howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Boris leads in the recognition stakes but Ruth Davidson seems to be forgotten completely.
https://order-order.com/2019/04/02/tory-leadership-hopefuls/howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Times.
There is little pretence that the Conservative leadership contest is anything but under way. At a lunchtime meeting today hosted by the Tory-leaning think tank Onward, Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, even referred to her “campaign team”. It drew a sharp intake of breath from some in the audience, apparently breaching the taboo that the contest has not formally started. Her aides said later that she was referring to her Portsmouth campaign rather than the one she hopes will propel her to No 10.
Ms Mordaunt was joined by Matt Hancock, the health secretary, and Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, to discuss new polling showing the potentially ominous prospects for the Conservative Party. Ms Mordaunt, 46, and Mr Hancock, 40, are both expected to run when Theresa May steps down. Mr Tugendhat told The Times Red Box podcast after the event that he would not be standing, despite previously indicating interest in the job. The study by Onward found that the “tipping point” age at which voters were more likely to vote Conservative had risen to 51, up from 47 at the snap general election two years ago. It also found that older Britons who vote Conservative out of habit will not be replaced by younger people as they grow up, creating a “massive ticking time bomb” waiting to hit the party at the ballot box.
Ms Mordaunt, a Brexiteer, went for the most notable soundbites at the event in parliament today. In an apparent attack on Remainer cabinet ministers, she told the room that she would be setting out a stall for “servant leadership” because the “age of hero politicians” was over. She described the Onward report as a “kick up the arse” and Mr Hancock agreed. Ms Mordaunt also defended Jacob Rees-Mogg against criticism that he was dragging the Tory party reputation down. “Jacob Rees-Mogg has gone around the country raising a lot of money for some of our new intake and he has praised them for being a breath of fresh air, their vision, their drive for the future, their ambition, running around this place, tearing down the cobwebs . . . We do have a tremendous range of views in the Conservative Party on all kinds of issues. And I think that has been one of our strengths going forward.”
She appeared to warn of riots if Brexit is not delivered. “The reason why we don’t have riots out there . . . is because the British people have faith, believe it or not, in this institution and in our democratic traditions. And at times like this, we’re testing those institutions to the absolute limit just as we have through the courts and elsewhere in our institutions. What I think we should remember is that messy democracy is better than any other system that’s out there. And I see that as secretary of state for international development this is difficult. We are testing on institutions to the limit.”
Mr Hancock, 40, claimed the Conservatives “need a fresh start”, saying: “We have got a lot of work to do.” He added that he wanted to “re-root the party”, putting the Tories “unambiguously on the side of helping people to improve their lives”. “I believe in everyone’s innate potential, everyone has something to offer,” he insisted.
Calling on the party to “demonstrate hope and optimism”, he said: “We’ve got to sound like we actually like this country. “We’ve got to be patriots for Britain of now, not the Britain of 1940.
“Enough of being just comfortable with modern Britain, we need to be champions of modern Britain, and we need to get out there and argue for the sort of modern Britain we need to see.” If the Tories become “only a Brexit party then we truly are finished,” he warned. Meanwhile, Mr Tugendhat declared: “We need to look like the people who people want to be with.” The Tonbridge and Malling MP said the party could end up in “real trouble” unless it did more to appeal to younger voters.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Sunday Telegraph.
While Westminster has been fixated on Theresa May’s battle with Brussels over her Brexit a deal, a battle already being billed as the dirtiest of a generation is playing out away from public view in Parliament. At stake is the future of both Britain’s future outside of the European Union – and the Conservative Party as a major electoral force. Up to a dozen senior Tory MPs are actively mulling whether to mount leadership campaigns to replace Mrs May when she quits – as expected – later this year. One MP says: “Everybody is trying to gauge what support they have got.” Another MP says: “It is early days – this is a slippery electorate… It is not as though there is a runaway favourite.” And given the wide open nature of the field, it is hardly a surprise the teams are drawing up “war books" about one another according to one adviser, shining a light on controversial historic articles, details of alleged sexual peccadilloes and unsavoury claims about their partners.
