David Starkey Criticises Tories - Editorial

David Starkey, the historian who specialises in the Tudor period and is infamous for knowing the difference between race and culture, has roundly criticised the Tory party he supports. Dismissing Boris Johnson as a "jester-despot," he said that David Cameron had "absolutely no strategy" and that rebranding the Tories is "pointless." What is called for, he said, is good old-fashioned "one nation toryism," the elite appealing to those on the bottom as Disraeli and Churchill once did. Of course such a project would depend ultimately on an appeal to nationalism - difficult while Britain retains its membership of the EU and is without the wherewithall to impose "gunboat diplomacy." There is also the small problem of "the middle ground" - that place where the floating voter without any discernable principles lives. So, unable to demonstrate how the Tory party has any real relevance in modern Britain, Starkey has only one alternative for the party - politics by propaganda. He's obviously not been listening.