The 2019 General Election where the Conservative Party secured an eighty seat majority should have brought a period of stability. Boredom with politics should have been the order of the day as stability and certainty resumed. It has not quite worked out like that.
In Covid, the Prime Minister has had to face the biggest crisis since the Second World War and we are still recovering from the disease as well as the lockdowns.
The cost of living crisis has been made worse by the Russian invasion of Ukraine but the principle cause stems from the global actions to respond to the pandemic.
Vast sums of money was printed in the UK and across the world which has now triggered a level of inflation that we have not seen in decades.
As the world economy returns to normal, supply chains have been strained to their limits and the ongoing lockdowns in China have further disrupted them.
Obviously mistakes have been made during this time and the accumulation of these errors have seen dozens of Ministers resign and a leadership race start. Never have so many left en masse like this before and it included the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The entire education department lost all of its ministers including the Secretary of State who was only appointed days before.
This is a terrible state of affairs and has triggered the process of a leadership race. There will be numerous candidates and it is not clear who will be the front runners. We expect the Parliamentary process to start next week and for the candidates to be whittled down to the final two before the summer recess starts. Those two candidates will then travel up and down the length and breadth of the country to campaign for the support of the members of the Conservative Party.
It may seem odd to many that would like to be part of this process but we are choosing a Party leader who is then enabled by the arithmetic in the House of Commons to become Prime Minister. It is a fascinating aspect of our parliamentary democracy which differs so much from a presidential system.
Another quirk could be that Boris Johnson is one of the two in that race.
This article was originally published in the Bolton News.
