Failure corrupts as much as power does, and when the powerful fail they make others pay for their disappointment. To understand why this government lashes out at all who contradict it like a drunk throwing haymakers in a pub car park, remember that, by their own standards, today’s Tory ministers are abject failures.
Nothing about their time in office has turned out the way they expected. Traditionally, the left accuses Labour governments of selling out. In front of the mirror, when nobody is watching, today’s Conservative ministers can accuse themselves.
To get a measure of their disappointment, dig out a copy of Britannia Unchained, a manifesto from 2012 to restore the UK’s prosperity, by the then largely unknown politicians Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Liz Truss. All are in the Cabinet today, apart from the luckless Skidmore, who remains a junior minister.
I’ve just finished rereading their effort, and as political pamphlets go it is not so bad.
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