The Dictatorship

Britain’s once-mighty Conservative Party battling to avoid extinction…

Published

9 months ago

October 9, 2025

Britain’s once-mighty Conservative Party battling to avoid extinction…

MANCHESTER, England (AP) — Britain’s Conservatives used to boast they were the world’s most successful political party. Not anymore.

The center-right party that governed the U.K. for more than 60 of the last 100 years before being ousted in 2024 is embracing Donald Trump -style policies, including mass deportations and government budget-slashing, as it battles to remain a contender for power.

The Tories are fighting not just the Labour government to their left, but Reform UK to the right. Nigel Farage’s hard-right party has topped opinion polls for months, trounced the Conservatives in May’s local elections and has welcomed a stream of defecting Tory members and officials.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch acknowledged that the party has “a mountain to climb” to win back voters.

But in a speech closing the party’s annual conference on Wednesday, she insisted the Conservatives are “the only party that can meet the test of our generation, the only party that can deliver a stronger economy and stronger borders.”

A shrunken party

Crowds were thin under the vast vaulted roof of the Manchester Central conference venue, a former railway station in the northwest England city, as delegates absorbed the party’s diminished stature.

“It’s not in a great place at the moment, we’re aware of that,” said Neil McCarthy, a member from northern England. “There needs to be passion, and we need to get the message across that we’ve changed.”

Questions of party competence weren’t helped by Conservative-branded chocolate bars distributed at the conference on which Britain was misspelled as “Britian.”

The Conservatives have endured years of turmoil – some of it of their own making, some of it shared by incumbent parties in a world of economic and geopolitical instability.

The economic benefits of Britain’s 2020 exit from the European Union, championed by those now running the party, have been elusive. Prime Minister Boris Johnson won a huge election victory in 2019 but was ousted by the party in 2022 after a string of ethics scandals.

His successor, Liz Trusssent inflation and interest rates soaring with a disastrous tax-cutting plan that wrecked the Conservatives’ reputation for economic stability.

Under Rishi Sunakthe government staggered on until the July 2024 election that delivered the Conservatives’ worst-ever defeat.

Badenoch, a small-state, low-tax advocate elected leader last year, has shifted the party to the right, announcing policies with a distinct MAGA flavor. She says a Conservative government will scrap carbon emissions reduction targets, sharply cut legal immigration and deport 150,000 unauthorized immigrants a year with a removals force similar to Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the U.S. It would also leave the European Convention on Human Rights and limit the power of judges to block the will of government.

Such policies, which alarm civil liberties groups, are similar to Farage’s plans for power, leading some to ask what sets the Conservatives apart from Reform.

Badenoch says the difference is fiscal prudence. She rejected Farage’s promises to increase welfare spending and nationalize key industries such as steel, and said a Conservative government would slash welfare spending to fund lower taxes on businesses and homebuyers.

Jill Rutter, a senior fellow at the Institute for Government think tank, said Badenoch’s attempt to make the Tories “Reform with better economics” risks “narrowing the appeal” of the party.

“Basically, she’s chucking quite a lot of people out of the Conservatives’ broad church,” Rutter said.

Climate-change targets, human rights rules and support for managed immigration were until recently mainstream Conservative positions, and some party members are uncomfortable with the rightward turn.

“I don’t think a lurch to the right is necessarily the solution,” said Elizabeth Rhodes, from Knutsford in northwest England. “I think the Conservative Party has always been a coalition, and if we are going to win again, we’ve got to (still) be.”

British Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick gives an interview during the Conservative Party Conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, in Manchester, England, Tuesday Oct. 7, 2025. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)

Leadership doubts

The government does not have to call an election until 2029, but Badenoch’s poor poll ratings and lackluster performance in Parliament have stirred speculation that she may be ousted long before then.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces similar discontent within his Labour Party as Reform destabilizes parties of both left and right.

Conservative lawmaker Robert Jenrick, who lost the 2024 leadership contest to Badenoch, has spent the ensuing months building his online brand, with one popular social media video showed him confronting subway fare-dodgers. He has become one of the party’s loudest anti-immigration voices.

Video published online by The Guardian newspaper showed him remarking that he “didn’t see another white face” in a neighborhood in Birmingham. Jenrick said he was not being racist in expressing concern about “ghettoized communities” and lack of integration.

Jenrick drew large crowds at his conference appearances, where he said the Conservative Party needs to show more “hunger,” while insisting he is loyal to Badenoch.

“The party made its choice,” he said. “Kemi is our leader.”

Jenrick hasn’t ruled out running for leader again, or making a unite-the-right electoral pact with Reform, an idea Badenoch rejects.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch during the Conservative Party Conference at the Manchester Central Convention Complex, Manchester, England, Sunday Oct. 5, 2025. (Danny Lawson/PA via AP)

Memories of Margaret Thatcher

Facing an uncertain future, many Conservatives are retreating to their happy place: the 1980s, when Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher transformed Britain with her free-market policies.

