How can British Conservatives get on the same page with the public?

Peter has been a Conservative Party supporter for his entire adult life and is currently a party member. As an officer with the Metropolitan Police in London, he sees the impact of government policies up close every day.

But when the Conservative government descended into chaos in recent weeks over Britain’s economic future, Peter, like many others, questioned where the Tories are headed. (Peter asked that his full name not be used.)

The party has let him down, he says, mostly because of all the infighting and the lack of coherence. “I just hate this extreme politics. People are trying to hit a target and miss a point.”

The last two months in the United Kingdom have been a real-time case study of what happens when a centrist government – hitherto broadly aligned with its electorate – swerves, suddenly and with little warning, to the extreme right. The last time the country