Since taking over as Tory Party leader Boris Johnson has had a pretty easy run in the press. His initiatives have got a lot of coverage and his opponents have ever kept quiet or been ignored. That run ended with 20 Tories writing to him effectively warning him not to go for no deal. So we are back to the Tories being divided - which I think has become part of our unwritten constitution. All the time this is the case the Tories are not really in a position to run the country. Something needs to be done.
So I was wondering what the actual plan is? I assume there is one.
My guess is that the aim is to contrive a general election in the next couple of months. It would look better if this can be blamed on someone else. This allows the manifesto the Tories run on to be established as the new paradigm and opponents of the leadership can be silenced, marginalised and quite likely go rid of. Actually winning the election is not especially necessary - it's the party that matters at the moment.
I don't think they will actually throw the election, but I don't think that letting a Labour/Lib Dem coalition pick up the blame for the implementation of Brexit is that bad a prospect. So long as the Tories are united again they can cope. Indeed losing makes it easier to blame both the opposition and the 20 rebels who I have a feeling are going to end up being cast as the people who forced the election. They might not have much of a future as Conservatives whatever happens.
This might well establish Brexit as a permanent feature of party politics. The Tories will be for it. The rest will be against it. This will in turn mean that the only way we stay out of the EU is if the Tories can remain in government more or less permanently. That's quite an ask.
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