How did Britain get here? Lownie traces it back to William Hague's decision to hand Conservative Party leadership elections to activists, which produced a generation of leaders chosen by the fringe rather than the centre, and saw cabinet discipline collapse along with them. Politicians who once entered public life out of duty have largely disappeared, edged out by candidates obsessed with personal advancement. A clickbait media environment now rewards spectacle over seriousness, which means leaders end up following the news cycle instead of leading it. Brexit, in Lownie's reading, was symptom rather than cause.
What's left is a political class most people now see as "another bunch of grifters."
A serious conversation about institutional decline, the end of the centre, and the historical company Britain is keeping.
