Is the Conservative Party Turning into a Death Cult?
Sheridan Flynn is forced to ask some unthinkable questions

Will Trump become President again?
Are we sleepwalking into a global autocracy?
Is the Conservative Party turning into a radical right-wing death cult?
As we approach the mid 2020s these are not the questions I thought we’d be asking ourselves. We’re barely into spring and it feels like we’re already living through five simultaneous plot lines from Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror TV series.
I’m generally not one for nostalgia but lately I’ve been reminiscing about the good old days of the Conservative Party. Margaret Thatcher jaunting around Hamburg in a Challenger tank. John Major lugging a soapbox about like the world’s most underwhelming street magician. The relentless but highly entertaining sleaze scandals of the 1990s. And the glory days of William Hague as opposition leader. A man so banal that he was often overshadowed by his own bizarre teenage persona. He was utterly unremarkable in a genuinely warm and reassuring way. So lacking in charisma that he could never stand a chance of winning a General Election.
And who could ever remember David Cameron’s ‘Big Society'? A meaningless, dull, benign, shallow, lifeless, catchphrase designed to deflect the endemic corruption exposed in the MPs’ expenses scandal. Or at least that’s what we thought at the time. On reflection perhaps it was a hilariously cruel Etonian in-joke. A codeword for relentless austerity. Them having a good laugh at us unfortunate proles. Big Society? More like “bugger society”.
Nostalgia is a bit like a drug. There’s often a withdrawal and eventually you come back for more. If only there was a daring political movement dedicated to making this country great again! Some way to just… take back control.
Some might think it hyperbole to ask if the Conservative Party is turning into a radical right-wing death cult, but we can quite easily explain the radical right-wing bit by flicking through the headlines over the past couple of weeks.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Byline Supplement to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.