What should the Tories do now?

What Street says, a no brainer.

They need time in opposition to thrash it out. If history is anything to go by they will pick a couple of mindnumbingly useless leaders then get it 'right'. I would quite like them to do this quickly but that isnt the usual pattern. I think as we have witnessed governments with large majorities and no effective opposition are not a good thing. I say this a labour supporter.

Haha! An all inclusive Tory! Based on their current and recents cabinets and ministers? Who would be fooled by this? We’ll have no services left if they cut taxes. What they should have done is leave NI as it is, raised taxes in alcohol and cigarettes and raised the personal allowance.

Sunak should call a general election but he won't. They are deluding themselves and clinging to power and not thinking about people and the awful state of the country.

What they should do is call an election, because it’s obvious that the electorate no longer support them. The local and mayoral election results and the Blackpool MP election added to all the election results of the last year can’t spell it out any more clearly.
The wished for move towards a more central inclusive conservatism is currently a million miles away, the threat of Reform and the noise caused from the right (witness Braverman today for example) makes that impossible, and where we are now I don’t think the electorate would believe them if they said that was the intent. Opposition is the only option now.

I think they're going to split or go to the far right.

If they split, Reform will mop up the far right elements who have been in the driving seat since Johnson took over. Then, perhaps, they could rebuild a more centrist party with what is left.

But they're going to be demolished at the next GE and I wonder firstly, what will be left to work with and secondly, what will the defeated MPs, and would be MPs, who will have fought the GE do next? Will they continue as politicians/activists, looking for election to Parliament at some time, or will they go back to their old day jobs?

Thirdly, I'm curious as to what the people who will be or have been selected for the constituencies where current MPs are standing down are like. Are they far right or more centrist? We don't seem to have much of a centrist tendency among our current crop of tory MPs. Are there enough to revive the tory party along Street's sensible, traditional tory, lines?

Despite Braverman being convinced that the tories need to move even further to the right, Truss lurking in the background ready to rush in to help and the ever opportunistic Farage still on the scene I'm wondering how much appetite there actually is in the UK for a far right party. The far right has never managed to achieve much dominance in the UK during my lifetime. I think Thatcher was about the furthest right I can recall and she would, I think, be considered quite centrist in the current political climate.

I feel that Johnson and Cummings between them did a pretty comprehensive demolition job of the tory party as we have known it and it is questionable whether or not it can recover.

Move left as Andy Street said.

Maybe Andy Street should be the next leader - preferably to sort them out after they lose the GE - and stop the drift to the right.

I don't think calling an election now is the right thing to do. The recent elections have shown how confused people are. The turn-out was low because many Conservative voters chose not to vote.
The vast majority of people in this country are working class. This means that, in theory, our government should always be Labour. The Conservatives can only get into power if the lower classes vote for them. Johnson knew that, which is why he visited working class areas and persuaded people to vote for him.
We need a party which cares about this country and will do what is best for it. The only ones who seem to are the Reform party. Everyone else is working to a certain agenda, which is destroying Britain.
Why don't more people care about what is happening?

Go away and hide?

Definitely go right.
Which doesnt mean "far right".
There is a huge distance between where they are now, and right.
And far right means a different thing altogether.

Sunak wouldnt be the person to take them right. Or move anywhere at all. In my opinion.

Curtaintwitcher

I don't think calling an election now is the right thing to do. The recent elections have shown how confused people are. The turn-out was low because many Conservative voters chose not to vote.
The vast majority of people in this country are working class. This means that, in theory, our government should always be Labour. The Conservatives can only get into power if the lower classes vote for them. Johnson knew that, which is why he visited working class areas and persuaded people to vote for him.
We need a party which cares about this country and will do what is best for it. The only ones who seem to are the Reform party. Everyone else is working to a certain agenda, which is destroying Britain.
Why don't more people care about what is happening?

Many of us care very much about what’s happening, we are just diametrically opposed to your view of the solution Curtaintwitcher.
I can see no point at all in delaying the election, what will that achieve? If your assumption that it was because Tories didn’t turn out to vote that the party did so badly last week, let them prove that they are still out there and will vote Tory in a general election - at least then there will be an outcome, and we will have a government that can function.

People are 'confused?' I think the message of the people in England was pretty clear.

Atm they will never adopt a one nation/Street policy as they are trying to ward off Reform and its appalling policies.

It's a sign of the times that they are not talking about what we need, in term of the NHS, Care, Education and so on. Grand gestures like leaving the ECHR and tax cutting will not help all of us who don't have the means for private services. We've had enough of austerity.

I could give a very short and rude answer to the OP's question.

People are 'confused'? What do you think they're confused about, Curtaintwitcher?

I think they'e made it pretty clear that they don't want the current tory government.

The Tories should uphold democracy, give the people what they clearly want, and call a General Election.

Given that enormous swing over the past few by-elections, I think people know exactly what they want.

My impression is people are angry, not confused

I think they should hang on for the election until the last minute, they know they have lost.. Tories been in so long it’s inevitable the country needed a change, no faith in Standback .though, he got in my nerves all through Lockdown, never opened his mouth but you can’t have just the same party in office you need a break, Tories held power for over 60 years out of last hundred I think. First job I suppose will be to make country more attractive than it is now for our sea faring arrivals and spend, spend, spend.

Why on earth should they hang on, Allsorts?

They're not achieving anything; the UK is just getting deeper and deeper into dilapidation and unhappiness.

And division, fostered by the current government.

yes, angry.

Whenever Sunak says that he is “ delivering the will of the British people” I inwardly shout “Im one of the British people and you aren’t delivering for me!”.
What they need to do is call an election as that is what people want - a change. Johnson got rid of all the experienced moderates in 2019 to push through his useless Brexit and what we have now is a bunch of nodding dogs. Nothing can save this current crop

Excellent comment there growstuff