In the wake of this year’s disastrous Conservative Party conference, I ask the question: If the last five Tory prime ministers were Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, which ones would they be? The Conservative party conference, which finished yesterday, was a total disaster. As badly as things had been going for Rishi Sunak up until this past week in Manchester, I felt like there was some veneer of respectability still there. Small, but identifiable. A very English sort of quiet desperation that lingered. No longer - Liz Truss and Nigel Farage were the “stars” of the conference, and you couldn’t have picked two worse people if you’re in Number 10. The mask is now off. The Tories have become a shoddy version of UKIP.
Cameron in 'Cats' is a blatant affront to T.S. Eliot, IMO.
An insult to Dorothy Dandridge!
Penny Mordaunt would be Carmen Jones, the film adapted from Bizet, in which the boxer (the opera's Toreador) sings (as I recall) 'Stand Up and Fight'.
The Tory Party is getting into Hitler/Mussolini but... territory. It could be expressed such as:
Hitler was an evil man who did try to destroy Britain, but on the other hand he did have some great ideas on...blah, blah. Complete the sentence.
I think that I could do with more of this kind of thing
Your phrase
"A very English sort of quiet desperation"
reminded me of this line from a Pink Floyd track:
"Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way" - Pink Floyd, "Time", from Dark Side of the Moon, 1973.
I now have to ask you whether you're a Pink Floyd fan!