Tories in a hole, but carrying on digging
May 5th, 2012What is so extraordinary about the fallout from these local elections is how far the wider Tory leadership is in denial. The Tory Right immediately goes on the rampage demanding a harder line on crime, immigration and Europe, as though the loss of jobs, falling incomes and absence of growth were nothing to do with it. The Daily Mail front page headline today “Now stick up for Tory values”, as though privatisation of all public services, liquidation of the Welfare State, and the social cleansing of inner cities via housing benefit cuts were not enough. Grant Shapps claims on the radio that if the government hadn’t pursued its economic course, we would now be in the state that Greece is in. Boris Johnson advises Cameron that the secret is ‘to remain bone dry on the economy accompanied by compassionate Conservatism’: it’s difficult to know which is worse, since the only people Johnson seems compassionate towards are his bankers in the City. Cameron, we are told, is going to argue alongside Clegg on Tuesday that ‘the fight to rebalance the economy remains the glue that keeps the two parties together in government’; well theat’s certainly news since there’s no rebalancing of the economy and any glue left is set to come apart. (more…)
