DESNÉ MASIE: Tory infighting resembles Game of Thrones

I would really like to tell you what is going on in UK politics at the moment, but no-one here really knows what is going on either. Least of all, it seems, the Tories themselves. Conservative Party infighting has now become rather like the Game of Thrones television series, except maybe more vicious. Winter is coming to Westeros.

Forty-four days of Liz Truss as prime minister has left us reeling. Events are moving so fast right now, I can’t even type fast enough to keep up. I will not repeat in too much detail the havoc Truss wrought on financial markets, nor her ruthless sacrifice of her “friend” and chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng on the altar of desperate self-interest. Best not to get into the damage she has done not only to the Conservative brand for alleged competence, but also to the standing of the UK on the global stage. All in pursuit of a neoliberal thirst so extreme she would have made Ayn Rand blush. It has all ended badly, on a bonfire of hubris and ill-feeling. 

Sweary Tories are turning on each other as never before, and we are about to see our fifth prime minister in five years — and the second unelected prime minister in less than two months — as the elderly Tory membership of about 100,000 members is again allowed to select the prime minister. Yes, the Conservatives have a mandate to govern after the clear majority they won in the 2019 election, but this is now the second coronation that will come out of their ridiculous leadership contests, a process that does not select parliamentarians fit to hold the highest office. It is an absolute outrage. 

Even worse is that some Tories are actually contemplating the frankly preposterous and audacious return of Boris Johnson. The clamour for a general election is understandably reaching fever pitch. But the Conservatives would never call for a general election now. It would certainly finish them off and banish the party to the opposition benches for a long time. 

It looks like we will be stuck with Rishi Sunak, who like Johnson has probably wanted to be prime minister since he was six years old and won’t rest until he has joined the legend and lore of the Wykehamist old boys almanac. This is the real problem: at the expense of the public, it really is a Game of Thrones to the likes of Truss, Sunak and Johnson, with the exasperating ancient rivalries of their juvenilia from the Oxford Union or feuds of yore extending back to the playing fields of Eton and Winchester, and even in some cases The Dragon School.

It has all made many Brits think more deeply about whether democracy is working on these isles. Some observers have pointed out that the expeditious elimination of prime ministers shows that UK institutions are robust, because the incompetent and dishonest can be swiftly removed and replaced. Others say the constitution needs to allow for general elections to over-ride the governing party’s mandate when it threatens political stability in this way.

It may not be the end of the world — Belgium is a famous example of a country that continued to operate relatively well without a government for about 540 days in 2010-2011. It certainly makes one question whether the parliamentary system and modern politicians are fit for purpose at all. On the one hand democracy can be chaotic, but on the other I rather like the individual freedoms that come with it.

The 20th Chinese Communist Party Congress that is in session is a masterclass in stable government, but it is extremely centralised and authoritarian. Could new modes of decentralised and localised governance work better as we hurtle towards the middle of the 21st century?

• Dr Masie, a former senior editor of the Financial Mail, is chief strategist at IC Publications in London.