As the Tories face the voters at the next General
Election. Leading political commentator Geoffrey Wheatcroft argues that the party is not just facing the loss of government but also an existential crisis.
The Tory Party has been the most electorally successful party in the history of modern Europe. It has been in power for eighty-five of the past 135 years. In 2019 they won their largest parliamentary majority in more than thirty years. So what went wrong?
In Bloody Panico, Geoffrey Wheatcroft charts the collapse of not just the party but its shattering of its very foundations. 2022 will be remembered as the year of two monarchs and three prime ministers, not to mention four chancellors of the exchequer, five education secretaries, and more than thirty resignations from the government.
Beyond the pantomine of Boris, Truss and the managerial dullness of Sunak, the fabric of the party is frayed. At long last the Tories' ancient instinct for survival appears to have deserted them, along with any concern for the public good, and the prevailing mode of dissension and vicious feuding. This could see them cast into the political wilderness for decades.
By:
Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Imprint: Verso Books
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 210mm,
Width: 140mm,
Weight: 270g
ISBN: 9781804295755
ISBN 10: 1804295752
Pages: 176
Publication Date: 28 May 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming
Introduction 1. Tory England 2. Thatcher's Heirs 3. Call me Dave 4. A Keen Political Intellect 5. Brokeback Buddies 6. A Device So Alien 7. Still Banging On 8. Blond Ambition 9. Inferior to Membership 10. 'Dear Boris, Hallelujah!' 11. Plague Year 12. 'In the Name of God, Go' 13. Citizen of Nowhere 14. The End of the Ending
Geoffrey Wheatcroft is a journalist and author. He contributes regularly to the Guardian, TLS, New York Times and the New York Review of Books, and his books include The Randlords, The Controversy of Zion, which won an American National Book Award, The Strange Death of Tory England, Yo, Blair! and Churchill's Shadow. He lives in Bath.
Reviews for Bloody Panico!: or, Whatever Happened to The Tory Party
Wheatcroft is a skilled prosecutor with a rapier pen * New York Times [Churchill's Shadow] * Stimulating, erudite and above all entertaining. -- Robert Harris * [Churchill's Shadow] * Wheatcroft is such a fluent and entertaining writer, but also because he has so many interesting and provocative things to say -- Dominic Sandbrook * Sunday Tmes [Churchill's Shadow] *
