"I beg your pardon," they never promised us a rose garden, but they did. The new Labour government is unravelling and blaming it on everyone but themselves, but mostly on the last government, the members of which seem strangely silent for an Opposition whose job it is to oppose.
'Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party'. There is no other time; there can be no delay. The Conservative Party was eviscerated in the Blair years and is now as divided and disheartened as any could be.
Meanwhile, Reeves has cut pensioners' heating allowance, Rayner has threatened the Green Belt and Starmer promises a tough austerity budget, in the Downing Street Rose Garden, with no indication of a stimulation of the economy.
The response? Silence. Navel gazing and self dismemberment. The robust response expected from the Conservative leader was missing; the shadow cabinet a shadow.
Meanwhile members resigned rather than vote for candidates 'not Conservative enough', condemned the parliamentary party as a generalised 'they', grew more and more disheartened and predicted their political adversaries remain in power for at least a decade unless their Party got its act together, which was thought increasingly unlikely.
Party and country must be synonymous or it isn't worth anything at all and the country cannot be saved. Thus, any candidate fo become leader of the opposition must understand this and that Socialist big-state policies must be countered by Conservative and libertarian solutions.
The only MP to really demonstrate any guts and determination in restoring the Party to its principles and fortunes has been Suella Braverman, but she (our Churchill) will have to wait and so will we.
Therefore, the new leader has to hit the ground running and lead from the front. Vision has to be based on Traditional Conservatism and service to the country. This country, not some vague global world order or collection of quangos and supranationals.
Traditional and radical is a neat trick, but essential. The lion has slept too long…