The Party's Over : The Rise and Fall of the Conservatives from Thatcher to Sunak

Author: Burton-Cartledge, Phil

Society & social sciences

Published on 29 August 2023 by Verso Books in the United Kingdom.

Today, it is not a question of if, but when? What we are watching is the collapse of the most successful political party in Europe. Despite winning the December 2019 General Election, the parliamentary conservative and unionist party is facing its own demise. It no longer speaks for, or to, the British people. Its leadership has sacrificed the long-standing commitment to the Union to 'Get Brexit Done'. And beyond this, it is an intellectual vacuum, propped up by half-baked doctrine and magical thinking. Burton-Cartlege's account starts with the Thatcher era, and show that swiftly the party struggled to find a popular vision for the United Kingdom. He charts the flaws an failings of each successive leader, all the way to Sunak. He also examines the state of the membership and shows that they have become increasingly old. Their values have not been adopted by the younger voters, who are unable to share the benefits. Furthermore, the coalition between the countryside and the City interests is under pressure, and the latter is split by Brexit.