One adviser said that “without a doubt” the campaigning in the upcoming Tory leadership campaign will be the dirtiest for decades. “The biggest feature in Westminster is people looking for dirt on other people. “They are all at it [war books]. Everyone is going on about the war books, who has got what. It is already quite a nasty campaign. “The main focus at the minute is how you can take people down – it is not a battle of ideas yet. It is people trying to knee cap each other.” The battle for votes in the tearooms and corridors is already fully underway. While none of the leadership teams will confirm numbers Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, is seen in the “unenviable position” of being the early front runner with one observer saying he has pledges of between 70 and 80 Tory MPs.
Both Sajid Javid, the Home Secretary, and Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, are said to have won the unofficial backing of 40 MPs. Further behind is Boris Johnson, the former foreign secretary, who is sitting on a “core support of 25 MPs without having to work” rising to – according to his cheerleaders - as many as 70 MPs, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, the ERG chairman. Each is tailoring his or her offering to MPs who have to whittle the field down to just two candidates to go in front of the membership. Mr Hunt – who is in Japan this weekend on official business when he will demonstrate his linguistic skills by teaching English to Japanese students – is emphasising a “compassionate Conservatism”, saying the Tories must show they are not just a “money, money, money party” but have a “social mission” as well. But his rivals are already describing him as the “establishment candidate” who is likely to pick up the support of Number 10. Plenty of observers say this could damage his chances among MPs furious about the Brexit talks.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Telegraph
Grassroots Tories believe they are just weeks away from triggering a little-known process that could help to bring down Theresa May. Party chairmen are circulating a petition calling for the party's National Convention, which represents the grassroots, to call an Extraordinary General Meeting to pass a vote of no confidence in Mrs May, the Tory leader. If the petition motion is signed by more than 65 association chairmen, the party is obliged to hold the meeting. So far between 40 and 50 party chairmen have signed it, and the threshold could be passed as early as next week. Dinah Glover, the London East area chairman who has organised the petition, said the extraordinary meeting – the first one in the party’s history - could be held as soon as next month. Ms Glover told The Telegraph: “There is a lot of frustration and anger within the party – this is a route that we have to demonstrate those feelings so we can encourage MPs to make those feelings known.” The meeting would allow MPs “to make their feelings known as well so they understand the level of anger, not only in the voluntary party but across the elected members as well," she said. “What we need is a new leader who can break the impasse, who passionately believes that Britain has a bright Brexit future.”
The EGM petition being circulated among local party chairmen The petition, a copy of which has been seen by The Telegraph, says that it has been “almost three years since we voted to leave and after two extensions to the original departure date, we no longer feel that Mrs May is the right person to continue as Prime Minister to lead us forward in the negotiations. “We therefore with great reluctance ask that she considers her position and resigns, to allow the Conservative Party to choose another leader, and the country to move forward and negotiate our exit from the EU". Schedule 3, paragraph 13 of the Party constitution says that “a petition signed by not less than 65 Constituency Association Chairmen” compels the party to call “an Extraordinary General Meeting of the National Convention”.
Neil Moors- Registered: 3 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,295
It feels to me like Brexit has been overtaken by the Tory leadership race as a national priority. Is there no end to the level of self obsession with this lot?
Jan Higgins likes this
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
all part of the meme group neil.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
It seems clear where the next part of the Tory civil war is coming from with 40% of Tory councillors ie activists think that Farage should be their next leader with only BOJO more popular.
The Parliamentary party is unlikely to put forward one let alone two extremists to the vote so fireworks and more resignations can be expected.
Sue Nicholas likes this
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
Well, I suppose we can't say that it isn't the way of the world. Ukraine now has a comedian for its leader, in Italy the 5 star party was led by a professional joker and the USA has Trump. Why shouldn't we follow suit and end up with either Farage or Johnson? There's enough gullible people around to make it happen, mainly in what's left of the Tory party.
Brian Dixon and Ross Miller like this
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Courtesy of the Telegraph - can't say we haven't been warned.
