Regardless of who leads it, the Conservative party now has the opportunity to cling to office, possibly even for the rest of this five-year Parliament. They’re the biggest party and a deal with the DUP is the basis for forming a new government.
But that’s only the start. To remain in office, the Conservatives are going to have to accept a lot of compromises. They’re going to have to compromise on Brexit, and thus on immigration. They’re going to have to compromise on economic policy (spend more, cut less) and markets (intervene more). They’re going to have to compromise with the Scottish voters who threw them a parliamentary lifeline by endorsing Ruth Davidson’s humane, moderate Conservatism.
And they’re going to have to compromise with Jeremy Corbyn, or at least the forces that propelled his Labour party to more than 40 per cent of the vote. That achievement cannot be ignored or understated. It also demands an apology. I’ve never doubted that Corbynism could have popular appeal; indeed, left-wing economic populism could do very well in Britain.
But if I thought the message could work, I was wrong about the messenger. Mr Corbyn may not have the seats, but he has the moral victory over those of us who considered him personally poisonous to his party’s prospects. For all the questions about his competence and his highly dubious friends, voters in large numbers bought what he was selling.
That is part of an election result that suggests a bigger appetite for a bigger state than many people had assumed. Remember before the election the analysis that the two big parties were both offering manifestos that would give the state a bigger role in the economy and a new approach to markets? Well those two parties got nearly 85 per cent of the vote.
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