David Cameron’s Counter-Intuitive Achievement

The Conservative party, according to some commentators and a smattering of gleeful Labour politicians delighted to see it happening to someone else, is in crisis. Indeed, it is reckoned by many to be on the verge of civil war. A terrible chasm beckons, the result of ancient fault lines surrounding the issue of Europe. In reality, I doubt this is true.

Right as Rain

Cerebrotonic Cato may
Extoll the Ancient Disciplines,
But the muscle-bound Marines
Mutiny for food and pay.

Caesar’s double bed is warm
As an unimportant clerk
Writes I DO NOT LIKE MY WORK
On a pink official form.

W. H. Auden, “The Fall of Rome”

Though the current trouble affecting the Conservative party in no way resembles the malaise affecting its Labour equivalent, there is certainly a sense – one which is reinforced by media coverage and the proclamations of opposition politicians – that the party is in trouble, even crisis, ahead of the upcoming referendum on the European Union.