Boris Johnson is the Tory grassroots’ favourite to be the next Conservative Party leader and now has a 17 point lead over his closest rival, a new survey has shown. The former foreign secretary was backed by almost one in three Tory members to take over from Theresa May as support for him surged by 10 per cent in less than one month. Support for Mr Johnson - now at 32 per cent - is at its highest level since last August as Eurosceptic activists appear to have swung in behind the leading Brexiteer, according to the work done by the ConservativeHome website. Mr Johnson was backed by 22 per cent of members in a similar survey published at the end of March.
Meanwhile, in a further sign that the Tory membership is seemingly ready to elect a “true” Brexiteer as leader, Dominic Raab, the former Brexit secretary, was in second place in the survey with 15 per cent of support. Other leadership challengers were left trailing far behind Mr Johnson, with Michael Gove backed by just eight per cent of members, Jeremy Hunt on six per cent and Sajid Javid on five per cent. Mr Johnson’s commanding lead over his rivals suggest his chances of securing the keys to Number 10 have not been harmed by his decision to vote in favour of Mrs May’s Brexit divorce deal as it was defeated for a third time at the end of March. The former foreign secretary has scored in the mid-20s in the last five surveys and the leap into the low 30s will provide a major boost to Mr Johnson as the battle to succeed Mrs May continues to heat up.
The survey of more than 1,100 Tory members will come as a hammer blow to many of the Tory MPs who are contemplating a run for the leadership. Amber Rudd, the Work and Pensions Secretary, who said earlier this month that it was “entirely possible” she would fight for the top job was backed by just two per cent of members as their preferred choice. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, and David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, who are both viewed as potential leadership candidates were each supported by just under two per cent of members. A handful of candidates whose names have been mentioned as potential contenders are even further behind with more than half a dozen receiving less than one per cent support. Those include former education secretary Justine Greening, Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood and Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
They're all back at work today after 11 days of plotting but I don't really see a new PM solving anything at this moment in time.
https://news.sky.com/story/local-tory-associations-and-senior-mps-plot-rule-change-to-end-mays-leadership-11701262Jan Higgins likes this
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,788
Neither do I Howard not as long as there is so much infighting amongst the Remain and the Exit factions, add in MPs of the other parties who will disagree with almost any proposal that they have not instigated.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
She survives for another 8 months, why I do not know. She blames Labour dragging their feet over negotiations but won't give any ground on the deal that the Commons has rejected 3 times so far.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/brexit-news-relief-for-theresa-may-as-tory-mps-bid-to-change-rules-to-topple-her-fails/ar-BBWfBR2?ocid=spartanntpReginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,225
I think simply, its a case of better the devil you know or better not the devil you know (in the case of Boris) Though I think the country needs a laugh!
Arte et Marte
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,788
All this extra time and messing about in Westminster seems pointless to me, even if they manage to decide and actually agree on some new proposal I suspect the EU will say no.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Jan Higgins wrote:All this extra time and messing about in Westminster seems pointless to me, even if they manage to decide and actually agree on some new proposal I suspect the EU will say no.
Spot on Jan, the EU have made it perfectly clear that the only deal on the table is the one from last November, cross party talks are about two years too late.
Jan Higgins likes this
Brian Dixon- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
howard if that's right it leaves only two [2] options.
1/ another referendum, take it or leave it.
2/ revoke article 50, and start all over again with a well thought out plan with in the next 5/ 10 years.
howard mcsweeney1 likes this
Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 7,877
.... and coming up fast on the rails my long time tip! (From the Speccie)
[I]Almost nobody in Westminster admits to wanting to be prime minister. Rory Stewart is a cheerful exception. Most leadership hopefuls prefer to plot in dark corners and woo supporters in candlelit bars. The Prisons Minister is happy to sit in the sun in Hyde Park and talk openly about his ambition.
It’s a tricky time for this country, he says. ‘In a normal situation I probably wouldn’t want to run.’ One of his friends thinks he’s mad: what’s the matter with just being MP for Penrith and the Borders? Why seek No. 10 now? Isn’t it a completely thankless task? ‘But I’m the opposite way around,’ he says, as we sit by the Serpentine lido. A voice for the pragmatic middle ground will be needed when Theresa May departs Downing Street. He’s offering his.
