PRESS RELEASE : Mebyon Kernow comment on recent chaos in Westminster [October 2022]
The press release issued by Mebyon Kernow on 28 October 2022.
Article from MK leader Cllr Dick Cole, which was first published in this week’s Cornish Guardian.
Speaking at a meeting of Mebyon Kernow’s National Executive in July, Deputy Leader Cllr Loveday Jenkin described recent political “goings-on” as “beyond satire.” She was commenting on the turmoil around the end of Boris Johnson’s premiership, following the resignations of over 60 ministers, parliamentary private secretaries and trade envoys. She was also rightly critical of a Conservative Party at war with itself in a truly dysfunctional Westminster political system.
It is difficult to comprehend how the chaos of the last few days has been even more preposterous and, unbelievably, even further past parody!
Obviously, the ill-conceived gamble that was the mini-budget back-fired and did massive and ongoing damage to the UK economy, along with the prospects of millions of households. But then, we had the new Prime Minister sacking the new Chancellor for following her instructions. A few days later, there was the bust-up and sacking of the new Home Secretary, followed by a “confidence vote” in the House of Commons that led to the unedifying spectacle of Tory MPs jostling and rowing in the division lobbies.
It was so bad that the resignation of Liz Truss, after only 45 days in post, did not come as a surprise.
Even the truncated leadership contest to elect Rishi Sunak as the third Prime Minister of 2022 descended into farce, when Boris Johnson jetted home from his Caribbean holiday to launch, and then back out of, a campaign to reclaim the office of PM, from which he had just been ejected by colleagues because of Partygate and related scandals.
It was absurd to see some of the MPs who quit their government roles, only three months ago to force Johnson out, were now clamouring to bring him back. One such MP had resigned because of how the “cumulative effect” of Johnson’s “errors of judgement and domestic actions” had “squandered the goodwill” of the Conservative Party.
Cue yet more “blue-on-blue” bickering and infighting, with a number of MPs stating that they would not continue to serve in the Conservative cause if Johnson returned as PM. Some felt he would “be gone by Christmas” if reinstalled, because of the pending “Privileges Committee” which is tasked to investigate claims that he mislead Parliament, while one prominent MP described their parliamentary party as “completely riven” and “ungovernable.”
As someone who is not a Conservative, it would be easy to fall into the trap of enjoying the shambolic disarray of the Tories, but we must never forget that their failings are having a devastating impact on the lives of the people of the United Kingdom.
