Thread by @robfordmancs

All praises to John Harris - yet another brilliant article.

https://twitter.com/johnharris1969/status/1130366773088399360

Harris is exactly right that the Tories are heading in the opposite direction to the forces of demographic and social change. There will a be a reckoning for that one day. No party has a right to continue existing. A Tory party that cant appeal to Wilmslow may be doomed.

If you want to see what the future looks like for the Tories in middle class middle England, take a look at the election results since 1979 in my home seat of Manchester Withington - comfortable, graduate and professional heavy middle class suburbia:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancheste…

The Conservatives won 47% of the vote here when Thatcher came to power in 1979. Then went into relentless decline as seat became steadily more ethnically diverse & populated by graduates and public sector professionals. By 2005, they were down to 10%.They haven't recovered since.

There are large swathes of traditionaly Tory suburban England right now going through same changes that have reshaped Mancs Withington over the past 30 yrs - rising ethnic diversity, growing shares of socially liberal graduates. A No Deal Brexit Tory party is toxic to such voters

I don't see how Cons can win a majority again unless they can renew their appeal to such people and places. And I don't see how they will even try to do so in the next few years. By the time they do, it could be a long road back indeed.

Much much more on all these themes in "Brexitland" - the book with @smthgsmthg I'm hoping to get finished this summer