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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 7m

Very good to talk to you, too. And you're right - David is quite the polymath!

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 40m

Standing room only for @ldfreedman.bsky.social's superb "Hennessy Lecture" at the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social this evening, on "As long as it takes: What does it mean to commit to Ukraine's security?"

Really good questions from the audience, too. Thanks to everyone who came.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 14h

The "line to take" for Badenoch's supporters seems to be "we've changed leaders too often in the past".

So which of those leaders should *not* have been removed?

Liz Truss? IDS? May, after those huge defeats? Johnson, despite lying to Parliament?

The problem isn't the firing. It's everything else

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

It could be, but that would be true of Tories of that generation too. But it was always hard to praise the 70s if you wanted to claim that your party had rescued the nation in the 80s.

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, it's curious, isn't it!

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

It would be very good to have you there!

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Excellent letter from the Bishop of Birmingham to Robert Jenrick.

At a time when so many other voices have been silent, the bishops have been admirably outspoken against attempts to stir up division.

The churches do a lot of community cohesion work & do not want to see this trashed for party gain.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

The Bishop of Birmingham has written to the Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick about his comments about Handsworth

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

It's interesting that Farage often speaks warmly of the 1970s, which goes against the Thatcherite idea of a "seventies crisis" from which her government rescued the country.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Still, a good opportunity to advertise our next event at the @mileendinstitute.bsky.social on 20 October:

"Still Thatcher's Britain? The Thatcher Legacy, 1925-2025".

Featuring Gillian Shephard, Simone Finn, @philipjcowley.bsky.social and me.
www.qmul.ac.uk/mei/events/m...

Still “Thatcher’s Britain”? The Thatcher Legacy, 1925-2025

www.qmul.ac.uk

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

As a historian, I'm all for parties trying to learn from their past.

But living traditions, that are engaged in the present and optimistic about the future, do not spend this much time at the political ouija-board.

Tim Bale @timbale.bsky.social · 1d

"Thatcher theatre" - pretty much sums up cul-de-sac into which the Conservative Party has driven itself in the decades since her defenestration. And now it too, risks becoming a museum piece, fit only for two or three glass display cases rather than a return to office.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

Thank you! I often use your work in my teaching, so am delighted you enjoyed this.

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Reposted by Robert Saunders

Tariq Modood @tariqmodood.bsky.social · 1d

Gets my vote too! Very good discussion of the Labour Party from the rise of Thatcher to today with especial focus on Neil Kinnock's leadership challenges
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...
www.ppfideas.com/episodes/now...
on @ppfideas.bsky.social
with @robertsaunders.bsky.social

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 1d

You really don't need a megaphone to address 15-20 people.

There is a difference between the right to free expression - which should be fiercely protected - and the right to force everyone within a mile radius to listen to your expression.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The evidence she said that is actually quite thin. If she did, it was odd with most of the other things she said about Blair & New Labour, which she claimed was "embarrassed by our history, scornful of our achievement, oblivious of our legacy"; a "bitter, brawling, bully" with a "shrivelled heart".

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

In a manifestly anomalous election. We can debate why it was anomalous - Brexit, Corbyn, whatever - but it was an outlier from a longer trend.

Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The best thing Conservatives could do - whatever they think of Margaret Thatcher - is to face up to the challenges of their own times, rather than trying to cosplay a leader who was formed in the 1930s and 40s, who took power half a century ago & who governed for the challenges of her day, not ours.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

Ultimately, it's hard to see a solution that doesn't involve ending FPTP & breaking the allergy of UK politics to cross-party cooperation.

For now, leaders should remember that parties are delicate organisms. Hack back too far, & you kill the plant.

And these parties badly need new growth. ENDS

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

If coalition-building no longer happens within parties, it will need to happen between them.

The problem is that our electoral system simply cannot cope with multi-party politics.

The effect may be to contract even further the range of opinion that's represented in Parliament and government.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

But it's no accident that, as the two parties have shrunk ideologically, so they've also shed large parts of their electoral base.

There have always been multiple versions of right & left-wing politics. If the Conservative & Labour parties will no longer provide a home for them, other parties will.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

Modern media has undoubtedly raised the costs of the "broad church" model. Shorter political careers mean leaders are less skilled at party management & less attuned to its benefits.

For embattled leaders, the appeal of disciplined parties is obvious.And booting out rebels can be sold as "strength"

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

That cocktail could be highly explosive. Labour tore itself apart over nuclear weapons in the 50s & Europe in the 70s. The SDP broke away in the 80s.

The Tories split badly over tariffs, India and Europe.

Both parties exploited fear of Powell, Benn, Militant & the Monday Club to attack the other.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

Labour was always an uneasy alliance of trade unions, middle-class liberals, Christian socialists, social democrats, Fabians, democratic socialists and other streams of radical opinion.

It was the party of Nye Bevan *and* Hugh Gaitskell; Tony Benn *and* Roy Jenkins; Tony Blair *and* Dennis Skinner.

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The conservatism of rural areas was never the same as the conservatism of the City, the CBI or Scottish unionism.

Toryism had to hold together free-marketeers & protectionists, "hangers-&-floggers" & "bleeding-heart liberals", social conservatives & libertarians, Thatcherites & "one-nation Tories".

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

The days when the "Big Two" won 80% of the vote were not just a sociological freak.

They were possible because those parties were themselves coalitions.

That made them fractious - both struggled with splits & divisions - but it also made them the place where almost all meaningful politics happened

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Robert Saunders @robertsaunders.bsky.social · 3d

Both Labour and the Conservatives were stronger, more intellectually vigorous & commanded a larger share of the vote when they were broad churches, able to contain different strands of opinion.

Recently they've developed a taste for purges, loyalty tests & expulsions.

How's that going for them? 🧵

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