Limp Chester by-election defeat shows Tories have lost will to govern - Bernard Ingham

It has been a long time coming.

The Tories have not distinguished themselves in office these last 12 years.

It is true that they have had to cope with the consequences of the 2008/09 crash, Gordon Brown’s budget deficit legacy of £153bn, Liberal Democrat obstruction in coalition and latterly the pandemic and Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

But for too long now they have resembled more a rabble fighting internal squabbles than a cohesive force working to better Britain.

Miserable public opinion polls in spite of a manifestly deficient Labour Opposition have done nothing to curb their suicidal tendency and the result of four Governments in four years and three in a matter of months have done even less to persuade them to seek their own salvation.

Instead, they are queueing up to leave Parliament at the next election.

All this in my book is a serious dereliction of duty.

It is not now being helped by the Government itself with at best only two years of its natural life left.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has made enough U-turns in his short tenure to leave us spinning – fracking, toying with more unreliable onshore wind farms, going to COP27 when he said he wouldn’t and now seeing compromise everywhere, even on freedom of speech.

His flexibility encourages dissent.

Has he never heard of Margaret Thatcher’s famed resolution – “the lady’s not for turning”?

We are seeing a political tragedy being enacted before our very eyes when common sense tells us that the next election is not lost by any means.

That is because of Sir Keir Starmer’s hypocrisy, his attack on learning by seeking to penalise private schools (at which he was once a pupil, albeit one who was exempt from fees) and failure to condemn his paymasters – the unions – for doing their best to damage the economy with co-ordinated strikes.

All it would take is for the Tories to show a semblance of unity and purpose and to argue their case for strengthening the economy as a first priority.

But it is not the only whiff of decomposition in Britain today.

Take, for example, the case of Lady Susan Hussey, a Lady in Waiting to the late Queen for 60 years.

She is now on the sidelines accused of racism after all her years touring the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic Commonwealth.

Instead of being forced out she should be commended for her services to curiosity.

It is an entirely human trait for people to be curious about people’s origins.

I have been asked endlessly about where I’m from.

When I say “Yorkshire” people look at my red hair and seem to think that explains everything.

It is true that if Lady Hussey’s published conversation with Ngozi Fulani, a British woman of Afro-Caribbean heritage, at a Palace party is anything like correct, you might reasonably say she went on a bit – or was naïve - and did show some irritation over the time it took for the woman to answer a simple question.

But why did Ms Fulani decide to complain publicly of feeling “abused” and accuse Lady Hussey of trying to make her feel “unwelcome”?

Her ancestry does not seem to have done her much harm socially since she was mixing with royalty.

Ms Fulani has previously made critical public comments about the Royal Family’s supposed treatment of Meghan following last year’s Oprah Winfrey interview.

The only wonder is why the Palace ever invited her.

In conclusion, I have taken two things away from the past weeks.

The time has come for all good Tories to do their duty and govern.

It is later than they think.

As for society generally, the last thing we should do is pander to professional grumblers.

Otherwise, our freedoms are threatened.

Chester and Lady Hussey are a warning to us all.

We shall live to regret ignoring them.