The Guardian today has a front page with the headline Tories fall to lowest point for four years. They are saying that the Tory party’s popularity rating has fallen to 27% which is the lowest it’s been since 1998.
Frankly I’m surprised it’s so high.
The Tory party is falling apart. Since their defeat in 1997 they have never looked like a credible opposition party. Luckily for them that’s not really a problem as the Labour government has been doing it’s best to be a Tory government. We’re still feeling the effects of 18 years of Tory rule during which they succeeded in moving the political agenda so far to the right that people seem to have completely forgotten what left wing politics are.
I made a prediction in 1997. I predicted that the Tories would be beaten so badly that the party would self-destruct. This would leave the Liberal Democrats as the only credible oppostion party. As they are currently to the left of the Labour government this would gradually start to move British politcs back to the left which can only be a good thing.
British politics has always been a two-party system. Originally it was the Whigs and the Tories. The Whigs became the Liberals (and later, the Lib Dems) and during the early part of the 20th century their influence faded so that the two major parties were the Toris and Labour. I reckon we’re about due for another of those changes so the two major parties become the Lib Dems and Labour. And the way the Tories are going I really can’t see any way that it’s not going to happen.