If a committee were to design a policy with the aim of offending the Conservative Party, it might come up with something resembling Britain's lockdown, according to this article, which explores the prime minister's handling of the coronavirus pandemic amidst grievances aired by MPs on the restriction of liberty. Since becoming leader last summer, Boris Johnson has sought to reinvent the party after a decade in government and in-fighting over Brexit. The scale of his victory in the general election last December suggests that voters approve of the makeover, but internal dissent remains. Philip Cowley, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, notes the longer parties stay in power, the less pliant they become. He suggests a mere change in prime minister does not overcome this tendency, saying: "you have all the resentments and the grumbles, and just the tiredness building up of bring in office." The article goes on to remark that the current virtual parliament situation makes party management still trickier.
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