Intelligent Conservatives must surely know that they should soon change course before their retrograde, fanatical party collides with the rocks
Someone is missing from the Conservative leadership contest. I have no idea who they are, or exactly what their pitch to Tory MPs and party members would be. But as we near the point where there will be only two candidates left, their absence becomes all the more glaring.
The country that the remaining contenders say they want to govern is in a mess. Their party has now lost three of its safest seats in byelections. The Tories’ support among young people is negligible, and may well shrink even further. Faced with that picture, you would expect at least one leading candidate to be making the case for an ideological rethink. But at the heart of the whole spectacle is a nagging tension. Outwardly, a contest dominated by women and people of colour might suggest a party in tune with modernity, but the arguments between the contenders have so far betrayed a telling mixture of fanaticism and political nostalgia.
John Harris is a Guardian columnist. To listen to John’s podcast Politics Weekly UK, search “Politics Weekly UK” on Apple, Spotify, Acast or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Thursday
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