hope of remaining Prime Minister and leading a successful administration, he could do worse than appoint Professor Matt Goodwin his chief political advisor as part of the Downing Street shake-up so desperately needed in Number 10.
Alone among the commenteriat Professor Goodwin correctly identifies the shifting tectonic plates deep beneath the Palace of Westminster as the key to Johnson’s electoral appeal in 2019, and which even now provides him with the best opportunity to revive his fortunes, if only he could see it.
Professor Goodwin provides a personal testimony:
“The sheer scale of the disillusionment with Johnson’s premiership struck me last week as I gave various talks in Westminster and listened to MPs voicing their frustration with the direction of travel. On the surface, their demands are clear and specific. Those among the new intake — the 2019ers and Red Wallers — want Johnson’s advisors gone and No. 10 shaken up. They want the volume on Net Zero turned down and the volume on illegal migration turned up. They want Levelling-Up transformed from a narrow, hollow slogan into a serious, unifying and coherent project. And they want it done yesterday.
They also want Boris Johnson to govern as he campaigned; to spend more time outside of London, speaking on behalf of working people, taking on The Blob and offering policies that will resonate among the new Conservative voters, who not only gave him the Red Wall but lie at the heart of the realignment sweeping through the country.
They complain about a Prime Minister whose talents as a campaigner and communicator are being squandered by advisors who neither understand this new conservatism nor the realignment on which it stands. This is compounded, they continue, by a Prime Minister who is simply too worried about being liked by the chattering classes and too reluctant to embrace the messaging and policies which would reinforce and retain his new electorate.”
Instead, “they see a Prime Minister who is bobbing on the surface, trying to be all things to all voters with no clear sense of direction or underlying purpose.”
That really would be the end.
The full article can be read here with a link to the original beneath it.
As an addendum, we enclose the following article - an outline policy document by Phillip Blond and Matthew Goodwin aimed at renewing Conservatism for the 21st century which
"speaks to the needs of the culturally despised and economically marginalised might mean. We will uncover the principles of this new political offer and the policies that it should engender."
Otherwise, believe the authors, the Conservative party "may not govern again."
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