How the Tories changed Britain

The late Roger Scruton (whose wrongful sacking as a housing adviser by a Tory minister in 2019 was a sign that things were badly wrong) defined the fundamental issue: ‘There can be no democracy without a demos, a “we” united by a shared sense of belonging.’ How has the demos changed over 14 years of Conservative government? The ‘we’ is weaker than when David Cameron and Nick Clegg were promoting a Big Society. We are in a pessimistic mood in which saying that ‘nothing works’ has become a catchphrase. Politicians are despised. The party that has governed for so long cannot avoid responsibility. 

Nevertheless, our basic problems are common to the western world. America and France are in a much worse state, with wild talk in both of civil war. We, in contrast, shall see the traditional peaceful transition of power today. We are probably in less of a cultural turmoil than in the 1960s, less economically prostrate than in the 1970s, and less bitterly divided than in the 1980s.