what next for Tories

What next for the Conservative Party, then? Robert Halfon, the old Skills Minister was on the BBC three days ago insisting that the party was in need of a 'fundamental rebranding' from the Conservative Party to the Conservative Worker's Party, which should stand for election on the basis of a worker's charter. Of course, this shows just how far Corbyn has managed to swing the debate. Indeed, Theresa May's speeches since the election result have included the vague promise of a 'country that works for everyone', and there's no doubt that the party will be searching for a new campaign, a new message, after the disaster of her most recent campaign.

Turnout at the most recent election was 68.7%, the highest since 1997. The Conservatives  are aware of two things:

1) That the wealthy are overrepresented within the actual voting population. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to not vote

2) That Corbyn's strategy is to try and mobilise this group of alienated voters. With just under a third of the voting population not bothering to turnout to vote still, there is a large, untapped potential for Labour's message

The Conservatives then, must find a way of counterracting Labour's appeal to these potential voters, and this involves providing a meaningful answer to the fallout from neoliberal government, which has harmed these voters the most.

Even in 2010, David Cameron appeared aware of the need to show some kind of awareness of how tough things were at the bottom. Cameron stood outside the Downing Street front door promising his 'government will always look after the elderly and the poorest in our society', even before creating the bedroom tax, and before introducing ATOS into the benefits system.

But now, with an increasing portion of the middle class experiencing this fallout as well in the shape of stagnant wages, the Conservatives risk breaking the camel's back altogether, and must find a way of backing-up this rhetoric with policy and actual economic outcomes.

What I think could be interesting, something to look out for in the coming months as the Tories try to untangle the mess strung out by Cameron and then polished off by May, is a kind right-wing economic nationalism, similar to the policies put forward by Trump in America: essentially a promise to reignite the country's industrial base by repatriating low-paid manufacturing jobs. This to me seems the most obvious way out for the Tories, the most obvious answer to their most pressing question: who on earth is there left out there who can be persuaded to vote Tory, to help increase the party's share of the vote? Of course, Trump's success was a product of the fact that his opponent in the 2016 Presidential vote didn't properly address the neoliberal fallout, or try to offer her own answers to the alienation and inequalities in American society. It's vital that Corbyn/Labour distinguish their own programme for government, for remaking the structure of the British economy from that of the Conservatives, in order to prevent their own, very powerful message from being diluted and co-opted.