Five years ago this week, Boris Johnson cruised to an 80-seat majority in the general election. Life hadn’t been quite this good for the Tories since Margaret Thatcher’s days. They couldn’t believe their luck as they bathed in the unbearable smugness of being. They would be in government for another 10 years at a bare minimum. The Labour party? Who were they again? Remind me.
Fast forward to the present day and the Tories are a hollowed-out rump with a mere 121 MPs. And the more intelligent Conservatives are thankful to have that many. Few think there is any easy way back for the party. The main lesson from the July election wasn’t how much people loved Labour: it was how much everyone hated the Tories. They had wrecked the country and everyone had had enough. Good riddance.
