The Conservative Party in its current form is flailing – it’s time for Thatcher 2.0

There is a place for a right of centre, pro-business, pro-growth politician, writes Salma Shah

Just like the 1970s, Conservative principles today are fuzzy and blurred (AP)

There is a foreign war affecting energy prices, public worker strikes threaten to paralyse an already shaky economy –and a Conservative government with a leader lacking in authority. The Tory Party is struggling to find its identity in the aftermath of a global effort, against an existential threat to our way of life.

But wait – because this isn’t a picture of today, but of 1973, when Ted Heath was facing a cocktail of similarly extreme pressures eventually resulting in a general election that he went on to lose.

Only a few years later did we start seeing the beginnings of an economic revival spearheaded by one Margaret Thatcher. If history is any kind of indicator, it suggests things are about to get worse – and Conservative economics is about to get hardline.