Five days into the contest, the candidates to be the next Conservative prime minister have already offered £235 billion in tax cuts. None of them have begun to suggest how they would pay for them. Yet on they go, blithely playing to the gallery of Tory members, making promises that are not far short of one-and-a half-times the National Health Service budget. If anyone needed proof that the Conservative Party has bigger problems than will be solved by removing Boris Johnson, here it is.
The carnival regime of Johnson has shown that Britain needs a serious Conservative Party. Parliamentary democracy only functions if political parties sift the putative leaders and select wisely, not just on their own account but for the good of the nation. In choosing Johnson simply because he promised to get Brexit through Parliament, the Tory party failed in its duty to the country. The early signs in this leadership contest is that it is set to repeat the mistake.
