How Brexit broke the Tory Party | Andrew Neil brutally analyses 14 years of the Conservatives

“The Brexit referendum was the defining moment of the past 14 years. It sucked up all the bandwidth of the governing party, so they were so exhausted they had no energy or brainpower for anything else but dealing with Brexit.”

Andrew Neil analyses the last 14 years of Conservative government.

[PaulK-vepu]

In a nutshell- Tories putting party and personal gain above the national interest for 14 years. Shut the door on your way out.

[colinthompson]

I hope Times Radio preserves this video for future historians. Mr. Neil is a symbol for the thinking that has led to the problems the UK faces today. He doesn't take responsibility for the political party he has supported. He sees the problem as the personalities in the Conservative Party rather than the specific problems requiring different solutions. It is like watching Herbert Hoover give his view of the Great Depression. UK deserves better.😊

[robbieshand]

Austerity was not the success Neil thinks it was. It was supposed to do two things: reduce gov't debt after it ballooned from having to bail out the banks, and get the economy back on an even keel (as he said). Austerity failed to achieve either of those goals. Borrowing actually *went up*, in fact the Cameron & Osborne gov't borrowed more than all Labour gov'ts _combined_ . The UK also had the longest and slowest economic recovery in two centuries. Austerity went against prevailing economic wisdom, which is that you do not make cuts in a recession, that dampens economic activity by removing vital resources and funding from an already weakened economy. This was completely borne out when you consider that the Obama administration in the US launched a massive stimulus programme instead of austerity, which succeeded as America's economy bounced back within three years of the financial crash and set up America's future success as it has continued to grow almost uninterrupted ever since.

Austerity was not the result of necessity because it was not based on sound economic principles, it was pure ideology - this is what happens when you put a bunch of Eton and Oxford-educated posh boys and posh girls in charge of running things, people who study things like Classics, Philosophy and Literature (i.e. the subjects of the upper class) instead of degrees that might actually be useful for a political leader to know about, like Economics or International Relations. This is why we are so badly led, again and again. Oh, and austerity also led to Brexit, so there's that too.

[BobPringle-sg]

Thought Neil was a Brex champion. Looks to be rewriting his legacy again...

[RuMixesButBetter]

Boris kicked out all the competent moderates & let the headbangers in. So yes, Brexit broke the Tories. Finally, a Brexit benefit!

[davebest]

“ Tories ended exhausted”, er, the country ended exhausted! Get rid of them. Shambles.

[garymitchell]

By his own analysis, Andrew says the Brexit vote has been the sole cause of the Conservative's woes since 2016.
But he then describes Cameron, who called the Brexit vote, as a decent PM who history will look kindly on.
Not sure those two comments support each other.

[mrpocock]

It is a deep shame that the Tories broke the country as the collateral damage of destroying themselves.

[papps]

Neil hasn't exactly covered himself in glory. Two faced comes to mind.

[nickdoughty]

No real achievement after 14 years, except adding £2 Trillion in debt.

[johnhodgetts]

Andrew Neil's analysis is completely incorrect. He seems to view the Cameron/Osbourne years as pretty decent. For the public they were catastrophic. The decision to cut spending on services and refusing to borrow when the cost of borrowing was extremely low was incredibly inept and vindictive. It's true that May, Johnson, Truss and Sunak also did immense harm to the UK population, but the decision to implement austerity was obscene.

[sentinel]

Liz Truss has unbeatable record, she buried the Queen, Pound and Torry party in just 49 days 😊

[mikepost]

There is more than one way to balance the books, but making poor people poorer should not be one of them.

[zimri-lim]

Andrew Neil - Brexiter. Nice self-own there Andrew.

[jaapjong]

If memory serves me well; Andrew Neil was a great supporter of the Brexit idea. That clouds this comment big time.

[ddr.]

Says the guy that thought GB News was a good idea.

[deek]

Cameron and Osborne's austerity and Brexit has damaged the UK almost beyond repair policies that Andrew Neil cheered on.

[allip]

This is an hilarious attempt to rewrite history and make the Tories look less mendacious than they are by the Tory party spokesmen at The Times.

[garymitchell]

Andrew says that Truss was elected by "only" 200k Conservative party members, implying that that was insufficient numbers to give her both a mandate and legitimacy.
Andrew then goes on to praise Sunak as PM, but, of course, Sunak wasn't elected by anyone, and was rejected by Conservative members. So, surely his mandate and legitimacy are even less?

[twotonetedfromteddingtone]

Cameron broke the Tories by caving in to the right wing/UKIP. He didn't need to have a referendum and he did not put in enough safeguards. He was weak, weak weak. I blame him totally