The Conservative Party¡¯s losses in British local elections almost certainly foreshadow a greater calamity for Rishi Sunak¡¯s government in the next national poll, probably later this year.
His Tories have governed Britain for 105 years of the past 150, albeit sometimes in coalition, a record that no other political party in Europe can match. But they now face a collapse that some pundits suggest will mean their end as a national force, their disintegration into a rabble of squabbling factions.
For a century and a half, unity of purpose has been British Conservatives¡¯ secret weapon ¡ª the will to paper over internal differences in ruthless pursuit or retention of power. A hoary old Tory backbench MP used to say, back in the 1960s: ¡°pro bono publico, no bloody panico!¡± He meant that for the good of the state ¡ª or, if you like, for his own tribe ¡ª even at moments of crisis everybody should keep calm and carry on.
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