The Manchester conference hall sported life-size cardboard Thatcher cutouts, tables stacked with biographies of the late leader and bottles of Thatcher whisky for 85 pounds ($114) each. Delegates could dance to 1980s hits at a “retro disco-themed club night celebrating Margaret Thatcher.”

David Davis, a Conservative lawmaker since 1987, said Badenoch could still revive the party as Thatcher once did.

“In the late ‘70s she was being talked down, too, for precisely the same reasons: a bit too tough, a bit too hard-edged, a bit too dangerous, the policies,” Davis said. “But then we had the (financial) crisis and suddenly Thatcher was the right answer.

“We’re going to have another crisis, and Badenoch will be the right answer too.”

The Dictatorship

Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race

Published

20 minutes ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Monday’s Campaign Round-Up, 6.22.26: Why Trump backed both Republicans in a key S.C. race

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items from across the country.

* In South Carolina’s gubernatorial raceDonald Trump endorsed Lt. Gov. Pam Evette last month. Last week, however, ahead of this week’s primary runoff election in the race, the president published an online item telling voters that “you can’t go wrong” with either Evette or state Attorney General Alan Wilson.

If this sounds at all familiar, it’s because Trump has done this before. Around this time two years ago, for example, he endorsed both Republicans running in a congressional primary in Arizona. And two years before that, he endorsed two leading contenders in a Senate primary in Missouri.

Only the president can say for sure why he ended up endorsing Evette and Wilson in the South Carolina race, though it’s worth emphasizing for context that GOP primary voters have already ignored his direction into two gubernatorial primaries this month, and it stands to reason that he hoped to avoid a third.

* We’re one day away from a variety of notable racesincluding but not limited to South Carolina’s gubernatorial race. There are also some congressional primaries in a handful of statesincluding Maryland, New York and Utah.

* In took a while, but the ballots have been tallied under Maine’s ranked-choice systemand we now know that Democrat Hannah Pingree, the former state House speaker, will face off against Republican Bobby Charles, who worked at the State Department during the Bush-Cheney era.

* As for Maine’s closely watched congressional racestate Auditor Matt Dunlap won the Democratic nomination in the battleground 2nd District, defeating state Sen. Joe Baldacci, who enjoyed the backing of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Dunlap will run in the fall against a familiar figure: former Republican Gov. Paul LePage, who had moved to Florida a few years ago, but who returned to run for Congress.

* In California’s congressional special electiontwo Democratic candidates — state Sen. Aisha Wahab and Melissa Hernandez, a Bay Area Rapid Transit director — have advanced to an Aug. 18 special general election. The winner will fill the vacancy left by disgraced former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April.

* In a new commercial shared first with MS NOWDemocrat James Talarico has launched his campaign’s first multimillion-dollar ad buy in Texas’ gubernatorial race. In the 30-second spot, Talarico focuses on affordability and the cost of living. The state lawmaker will face scandal-plagued state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the fall.

* And in New Jersey, Republican Rep. Tom Kean Jr.who has been missing from Capitol Hill since early March, will reportedly return to work on June 30according to a statement from his spokesperson. Neither Kean nor his office have offered any public information about why he has been away.

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

The Dictatorship

Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls

Published

20 minutes ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump tries dual endorsement in South Carolina as his pick for governor flounders in polls

Jun. 22, 2026, 11:39 AM EDT

After President Donald Trump’s pick for governor in Iowa lost in the Republican primary earlier this month, the president argued that he “would have endorsed the other person” if he had “the proper information.”

Trump is taking no chances in the South Carolina gubernatorial primary. Over the weekend he rescinded his exclusive endorsement of Pamela Evette, the lieutenant governor, announcing instead that he would support both Evette and her runoff opponent, Alan Wilson, the state’s attorney general.

The move put Evette’s political future in jeopardy: Even before Trump’s dual endorsement, she trailed in limited public polling and was seen by political observers in South Carolina as a weak candidate with little to show besides the president’s coveted endorsement.

“Her chief distinction from Alan Wilson was that Trump endorsed her,” said Dr. Dubose Kapeluck, a professor of political science at the Citadel Military College of South Carolina.

Trump’s dual endorsement “was a kiss of death,” he told MS NOW.

Evette, who moved to South Carolina from Ohio to found a successful payroll and HR company in 2000, has been lieutenant governor since 2019, serving under Gov. Henry McMaster, who is term-limited.

In office, she has pursued meaningful but little-celebrated policies, like a key tort reform bill, according to Gil Gatch, a Republican member of the South Carolina state House and an Evette supporter.

