letters@prospectmagazine.co.uk
Trouble on the horizon?
Rachel Sylvester is right to ask if the Tories face armageddon in the wake of the European Union referendum (“Armageddon for the Tories?” June). Allowing Conservative Cabinet ministers to campaign against one another is without precedent. When the party divided over its trade and fiscal policy in the early 1900s, several Cabinet ministers resigned so that they could campaign with impunity for and against free trade. The effect was still “blue on blue” attacks, three general election defeats in succession and a lurch to the right. It took the upheaval of the First World War to restore the Conservatives’ political fortunes.