It’s a job Stewart believes he could be good at. ‘There are some things I would be really, really bad at. You would not want to hire me to run a ballet company, I’d be really rubbish at that. I don’t like ballet. I am bored by it. I’m almost tone deaf. I feel I want to die when I watch the ballet. It would be a really, really bad mistake to hire me to run a ballet company. But if you want someone who really enjoys doing stuff and loves government and is really proud of the country and feels that’s their thing, I’m really enthusiastic.’
After working as a diplomat in the Middle East, Stewart entered parliament in 2010. Now aged 46, he feels ready for the next challenge. ‘Difficult periods need different types of people. One of the reasons why I would be tempted towards this job is that we desperately need to rebuild ourselves internationally after Brexit. I am one of the only people in Parliament who is a genuine specialist.’ He was a regional governor in Iraq as it descended into sectarian violence: not the most encouraging analogy. But Stewart says that experience means he is good in tight spots. ‘That’s been my life. I’ve written four books about it, done three television documentaries about it, I’ve taught it at Harvard, I’ve spent more than a decade living in funny countries and working there. I’ve done it as a developer, as a diplomat, I’ve done it in war zones.’
Stewart’s CV reads like that of a John Buchan character. The son of an MI6 intelligence officer, Stewart spent much of his childhood abroad. He went to Eton a few years below Jacob Rees-Mogg, then enjoyed a gap year stint in the Black Watch. He has advised the Obama administration and was, for a spell, a tutor to princes William and Harry. He has trekked the 6,000 miles from Turkey to Bangladesh. That was tough, though not nearly as difficult as his latest challenge: trying to defend the Prime Minister’s beleaguered Brexit deal in public.
He believes that May’s deal is a much-needed compromise. That hasn’t won him many fans. ‘It is a really good deal,’ he insists. ‘I just think although people pretend they want a Brexit deal it turns out that far too many Remainers simply do not want to accept the result of the referendum and far too many Brexiteers have convinced themselves that no deal is the sensible, practicable thing to do and I don’t think it is.’ His mother Sally, who voted Leave, is among those who remain sceptical though Stewart is doing his bit to win her around.
‘She spends a lot of time on Brexit websites that tell her that the deal is rubbish. I then get the deal out and I go through it and she says, “Well why does nobody ever say that, darling?” So I say, “Well I’m saying it”.’ He thinks May ought to stay on until the first phase of Brexit is complete — even if that means relying on Labour votes to pass a deal. Part of the reason Stewart is interested in the role of prime minister is his worry about the direction the party could go once she departs. ‘The biggest challenge in the world at the moment is extreme polarisation of politics. It’s the one thing that Britain has had a genius in avoiding since 1688 so resisting the extremes is not just saving the country, it’s saving the constitution, it’s saving the politics, it’s saving what makes a nation and a community.’
He fears that were somebody ‘like Dom [Raab] or Boris’ to go for a leadership challenge now they would campaign for what he regards as the extreme of a no-deal Brexit. Such a move, he argues, would defer not just Remain voters but young people in general. ‘Politicians want to believe “I can be a hard Brexiteer and I can also be modernising, progressive” but it will be a very, very difficult trick to pull off.’
He is sceptical of the rhetoric used by some Brexiteers — such as Raab when the pair debated one another at a Spectator event before Christmas. ‘His basic response seemed to be “Don’t talk down Britain, believe in Britain”. Politics is very exciting but in the end Mrs Thatcher said the most sensible way to think about it was in terms of a household and you need to keep translating anything a politician says into what would make sense in a household. So, if you said to me you are never going to be able to get those three black bin liners into our rubbish bin and I said to you, “Believe in Britain, don’t talk down the rubbish bin”, I’d either be making a joke or I’d deserve a kick up the arse.’
While Tory voters might be seen as a group partial to messaging on bins, this is a pitch that is unlikely to sit well with the eurosceptic membership. Stewart knows this and admits whether or not he has a chance at the top job depends a lot on timing. ‘If the only thing that people care about is delivering a no-deal Brexit and not a Brexit deal then someone like me doesn’t stand a chance. If on the other hand you have got Brexit done, or you have got the first stage of Brexit done, then I think somebody who appeared exciting and practical would be quite appealing and I think at that stage people might be a bit weary of Brexit, they might be quite keen to talk about something else.’
