The Tories’ identity crisis – that will be the only star of this year’s conference | Matthew d’Ancona

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The embalming of the May government and the noise of Brexit have stalled the process of reflection, perhaps indefinitely

An off-the-shelf app that threatens a comprehensive data breach; a full-blown row between Theresa May and Boris Johnson over Brexit; and the frankly desperate promise of a pre-election national “festival” of innovation and culture that already sounds more Millennium Dome than Danny Boyle’s Olympic Opening Ceremony; and a letter to the Sunday Telegraph signed by more than 30 Tory association chairmen complaining that the prime minister’s Chequers plan “does not deliver the Brexit that we, as Conservatives, promised”: welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the Tories’ 2018 conference.

You may, like me, find it extraordinary that May is still in post, having gambled and lost so spectacularly in the snap election last year. Yet here she is, in Birmingham, at her second annual gathering of the Conservative tribe since she squandered the Commons majority won by David Cameron in 2015.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2OZNIpM

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