The Strange Death of Tory England The Strange Death of Tory England The Strange Death of Tory England is a book of political commentary by the journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft, published in 2005. In the run-up to the United Kingdom general election of 2005, Wheatcroft looks at the journey of the British Conservative Party, from being the country's most successful political party of the 20th century to its wilderness of a long period in opposition, by way of Margaret Thatcher's heyday and her fall from power and the quite different style of John Major. The book begins with the Conservative leadership contest of 1963, following the resignation
Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom the European Union, and met then with ridicule. In the 1960s the membership attempts of Conservative UK governments faced strong resistance from the Continent, especially from the French president, Charles de Gaulle. Instead of being offered a leadership role, Britain was put on a yearlong waiting list, a major political humiliation for pro-European Britons. De Gaulle's veto in 1963 was a devastating blow for Harold Macmillan, who, according to Hugo Young, was not the last Tory politician to end his or her career as a result of European affairs. The UK faced a major economic decline and a row of