A spectre is haunting Theresa May.
The beleaguered Prime Minister, who just a year ago seemed destined to deliver the Conservative Party its largest majority in a generation, has spent recent months facing up to the fact that it is Labour under Jeremy Corbyn who have captured the political zeitgeist.
Indeed, in recent weeks May has been forced to defend the free market economy – an argument she thought had been won long ago. Backbencher George Freeman, amongst other, admitted “capitalism isn’t working.”
But could the path to electoral success lie not in defending capitalism, but in embracing socialism?
The PM came into conference having announced – in response to Labour’s pledge to abolish tuition fees – that tuition fees would remain at their current level. In a play for the World’s Most Optimistic Headline award, the Daily Telegraph called it a “revolution”.
Hardly ground-breaking, but a clear sign that Labour’s relative electoral success back in spring has disturbed the waters and made the Conservatives rethink how they appeal to the electorate. Or perhaps Theresa was simply embracing her inner socialist.
Couple this with the announced pledge several weeks ago that the Tories would cap energy bills – a policy derided as “Marxist” when Ed Miliband floated it during the 2015 campaign – and it starts to look as though Comrade Theresa is indeed contemplating raising the red flag above Number 10.
cough..I am sure I've have heard this somewhere before. https://t.co/oay7AgZD3C
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) October 4, 2017
But are policies alone enough? Surely the tired branding of the Conservative and Unionist Party is long overdue a makeover. If you’re going to attempt to appeal to young voters, and to workers, you need a name to match.
Thankfully, Tory MP Robert Halfon is way ahead of us on this, having campaigned for a number of years for the party to be renamed the Conservative Workers’ Party.
Robert Halfon: we should change our name to “Conservative Workers’ Party”, and should be “a modern trade union” pic.twitter.com/dsXNby0qbP
— Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) October 2, 2017
You cannot be accused of being against workers if the word ‘workers’ is in your name.
A raft of vaguely appeasing policies and a party rebrand can only work well with the right leader, however. With a supportive and united cabinet behind her, that leader is and shall continue to be Theresa May.
Amber Rudd telling Boris Johnson to stand for May pic.twitter.com/VGYeb5CroR
— Mollie Goodfellow (@hansmollman) October 4, 2017
But how do you rebrand a Prime Minister about whom the electorate has formed an opinion? How do you show to the voters at home that your glorious leader is fully embracing her and her party’s shift towards socialism? You simply ask her to wear her Frida Kahlo bracelet.
Can I just point out that Theresa May is wearing a bracelet of Frida Kahlo, a member of the Communist party who LITERALLY DATED TROTSKY pic.twitter.com/CR13geaO7n
— Hannah Jane Parkinson (@ladyhaja) October 4, 2017
Kahlo, the Mexican painter, was also a well-known member of the Mexican Communist Party and had a brief affair with Leon Trotsky. A fine choice of hero for Theresa May.
Comrade Theresa, I’ll raise the scarlet standard high for your long and glorious reign.
