If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago what the focus of the Westminster media would have been now, I’d have had to run through a lengthy list of possibilities before I wound up at fox-hunting.
Likewise, if you’d asked me immediately after the election what one of the incoming majority governments first actions would be, I’d have run through an even longer list before I wound up at fox-hunting.
I mean fox-hunting? Really? This is a hot button issue for you? Have you not noticed anything, um, else? Like, oh, I dunno, the potential destruction of the EU? Or the economy running out of steam? Or people getting shot by terrorists? Really? Huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’? Really? It’s almost as if the Tories, shocked at their sudden elevation to single party government have cast about floundering for something to do before gushing, with sudden relief “Foxes! That’ll do! Legalise ripping the blighters up again!” It’s an odd choice of policy to hang your hat on, at best. At worst, it’s a timely reminder that this is the party of murderous oafs, who don’t want anything getting in the way of their having a bally good time.
Except they aren’t, not any more Well, not as much as they’d like to be. Much to his surprise, Cambo has a bit of a rebellion on his hands. And plans for the debate have been quietly shelved. Before we get to the SNP intervention, and rightness or wrongness thereof, the news that at least 50 Tories were prepared to vote against the government line speaks to a problem they’ve not had for a long, long time.
Back in the bad old days of the eighties, there was a large enough conservative majority that some of the more independent thinkers could be cheerfully ignored, as the electoral juggernaut rolled on, until hubris arrived in the form of the Poll Tax, and we all know how THAT turned out. But after the narrow squeak of 92, those troublemakers who’d managed to hang on found their views, in a party with a massively reduced majority, that much weightier. Cue the car crash conservative wipe-out of 1997.
The party that survived was much reduced, and shrunk back to its traditional hinterlands, the south, the east. The huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’ monied classes. The countryside, in effect. It was an echo chamber, with chaps of a similar sort furrowing their brows and wondering why on earth those damned proles wouldn’t do what they were jolly well told. And everyone else kept voting Labour.
But now they’re back as the party of government, and to do that they’ve had to win in places where nary a cut glass accent can be heard. They’ve had to take on board different classes and faiths. Possibly even the odd (gasp) woman. They have been forced, in effect, to become more pluralistic, and with this pluralism naturally, dissent follows. And dissenting voices plus a parliamentary majority of twelve leads to fun and games watching from the cheap seats.
As to the intervention of the Scots Nats, I do wonder if it may not be ultimately self-defeating. Whilst it proves (for those who weren’t already aware) that Nicola Sturgeon has a cracking sense of humour and a streak of mischief a mile wide, what it will serve to do is put a lot of backs up, including those not necessarily unsympathetic to the Nats’ cause. It’s playing politics, and it’s going back on what they’d said they’d do. Both of these, for a party which as defined itself by not doing these sorts of things, may well prove counterproductive in the long run. Bust vastly entertaining in the short term.
Likewise, if you’d asked me immediately after the election what one of the incoming majority governments first actions would be, I’d have run through an even longer list before I wound up at fox-hunting.
I mean fox-hunting? Really? This is a hot button issue for you? Have you not noticed anything, um, else? Like, oh, I dunno, the potential destruction of the EU? Or the economy running out of steam? Or people getting shot by terrorists? Really? Huntin’, shootin’ and fishin’? Really? It’s almost as if the Tories, shocked at their sudden elevation to single party government have cast about floundering for something to do before gushing, with sudden relief “Foxes! That’ll do! Legalise ripping the blighters up again!” It’s an odd choice of policy to hang your hat on, at best. At worst, it’s a timely reminder that this is the party of murderous oafs, who don’t want anything getting in the way of their having a bally good time.
Except they aren’t, not any more Well, not as much as they’d like to be. Much to his surprise, Cambo has a bit of a rebellion on his hands. And plans for the debate have been quietly shelved. Before we get to the SNP intervention, and rightness or wrongness thereof, the news that at least 50 Tories were prepared to vote against the government line speaks to a problem they’ve not had for a long, long time.
Back in the bad old days of the eighties, there was a large enough conservative majority that some of the more independent thinkers could be cheerfully ignored, as the electoral juggernaut rolled on, until hubris arrived in the form of the Poll Tax, and we all know how THAT turned out. But after the narrow squeak of 92, those troublemakers who’d managed to hang on found their views, in a party with a massively reduced majority, that much weightier. Cue the car crash conservative wipe-out of 1997.
The party that survived was much reduced, and shrunk back to its traditional hinterlands, the south, the east. The huntin’, fishin’ and shootin’ monied classes. The countryside, in effect. It was an echo chamber, with chaps of a similar sort furrowing their brows and wondering why on earth those damned proles wouldn’t do what they were jolly well told. And everyone else kept voting Labour.
But now they’re back as the party of government, and to do that they’ve had to win in places where nary a cut glass accent can be heard. They’ve had to take on board different classes and faiths. Possibly even the odd (gasp) woman. They have been forced, in effect, to become more pluralistic, and with this pluralism naturally, dissent follows. And dissenting voices plus a parliamentary majority of twelve leads to fun and games watching from the cheap seats.
As to the intervention of the Scots Nats, I do wonder if it may not be ultimately self-defeating. Whilst it proves (for those who weren’t already aware) that Nicola Sturgeon has a cracking sense of humour and a streak of mischief a mile wide, what it will serve to do is put a lot of backs up, including those not necessarily unsympathetic to the Nats’ cause. It’s playing politics, and it’s going back on what they’d said they’d do. Both of these, for a party which as defined itself by not doing these sorts of things, may well prove counterproductive in the long run. Bust vastly entertaining in the short term.
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