Britain’s Political Chaos

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 25 October 2022

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Whose turn is it to run Britain? On the latest episode of Free Expression, Wall Street Journal Editor at Large Gerry Baker explores the turmoil in what used to be called the world’s most successful political party - the U.K.’s Conservatives. Tim Montgomerie, a leading conservative thinker in Britain, explains how after 12 years of the Tories in office, the aftermath of Brexit and the challenge that populism poses to conservatives, British politics has become so chaotic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.
0:08.7	Hello and welcome to Free Expression with me, Jerry Baker from the Wall Street Journal editorial page.
0:13.1	Thank you very much for joining us. If you're not already a subscriber, please be sure to subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:19.6	And please leave us a nice five-star
0:20.8	review. On today's episode, Britain has a new Prime Minister. Now, until recently, that might
0:26.7	have sounded like important big news. But these days, it's about as unusual as a headline
0:32.4	about a dog biting a man. Rishi Sunak is the third prime minister in seven weeks, the fifth British
0:39.0	Prime Minister in a little over six years. Now, his election by the ruling Conservative Party
0:44.2	is historic in many ways. He's ethnically Indian as the first person of Asian origin to be
0:49.2	prime minister. But the broader picture of the Conservative Party over the last few weeks
0:54.1	has been historic for very different reasons.
0:57.5	Now, the party has rightly been described as perhaps the most successful party in history of the democratic world.
1:03.5	It has governed Britain for almost two-thirds of the last two centuries, either on its own or in coalition.
1:08.9	It's been a rock of consistency in a changing world
1:11.3	with giant statesmen to prove it, Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, among
1:15.9	others. But now, well, in the last month or two, it's all felt slightly Italian. If I may offer
1:22.9	an apology to my Italian friends and any Italian listeners. Seems we have a different
1:26.7	Prime Minister every few months presiding over an economy that seems to be sinking underwater and an atmosphere of
1:32.0	political disarray. So what's actually going on and can Britain finally get its act together now
1:37.3	with the new Prime Minister? Discuss all this. I'm joined by Tim Montgomery, one of Britain's
1:40.9	leading conservative commentators and thinkers. He's been a central figure
1:44.7	in the development of modern conservative thought in Britain. He co-founded the Centre for Social
	...

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