Conservative opposition watch

[UndercoverElephant]

The old Conservative Government watch thread should now be finished, unless it is going to be renamed.

The tories, now in opposition, are faced with a fundamental strategic problem. Their path back to power cannot take two contradictory directions. In the south there are 50-odd ex-tory seats now held by the Liberal Democrats, who are social leftists, economically to the left of Labour and theoretically in favour of rejoining the EU. In the midlands and north there are 100+ seats taken by Labour because Reform ate so far into the tory vote. It is very hard to see how the tories can make progress on both these fronts at the same time, and the choice over which direction to go in is a direct reflection of a deep split in the party itself. If they elect a leader who tries to fight both these battles at the same time then they will lose both, but if they clearly focus on one of the battles then they'll go backwards in the other.

I can't see a way out of this dilemma, because it is the result of fundamentally contrasting and incompatible visions of the future. It should be noted that Labour faces a similar problem, it is not clear how they are going to deal with it either, but Labour losing votes because of this does not translate into tory gains. Both may lose.

[adam2]

I have locked this thread so as to keep related discussions in one place. The "Labour party watch" thread, and the "Conservative government watch" threads have both had the titles edited to reflect the recent election result.