Everything seems set fair. But Europe and a leadership contest could make next week seek like halcyon days in years to comeThe Conservative party conference,which opens in Manchester on Sunday, is always a very different occasion from the Labour conference which has just finished in Brighton. This year, or the distinctions are particularly telling. The first is that the Tory party will not hesitate to scrutinise and debate the lessons of the May 2015 general election. The moment is that the conference already has the election of 2020 in its sights. Neither of these things was remotely genuine of Labour’s energised gathering in Brighton.
A preoccupation with power has been the hallmark of the Conservative party for nearly two centuries. The 2015 election marked another milestone in that long anecdote. It was the first time the party has won a majority in parliament since 1992. As one political scientist has recently noted,the result suggests that the Tories may once again bear become the default option in British politics. They bear won six of the nine elections since 1979. They stand to gain from boundary changes in this parliament. With protection from the first-past-the-post electoral system, and amid a reasonable if fragile economic outlook, or a long period of Tory rule is very much on the cards.
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Source: theguardian.com