These Tory defectors are the Thelma and Louise of British politics | Gaby Hinsliff

Their charisma and exuberance is infectious, but could their leap of faith also take voters over the cliff edge?

At the end of Thelma & Louise, as the net closes in on the outlaws, Geena Davis’s character turns to her friend and says she doesn’t ever remember feeling this awake. The freedom they craved may be violent and volatile compared to the steady suburban unhappiness of the lives they left behind, but at least now it feels as if there’s something to live for.

There was a hint of something similar about a gleeful Heidi Allen declaring, as she left the Conservative party this week, that she was “tired of feeling numb” about politics; that she hadn’t felt this excited in years. The self-styled “three amigos” driving away from the Tories into an uncertain future as independents will no doubt have suffered their share of sleepless nights over this particular road trip. But compared with the rather grief-stricken press conference given by their colleagues leaving the Labour party, the excitement was palpable, and for a certain kind of female voter it’s undoubtedly infectious.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2EmGXeQ
via
0 Comments