This vicious feud shows that Tories hate each other even more than they hate the rest of us
Since becoming editor of The London Evening Standard, George Osborne has been a thorn in the side of the current government. Although he denies it, many believe that the former Chancellor of the Exchequer is taking revenge against the woman who fired him – Theresa May. And a new article shows how seriously Osborne is taking the vendetta he claims not to have.
Conflicting reports
The article by Ed Caesar in Esquire claims that:
according to one staffer at the newspaper, Osborne has told more than one person that he will not rest until she ‘is chopped up in bags in my freezer’.
This conflicts with Osborne’s official position. Speaking to Caesar, Osborne:
insisted he was not using his new role to settle any vendettas. If he attacked someone, he said, it was because he and the paper disagreed with their position, nothing more. Everyone knew he was against Brexit and thought the government’s approach to its discussions about leaving the union had been mishandled.
A history of violence
Using this sort of violent imagery isn’t exactly new for prominent Conservatives. On 3 September, a former Conservative minister told The Sunday Times that May had:
signed her own death warrant
Read on...
And also that:
She’ll f*** up again and then she’ll be taken out and shot.
Hypocrisy
Some commentators have suggested there would have been more criticism if a left-wing politician had made such statements:
If a leading leftwing figure talked about chopping up a woman into a bag in their freezer, what would the outrage be https://t.co/JUb48evPbq pic.twitter.com/1acOLFiYTv
— Owen Jones🌹 (@OwenJones84) September 13, 2017
UKIP voters have also noticed the disparity between how some political figures are treated compared to others:
Imagine if Farage had said the same awful things George Osborne said about T.May. He'd be crucified for it. Osborne will get away with it
— UKlPvoter (@UKlPVoter) September 13, 2017
Coalition of chaos
It’s clear that any large enough political party will contain rival factions. But the factions within the Tory party are increasingly at war with one another in a very public way.
Regarding Osborne’s future ambitions, Caesar speculated that he may one day return to frontline politics. But a Conservative told him:
Osborne had fatally damaged his own prospects of ever returning to government through his public disloyalty to the party.
‘He’s made too many enemies,’ said the source. ‘A lot of Tories will find it very difficult for him to be seen as one of the tribe any more.’
Increasingly, it’s hard to see what the Tory “tribe” even is. And as the party loses popularity and Brexit drags on, these divisions are only likely to widen.
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