Good article on the Tories' problems. They are going to struggle to have a clear message in the GE because they don't have one, and they are not going to agree on one.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/mar/17/our-chances-zero-and-getting-worse-inside-a-tory-edeath-spiral
I don't think it's that good an article. Look at this mess, for example:
... the chancellor had thrown another 2p cut in national insurance at working people, in the desperate hope of improving the national mood and the Tories’ electoral prospects.
But the post-budget polls quickly showed most people had clocked that the overall effect of Hunt’s measures – one of which was to freeze income-tax thresholds again – would actually be to put taxes up, and that the spending cuts necessary to fund them would hit public services.
So the Guardian seems to think you need spending cuts to fund tax rises. What?
Actually, in a sense, it does exemplify the Tories problems. People both believe the Tories are cutting services to the bone and are putting taxes up, but it's still a shit piece of writing.
This is also interesting (not for bad writing):
[Another ex-cabinet minister – also from the right of the party said] There were two possibilities for the Tories to drag themselves back from the brink... One was for Rishi Sunak to be bolder and abandon more green policies while also abolishing inheritance tax. “But he won’t do that,” he added. “He is just too cautious.”
I think this shows a profound misunderstanding of the electorate. I think the majority of people, if they don't like the personal inconveniences green policies bring, are for them in principle. And I suspect that almost everybody thinks that inheritance tax cuts would be designed to benefit only the rich i.e. Tory members and their supporters. The message given out by such a measure would be bad for the Tories.
