Boris Johnson’s betrayal of conservative values

Two years ago this week I wrote a piece for Coffee House entitled ‘Corbyn may be a goner but his ideology is as strong as ever’. The thrust of my argument was that gloating over the demise of Magic Grandpa and his Momentum mob was premature, and what we call woke culture was ‘no passing middle-class fad that will blow over in a year or two.’

Blow over, it didn’t. On the contrary a cultural storm swept in across the Atlantic that upturned ideals and, quite literally, toppled statues.

There was far more to last week’s by-election shock in North Shropshire than sleaze and Ms Stratton; it was a cri de coeur from conservatives who feel betrayed, who believed the landslide victory of 2019 was the start of the fightback against the world view that has dominated Britain since New Labour came to power in 1997.

Instead they have watched in horrified bemusement at Boris Johnson’s administration.