Fourteen years of Tory rule have left Britain a lazy, dangerous, Left-wing mess

At the Press Awards on Thursday night, where we were both losers, my cartoonist colleague Matt (Pritchett) provided a perfect summary of the current consensus among Conservative voters. Telegraph readers, he observed, seemed to agree on two things: “That the Tories deserve to be booted out, and that Labour will be even worse”.

Faced with the choice of half-baked Conservatism or air-fried socialism (perhaps served with a side order of haggis), it is little wonder that Right-leaning people are dry-retching just at the thought of the next general election – let alone which box to cross.

On Wednesday, a survey of more than 5,400 voters conducted by former Tory treasurer Lord Ashcroft found that, although Conservative support is at rock-bottom, 45 per cent of voters still don’t want a Labour government. A substantial number of people agree that Labour will be worse for Britain than the Tories, but voters are still set to reject the Conservatives by a massive margin. Why?

There are a number of explanations, including a general desire for change and the misapprehension that there is no risk attached to putting a net zero nut who cannot decide whether or not a woman has a penis into No 10. But arguably the most compelling reason is a sense of betrayal – the feeling behind the #zeroseats anti-Tory slogan that is gaining momentum on social media.

Those who normally vote Conservative understandably feel let down that the party has said one thing and done another, and left Britain a much less conservative place than it was 14 years ago.

Take the sick note culture that Rishi Sunak addressed at the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) think tank today. While it is encouraging that the Prime Minister is looking for ways to tackle worklessness, how did it come to pass that a Tory administration has presided over such a major shift away from personal responsibility in recent years, and a destruction in the old culture of work? The UK is now the only G7 nation where the share of working-age people outside the workforce is higher than pre-Covid.

Such is the level of naivety inside Downing Street that the Prime Minister still expects to be thanked for furlough. No one wanted anyone to lose their jobs and businesses in lockdown, that’s true. But Sunak must take responsibility for the fact that his £70 billion scheme has not only left us with an economic hangover of epic proportions but also fostered a culture in which some people still expect to receive something for nothing.

Lockdown, and the free taxpayers’ money that came with it – billions of which were abused by fraudsters – have resulted in more and more people thinking that the state will subsidise them. The welfare system, meanwhile, is failing to encourage people into work, even when it might be good for them.

The number who are now economically inactive due to long-term sickness has increased by 717,000 since the pandemic. Each year millions of “fit notes” are issued, over 90 per cent of which find someone not fit for work. As a consequence, the cost of disability benefits is set to surge over the next five years.

This is completely unaffordable – not just economically but socially. Andy Cook, CEO of the CSJ, has rightly pointed out that the focus must shift “on what people can do, rather than what they can’t.”

Of course there are some desperately unfortunate people who are so incapacitated that they cannot work at all. But others will be able to work but lack the support to do so. Some also face difficulties in getting back into gainful employment by never-ending NHS delays for treatment.

It is strange that the Government has allowed this situation not just to fester, but to prosper, since the last lockdown was lifted – especially given that Sunak has never been backwards in coming forwards when it comes to telling people how to live other aspects of their lives.

Instead of fighting creeping state control, the Conservatives are actually making it worse, through measures like the new smoking ban. Still drunk on the draconian, anti-libertarian fumes of lockdown, the Tories, of all people, are now intent on telling people what to do with their lives – and their children, with a Scottish-style smacking ban and even a smartphone ban for under 16s also said to be in the offing.

Meanwhile, little or no authority appears to be exerted over those who actively seek to undermine British values. People can see the country visibly changing around them, with next to nothing done to require new migrants to integrate into our culture.

Protesters are allowed to call for intifada on the streets of London – and the nanny state is nowhere to be seen. Where were the Tories when a Batley school teacher was forced into hiding over a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed? They were equally conspicuous by their absence when the Tavistock clinic was handing out puberty blockers like smarties to children. While the Conservatives have been asleep at the wheel on these issues, it has been left to others to fight the battles in our schools, in the NHS, and on social media.

This week, Katharine Birbalsingh, “Britain’s strictest headmistress” and bete noir of the Left, won a significant victory in facing down a legal challenge to a prayer ban she has enforced at the secular Michaela Community School in Wembley, London.

But why was she left to fight this court case alone? It was only after the judgment had been delivered that Education Secretary Gillian Keegan really roused herself, remarking: “I hope this judgment gives all school leaders the confidence to make the right decisions for their pupils.” It shouldn’t be the business of a court to rule on whether headteachers are the decision-makers in their schools – rather than pupils (or their parents). Why wasn’t the Government bolder in riding to Birbalsingh’s defence?

Similarly, why was it left to Father Ted creator Graham Linehan, JK Rowling and a bunch of feminists – along with a smattering of academics, journalists and other whistleblowers – to fight for women and children’s rights in the face of trans extremism? How did we ever get to the point, under a Conservative Government, of teachers gender-affirming confused pupils behind their parents’ backs? We could expect this sort of virtue-signalling nonsense from Labour (and can look forward to more of it if the polls are correct), but this is a nightmare of the Tories’ own making.

The benefits crackdown is a good start, but for Sunak to have a hope in hell of winning back voters, he’s got to stop babying the electorate with endless five-point plans and come up with a much more grown-up vision for this country. Voters deserve so much more than having to choose between bad or worse.