Where did the Conservatives go wrong? (part 1 of 8,273...)

 This is a huge and many-faceted question, of course.  The choice of possible points to raise is as enormous as, well, the scale of their defeat.  So I'll probably come back to this in future.  But there's one that I want to flag up immediately. 

That's the Truss issue.  No, not her appointment as leader & PM*, I'm referring to her later un-appointment.  The Party had asked its members which of two candidates should be leader, and the membership gave a clear answer; Truss, not Sunak.  The parliamentary party then promptly removed Truss and inserted its choice instead - carefully ensuring that the membership were not consulted in the process.  

That sent a number of messages.  First, it told just over half the membership that their views were not welcome.  Two years out from an election, and you tell half your most committed supporters to **** off.  Not a terribly clever move.  

Second, it must have made the rest of the country think that if that's how they treat their supporters, how are they going to treat us??  Which is not great.

Finally, it was a clear and public display of indecision, mild panic, and - very seriously for a Conservative party - disloyalty.  Not a quality that people look for in a government.  

Before then, I think it was just about possible that the Conservatives could have pulled it together, made the arguments, shown that their opponent was trying to be all things to all men**, and got themselves in shape for a 2024 election.  After then, it was all downhill as their credibility was gone.

 

*I was a Party member at the time and voted for her over Sunak.  Many point to her brief tenure and proclaim that her program of lowering taxes & inviting economic growth was clearly mad, pointing at the swift and decisive response that it provoked from the markets.   Except that it didn't, of course.  What provoked the adverse response was her reluctant agreement that HMG should provide a potentially unlimited underwriting of household energy bills, a policy forced on her by 25 years of energy policy failure by successive governments, finally hitting home. 

** even while unable to clearly define confusing terms like "man" and "woman".