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The Tories: Is the party over? A history of the present
The left might fear Boris Johnson, but he heads a party that looks to be in terminal decline, argues KEITH FLETT

THE coronation of hard-right Tory Boris Johnson as party leader and hence prime minister will no doubt be hailed as a great victory by the Murdoch press and the Mail. 

Elements of the Corbynphobic Labour right won’t lose too much sleep either perhaps, reckoning that of the no-hopers and losers the Tories have available Johnson has the best chance, even if a small one, of beating Labour in a general election.

Yet the reality suggests a sharply different story for the Tories and privately many of them know it.

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