James and Harry join Phil Burton-Cartledge, author of Falling Down: The Conservative Party and the Decline of Tory Britain for a discussion on his book. They discuss the Tories’ crisis of political reproduction, how the party set the grounds for this with the Thatcher reforms, the class basis of the Conservative party before turning to explaining why understanding the Conservative party is important for the left not only in the United Kingdom but in the world. They follow by talking about the Tory reinvention during the New Labour period of dominance, the class dynamics behind the Brexit votes and how that was reflected in the two following general elections, how Phil would extend the book to cover Boris Johnson’s downfall, Liz Truss’s short interregnum and Rishi Sunak’s rise before reflecting on what the future holds for the Tories and the possible ways they could reinvent themselves.
