Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Rifkind, Hugo

Titel

Hugo Rifkind: The Conservatives' real problem? It's that the electorate now sees them as reckless

Ist Teil von

• The Spectator (London. 1828), 2017-06

Ort / Verlag

London: The Spectator Limited

Erscheinungsjahr

2017

Quelle

Nexis Uni

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• A week after an election which saw the Conservative majority recede like an alarmed turtle's head, they are not even close to getting it. Whereas, truthfully, the Tories' real problem was that they went into this election entirely bereft of their usual Unique Selling Point. Like independence for Scotland, it seemed to me to be a major, apocalyptic act of political irresponsibility. During the referendum, it was startling to see Conservatives whom I had always regarded as solid to the point of tedium -- people who had always claimed that their economic beliefs were to do with prudent economic stability, and their foreign policy beliefs were to do with prudent diplomatic stability -- suddenly hurl all of that out of the window and run helter-skelter towards Brexit. Were Labour's flagship policies of free university education, more NHS funding, more infrastructure spending and a higher minimum wage reliably costed?