Tory Leadership Race

[Sampson]

Seems to be in the news very little and there’s a good chance it will be back to the obscurity of The Hague/IDS years but still worth discussing. Cleverly seems to be favourite atm. 

 

James Cleverly wins head-to-head against all 5 rivals in @techneUK  poll of Tory members 

Wins against Priti Patel 45-39 

Robert Jenrick 49-28

Kemi Badenoch 51-28

Tom Tugendhat 54-23 

Mel Stride 59-15

[bovril]

They are all utter morons. An under-discussed cause of Britain's relative decline in recent years is that we now have very bad politicians. 

[RoboFox]

Speaks volumes about the state of the Tories when that's the best they can offer. 

 

A bunch of 3rd rate backbenchers thrust into positions of importance because the party has been in complete and utter disarray for years. 

[urban.spaceman]

Desperate for Badenoch. She gets herself wrapped in so many of her own lies and gets in trouble with Hoyle so often. She'd be a disaster against Starmer.

[Sampson]

14 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Desperate for Badenoch. She gets herself wrapped in so many of her own lies and gets in trouble with Hoyle so often. She'd be a disaster against Starmer.

I don’t get Badenoch either. She’s comes across as a student politician ranting endlessly about culture wars and immigration and nothing else, I just can’t see her doing anything in a position of responsibility going through actual legal legislation. She doesn’t seem to care about that, she just seems to want to debate about how “woke” people are bad all the time.
 

She reminds me a bit of when Jo Swinson became LibDem leader and it was like a student politician just talking about movements and the overarching philosophy what liberalism means all the time as if she was a 19th century philosopher rather than actual concrete legislation and ideas in a 21st century post-industrialist economy. 

Edited 20 August by Sampson

[jgtuk]

9 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

Desperate for Badenoch. She gets herself wrapped in so many of her own lies and gets in trouble with Hoyle so often. She'd be a disaster against Starmer.

The only government position Badenoch should be near is cleaning the toilets.  
Detestable human. 

[katieakita]

Had the misfortune to see Badenoch's brief spell as overseeing the Post Office scandal a serial liar and incompetent. Did love the fake outrage over the bonusgate POL scandal when senior management paid themselves a 4.5 million bonus for complying with a statutory inquiry and when it turned out the Post Office lied and had supplied false accounts to Parliament she went off on one calling for the money being repaid despite her knowing of the issues and authorising the bonus. A horror box

[Jon the Hat]

Why would anyone be a politician these days?  Too much pressure, endless criticism from absolutist nutters on all sides.  We get the politicians we deserve.  Hopefully we can start to show them a bit of respect again and a new generation of decent people will come through.

[Sampson]

11 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Why would anyone be a politician these days?  Too much pressure, endless criticism from absolutist nutters on all sides.  We get the politicians we deserve.  Hopefully we can start to show them a bit of respect again and a new generation of decent people will come through.

Tbh, with the Tories it’s of their own making really, so I’m not convinced “we get the politicians we deserve” applies to them right now. They chose to have a referendum, they chose to purge their party of all its moderates and focus on its populists.

 

There have been 3 or 4 different pivotal junctions the Tory party categorically did not need to go down since 2015, but in each case it chose to placate the Farage-style right wing populists to try and gain voters from them (and looking at UKIP similar 2015 and Reform 2024 election numbers, all these choices haven’t worked at all). And by this point, the party has made it very difficult for probably a generation for anyone but a brexiteer on the right of the party and with populist style campaigning techniques to become party leader. 

Edited 20 August by Sampson

[Daggers]

4 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Why would anyone be a politician these days?  Too much pressure, endless criticism from absolutist nutters on all sides.  We get the politicians we deserve.  Hopefully we can start to show them a bit of respect again and a new generation of decent people will come through.

This is like blaming a football team's performance on the fans. 

 

The state of the Tory party is absolutely and totally on the members of that party. The daft old bints put a succession of people in charge of it that drove moderates from the party and allowed the talentless, self interested wasters to dominate.

 

None of the runners for the leadership deserve a scintilla of respect.

[RobHawk]

Don't see much leadership in that race

[Jon the Hat]

7 hours ago, Daggers said:

This is like blaming a football team's performance on the fans. 

 

The state of the Tory party is absolutely and totally on the members of that party. The daft old bints put a succession of people in charge of it that drove moderates from the party and allowed the talentless, self interested wasters to dominate.

 

None of the runners for the leadership deserve a scintilla of respect.

Only if the fans hounded the best players out of the game.

[Daggers]

3 hours ago, Jon the Hat said:

Only if the fans hounded the best players out of the game.

Which Tory MPs have been ‘hounded out’?

[Jon the Hat]

53 minutes ago, Daggers said:

Which Tory MPs have been ‘hounded out’?

Anyone from any side of politics who was not a moron who ever thought about becoming an MP and decided they were better off in another career.

[Daggers]

17 minutes ago, Jon the Hat said:

Anyone from any side of politics who was not a moron who ever thought about becoming an MP and decided they were better off in another career.

This is like blaming a football team's performance on the fans. 

 

The state of the Tory party is absolutely and totally on the members of that party. The daft old bints put a succession of people in charge of it that drove moderates from the party and allowed the talentless, self interested wasters to dominate.

 

None of the runners for the leadership deserve a scintilla of respect.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Daggers said:

This is like blaming a football team's performance on the fans. 

 

The state of the Tory party is absolutely and totally on the members of that party. The daft old bints put a succession of people in charge of it that drove moderates from the party and allowed the talentless, self interested wasters to dominate.

 

None of the runners for the leadership deserve a scintilla of respect.

Only if the the fans hounded the best players out of the game.

[Jon the Hat]

18 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

Only if the the fans hounded the best players out of the game.

Which Tory MPs have been ‘hounded out’?

[leicsmac]

[Daggers]

[Greg2607]

I quite like tugenhat.  He came across well in the previous leadership race.  I think they missed an opportunity when they picked Boris ahead of Rory Stewart all those years ago. 

[Trav Le Bleu]

31 minutes ago, Daggers said:

Well I for one am enjoying this new game.

[Trav Le Bleu]

1 hour ago, Jon the Hat said:

Which Tory MPs have been ‘hounded out’?

Anyone from any side of politics who was not a moron who ever thought about becoming an MP and decided they were better off in another career.

[Daggers]

Seriously though, why would anyone be a politician these days?  Too much pressure, endless criticism from absolutist nutters on all sides.  We get the politicians we deserve.  Hopefully we can start to show them a bit of respect again and a new generation of decent people will come through.

[Trav Le Bleu]

9 hours ago, Daggers said:

Seriously though, why would anyone be a politician these days?  Too much pressure, endless criticism from absolutist nutters on all sides.  We get the politicians we deserve.  Hopefully we can start to show them a bit of respect again and a new generation of decent people will come through.

They are all utter morons. An under-discussed cause of Britain's relative decline in recent years is that we now have very bad politicians. 

[Daggers]

19 minutes ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

They are all utter morons. An under-discussed cause of Britain's relative decline in recent years is that we now have very bad politicians. 

Scrapping the winter fuel allowance has left me speechless. I still contend that the current bunch are better than the previous 14yrs-worth - but by christ do I hanker for a John Smith and a Robin Cook.