But voters could be forgiven for knowing little about Evette besides the fact that Trump endorsed her, which he did just days before the June 9 primary. Visitors to her campaign website are greeted with a full-screen message labeling Evette as “Trump-endorsed.” The first line in her X bio states the same. Pro-Evette television ads are quick to tout the endorsement.

An accomplishment like tort reform, while noted on Evette’s website, “maybe could have been something that was highlighted more heavily,” Gatch told MS NOW.

The political makeup of South Carolina nearly guarantees the next governor will be whoever emerges on Tuesday between Evette and Wilson. They survived a crowded primary field on June 9, and nearly every challenger who fell short of the runoff publicly endorsed the attorney general.

“She’s just not a good candidate,” Josh Kimbrell, a state senator who failed to make the runoff and has since said he’d back Wilson, said of Evette.

“She kind of assumed this was a coronation, and that was never going to go over that well,” he added.

Even some pro-Trump voters were confused by the president’s initial endorsement of Evette, whom he called “a good friend, fighter, and WINNER” in a social media post in May.

“I have no clue why Trump would endorse Pamela Evette,” Leland Lemmons, a 30-year-old Trump supporter told MS NOW as he exited a polling site in the Greenville suburb of Easley on June 9.

“She’s served, you know, a decent time. I just haven’t seen much fruition of what she’s done in office,” he added.

In a post on Truth Social Friday announcing his dual endorsement, Trump wrote, “I can’t hurt one of them by only Endorsing the other, so, therefore, I am going to Endorse, for Governor of South Carolina, both Pam Evette and Alan Wilson!”

In a subsequent statement on X, Evette said, “I was proud to come in first as [Trump’s] endorsed candidate for Governor on June 9th. Looking forward to doing it again on June 23rd.”

After The Washington Post foreshadowed the dual endorsement last Tuesday, allies of Evette were quick to denounce the possibility.

“I would guess that’s fake news,” Suzanne Pucci, a member of Evette’s finance committee, told MS NOW of the chance Trump would also endorse Wilson. “She’s probably not real worried about it.”

Another close ally and supporter told MS NOW at the time the report was “a total, fabricated lie.”

“[Trump] is invested in Pamela Evette because she invested in him. He’s a loyal guy. That kind of stuff is important to him,” added the supporter, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“With or without Trump, I think she is going to win,” they said.

On Thursday, a senior campaign aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, brushed off the idea of a dual endorsement, telling MS NOW in a statement, “Pamela Evette has earned the complete and total endorsement of President Trump. She is the only Trump-endorsed candidate in this race and we look forward to delivering a big win for the president on Tuesday.”

Roughly 24 hours later, Trump retracted the exclusive endorsement.

Will McDuffie is a reporter for MS NOW.

The Dictatorship

Fears of an ‘economic catastrophe’ helped push Trump toward an Iran deal

Published

20 minutes ago

June 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Fears of an ‘economic catastrophe’ helped push Trump toward an Iran deal

As last week’s G7 summit in France got underway, a reporter asked Donald Trump whether his purported deal with Iran was final. “No, it’s not final,” the president replied. Later that day — during a visit to Versaillesof all places — he signed the framework anyway.

But moments after signing his name to the memorandum of understanding, Trump offered an unsubtle hint about what he was thinking at the time. Amid applause from those around him, the American president pointed down and then up while saying“Oil down, stocks up.”

In other words, Trump’s focus had nothing to do with natural security and everything to do with the economy. What’s more, the four-word phrase was part of a larger and underappreciated pattern. The Washington Post reported:

In the more than 100 days since President Donald Trump launched a war with Iran, he has offered a shifting list of reasons for why he started the conflict. But in explaining his push for peace, he named a priority much closer to home: protecting the stock market.

“I didn’t want to see economic catastrophe,” Trump told reporters gathered in the Alpine spa town of Évian-les-Bains, France, after the Group of Seven summit.

As the summit wrapped up, the Republican similarly said“I’ve studied presidents, some good, some bad, some great. Not too many are great and some really bad. … And the one president I did not want to be was the late, great Herbert Hoover. I didn’t want that and who knows what would have happened.”

He pushed the same point in an interview with Axios, which was released over the weekend.

“If I went further, the stock market would be much lower,” the president said. “Now think of this: I have one primary wish as president, in terms of people: I never want to be the late, great Herbert Hoover.”

The comments came days after Trump similarly argued“The alternative to this deal was a global recession. There are stupid people who want to see a global recession. They are just stupid people.”

Whether the president fully appreciates the implications of his own rhetoric, this string of comments doesn’t just shed light on his motivations for accepting a defeat, it also suggests he saw his failed policy in Iran as pushing the global economy toward a dangerous cliff.

In other words, based on Trump’s own comments, the war he started was poised to create an “economic catastrophe,” which he was desperate to avoid — and which led him to accept a framework that empowered Iran to get what it wanted in exchange for effectively no concessions at all.