À la carte

After twelve years of government it’s usually time for a change. Maybe not this time.

You might have thought, I did, that Britain would pull up the drawbridge after Brexit. But I use Deliveroo and the Conservatives change their menu quicker than Deliveroo delivers; the extent to which the latter deliver is a matter for debate.

Fancy sweet and sour? Then Jeremy Hunt’s your man (Chinese wife). Croque monsieur? Tom Tugendhat’s French mother and wife can cook up some haute cuisine. Fancy an Indian – vote for Rishi. Kemi Badenoch’s Nigerian cooking may not appeal to everyone – maize, yam, cassava and spices – but it appeals to me, as does Nadhim Zahawi‘s Kurdish cooking. It’s apparent that the old Conservatives, the Moggies and the rest are as extinct as MacMillan, Douglas-Home, rotten boroughs and the dodo. I’m not sorry, they are not electable in the UK today. Of course there is a choice – vote Labour, a party held hostage by the trade unions and left wing dogma.

The new leader of the Conservatives will be chosen by Tory MPs. Party members will be given a choice (of two) and the wider public don’t get a shout. Not a perfect formula. The balance between the party and the wider public is tricky. I know one MP, there may be others, who stood in public hustings to be selected as a candidate. Their electorate did not need to be Conservative party members to vote. I hope it is done quickly, otherwise there is a danger that history will repeat itself. It was only eleven years ago that London and other cities experienced arson and looting. The economic backdrop in the UK this year could trigger a similar summer of discontent brought to the boil by the very visible disparity between rich and poor in the capital.