A Labour supporter as a teen, Stewart’s politics do not come from economics textbooks or Ayn Rand novels. ‘There are types of right-wing Conservatives who are very unsentimental and think the whole world comes down to economics and money. I’m not one of those.’ His ‘two big things’ are ‘pride and decency’ and he applies this to his current brief in the Ministry of Justice, where he has promised to improve prison standards or resign later this year.
Nor is he a radical. On domestic politics, Stewart is against drugs legalisation, wants two million more homes built but not on the green belt and describes himself as ‘sceptical’ on HS2 even though his constituency is meant to be a beneficiary. If he were PM for the day, he says he’d be tempted to gather every civil servant in London in Hyde Park and lay out a huge sign right the way across the park saying ‘Britain wasn’t built in a day’.
Nor, he accepts, is a leadership campaign. ‘If I think about me, I have clear disadvantages. I am an Old Etonian, I voted Remain, I have not been in Cabinet. But there are other bits of me which I don’t actually talk about but which are quite different. I don’t talk about setting up a charity in Afghanistan. I don’t talk about what I did in Iraq. I don’t talk about what I did in Indonesia. I don’t talk about my books. I have tended to try to concentrate on learning about being an MP.’
He says that his experience outside politics ‘does give me a broader experience of actually running things outside Parliament, a sort of hinterland. I think I’m not stupid and I’m not bad at getting things done’. Deliver a Brexit deal, he says, and lots more can be done. ‘There is no reason why Jeremy Corbyn can quadruple the number of members of the Labour party and we couldn’t quadruple the membership of the Tory party.’
Stewart spent his Easter holidays in Cumbria. He posted a video on social media of a lamb gambolling in a barn. He also planted trees, which set him thinking. Trees, he says, ‘are perpetually astonishing’ because they grow in all sorts of ways over decades.
‘The big question for Britain is not really what could I do if I was prime minister in five, ten years — but what does the country look like in a hundred years? If I were lucky enough to be prime minister, I’d want to do a lot of things you wouldn’t see the results of while I was there.’ Heathrow runways, 5G networks, clean air all take time, he says.[/I]
"Shall we go, you and I, while we can? Through the transitive nightfall of diamonds"
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Matthew Parris writing in the Times.
It is highly likely that we shall have three prime ministers this year, and that by the end of it the Conservative Party as we’ve known it will have ceased to exist. It is also likely that by year’s-end we shall have either revoked our notification to leave the European Union or committed ourselves to a fresh referendum. None of these outcomes is certain but each is more likely than not. I reach what may sound like three wild conclusions by the application of logic to the situation we’re now in. When logic produces weird predictions they should face rigorous scrutiny; so let me set out my reasoning.
I start from three premises. First, a clear majority of this (or probably the next) House of Commons is resolved to avoid a no-deal Brexit. Second, no majority can be found for any deal that leaves Britain as “rule-taker, not rule-maker”. Jacob Rees-Mogg calls this “vassalage”; I call it satellite status; others call it Brino (Brexit in name only). But all agree that by comparison with our present full membership of the EU, Brino offers sharp disadvantages and no advantage other than greater control over immigration, an issue of diminishing salience. The argument for Theresa May’s deal is about the will of the British people, not about the merits of the deal itself, for which no enthusiasm can be found in any quarter.
Third, a substantial minority of the parliamentary Conservative Party and the overwhelming majority of its national membership are now irreconcilably opposed to anything but a complete, “clean” exit from the EU, and are ready to break the government on the issue. Such, then, are my three premises: no no-deal exit; no satellite status; no mending Tory disunity. Assuming an almost certainly bad result in next Thursday’s local elections, and assuming Mrs May cannot reach any EU withdrawal deal with Jeremy Corbyn that her own parliamentary party could accept, then the Tories must call a European parliamentary election they don’t want, to an institution they’re pledged to get us out of. This is grotesque, as the Electoral Commission has just pointed out. In such an election the Tories face, expect and deserve a massive bloody nose and they’ll get it. Many, perhaps most, Tory MPs know the party has let the country down and are profoundly embarrassed, braced for the punch they know they’ve invited: third place at least, with Conservative MEPs down from 18 to single figures.
