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The Terrible Tories
How well do you think Tories handle crises?
Thom Hartmann (disclosure — I produce his newsletter) recently wrote a fascinating article, “Why It’s Impossible for Right-Wing Governments to Handle a Crisis”, in which he gives examples from around the world and going back as far as Nixon and his tax cuts in the United States, though you could go back further. He explains how ‘right wing crises face incompetence or cynical exploitation’. It’s certainly true in the current American race for the speakership of the house, and has been true of the battles to become Prime Minister of Britain. I thought I’d take stock of how the Tories have handled — and created — crises over the past 13 years.
Nixon, of course, is famous for his treason to obtain the presidency, his Watergate scandal and his racist Southern strategy. He wasn’t above taking bribes, either.
Some of the examples below do not directly impact ordinary people, but they’ve done great harm by reducing the peoples’ trust of government, which makes dealing with crises harder. Some Tories have done some good things for the people, unlike Republicans, but in this article I’ll focus on what they have done which fits in with the theme of their inability to handle crises. They seem to be quite good at creating crises, though.