A century ago, the Liberals were wiped out. Are the Tories doomed, too?
The metropolitan elite – who ushered both Tony Blair and David Cameron into Number 10 – are once again in the ascendant. I could see it long before the election, because I have turned into one of those old people who totter to book launches in London at 6.30 in the evening. Most of those who attend such gatherings belong to what is called the metropolitan elite, though I do not think I do so myself – not exactly. Or have I gone native without realising it? A few weeks before the election, I found myself standing on a landing, holding a glass of plonk, with Tristram Hunt, Director of the V&A and former Labour MP; Jane Bonham-Carter, Liberal peer; and Robert Harris, the popular novelist and former political journalist. All nice people. It was not what they said; it was their faces. All the strain had gone from the...
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