Seldom has a party still in power looked more headed for extinction than the British Labour Party. And a very well-deserved extinction it would be:
Endangered in England’s largest cities, losers in London, out of power in Scotland and sharing it with the nationalists in Wales, wiped out in the south, on the run in the north-west marginals, under fire in the West Midlands, all but bankrupt and with a collapsing membership: what it to become of Labour?
This is how, if they are not careful, parties die. Extinction is never the result of a single event, rather it happens more slowly, over several decades. A grouping whose leaders and policies once appeared as a fixed point on the landscape, gradually lose definition until virtually no one thinks it is any longer worth paying attention.
The party is left abandoned, and historians with the benefit of hindsight insist that it was always going to happen.
The Tories could assure themselves of two generations in power if they did three simple things.
1. Embrace Scottish independence and encourage further Welsh devolution towards the same end.
2. Embrace Euroskepticism, abjure the Lisbon Treaty and give the nation the referendum that Labor promised and denied it.
3. Announce the end of immigration from all non-EU nations and cease renewing visas or granting nationalization to non-EU citizens.
This isn’t likely, of course, since most of the Tory politicians are every bit as enthusiastic about Brussels as the Labourites, since they’re feeding from the same trough. The only question is whether a Cameron-led Conservative party has more in common with Neville Chamberlain or Winston Churchill, and there’s every indication that it’s the former. Don’t skip past the comments, the hatred for Labour and the treacherous Scot at its head is really quite remarkable.