Can Mrs May survive that? The safest prediction about her has always been that she’ll carry on, but this time? Really? And with the party reeling, Nigel Farage crowing, a paralysed prime minister and her impotent administration floundering, cabinet discipline in tatters and a Brexit cliff edge approaching, the men (and women) in suits must surely come for her.
So: a leadership election before the autumn. Who makes it through the MPs’ hustings and on to the shortlist of two? Of course the Tories’ best hope of survival would be with a cleanskin: someone youngish, perhaps new to the public, as-yet untarnished and not too ideological, because voters will want to feel the party has turned a page. But I expect the candidates to be the usual suspects. Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt: hooligan versus hologram. Dominic Raab: rabid with an extra a. Sajid Javid: a too-eager Uncle Fester. Michael Gove: Professor Branestawm ... oh dear, it will probably be Boris, distrusted as he is by colleagues, and perhaps Hunt or Gove. But Mr Hunt is a deserter from Remain and deserters are not loved by those they join or those they leave. Mr Gove, head and shoulders above the others intellectually, will struggle with the Tory rank-and-file. I never expected to write this, but Mr Johnson has a good chance with the Tories’ tiny, elderly selectorate. And if he wins he will have to call an immediate general election because a dozen or more of his outraged colleagues will resign the Tory whip and he will be at once unable to assemble a working Commons majority.
Mr Johnson will then lose the general election because he’s a shambles. His character, reputation and party will be torn apart during the campaign. Floating voters would want a good reason to like the Tories better than they did in 2017. I rest my case. So, Mr Corbyn as prime minister but probably without a good working majority; the Brexit Party still strutting; the Tories broken and bleeding; and October 31 thundering down the track towards us. What, by then, are we hearing from France and Germany? “Aw, shucks, give them a few months more?” I don’t think so. Did President Macron ever really mean to push through his “revoke, referendum or get out” ultimatum to Mrs May last month? I doubt it. His was a final warning and clear marker of France’s intentions. Given the reserve power of veto that France retains, Germany and France will probably avoid a split by presenting a joint position in October. It will become clear to our parliamentarians before then that this will be — yes — revoke, referendum or get out. I think our EU partners calculate that, whatever government we have, parliament’s answer will be the first or second option, and not the third. And I think they’re probably right.
By Christmas, then, we’ll be on our third prime minister, and still in the EU. And the Tory party? The European Research Group’s Jacob Rees-Mogg (say), Steve Baker and Mark Francois are in no useful sense in the same party as liberal, pro-European centrists like (say) Alistair Burt, David Lidington, Sir Alan Duncan or Amber Rudd. Something has to give. There was a time when a strong prime minister could have made an example of a couple of Brexiteer renegades by withdrawing the whip and scaring their comrades back into the fold but it’s probably now too late: there are just too many of them. Nor are they unrepresentative of millions of voters: up to 20 per cent of the electorate. Britain (or England, anyway) needs a nationalist, nativist, reactionary party to represent these voters. So I would like to see Mr Farage’s new Brexit Party do well enough, and promise well enough, to provoke a mass defection from the Conservative Party. Otherwise it’s the moderate, liberal, 21st-century generation Conservatives who will have to start quitting and regrouping. How, with whom, and as what, it is too early to say. One thing, however, it is not too early to say. The rabble in government who now call themselves the Tories are over, and must be put out of their misery.
ray hutstone- Registered: 1 Apr 2018
- Posts: 2,158
He's been alarming accurate in his reading of the situation so far. There is nothing fanciful in what he says now.
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 2,986
Well, I guess it's now unlikely to be the kid Gavin. But I think Williamson's neither stupid enough nor intelligent enough to initiate a leak. He's an obvious patsy. Look to Sedwill (now both Cabinet Secretary and National Security Chair) for the why. The spooks have it.
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus