There are many considerations in choosing a candidate to vote for. I see some on this site have already written off the full slate of 12 possible candidates. You need to live in the real world. The new PM will be an existing Conservative MP. The 12 include people with a wide range of talents and past successes and each would bring something different to the role. Choice involves compromise. No one gets everything they want in an ideal leader, or everything they support in the leader’s programme. We are choosing someone who needs to be right for the nation, Ā not just for us.
The assessment is a mixture of issues. Does the person broadly support the values you like? Do they have an outline programme of action to carry through those values? Does their past demonstrate an ability to overcome obstacles to seeing through important changes? Would they be able to earn the loyalty of enough support, and would they be confident enough to recruit a talented team of Ministers? Will enough of the public like or respect them?
The ability to communicate and carry people with them is important. It is no good having a good programme or great ideas if you cannot get elected to the leadership role or if you lack public support to retain office. Reading the public mood and making the right advances at the right time is a crucial leader’s skill.
It will be a demonstration of leadership skill to emerge victorious from this crowded field. It is important the MPs present two candidates to the membership and that both agree to fight a good campaign to give members a clear choice. It will be a test of character and political skill as well as a judgement on two competing programmes.
The truth is a lot is potentially up for change and that could be a good thing. The other truth is the unelected governing establishment will be looking to circumscribe or control an incoming Prime Minister. Some of them Ā see it as an opportunity to bin work on The Northern Ireland Protocol, human rights law reform, controlling our own borders, setting our own VAT and using the freedoms of Brexit.
July 12, 2022
Good morning.
Well letās hope this does not get deleted like yesterdayās post ?
The Conservative Party and the country is going to be on its fourth PM in twelve years. If the above were true what went wrong with all the others ?
I repeat what I said yesterday and before.
When choosing a new leader of your party, please learn from the one mistake from all the others : Choose someone whose ability matches or exceeds their ambition. We have suffered overly ambitious people with very few skills for far too long.
Thank you.
July 12, 2022
Your elementary arithmetic seems a bit lacking as to numbers of PMs.
Whatever, thanks to the ERG the Tories got rid of anyone capable of being a proper PM.
July 12, 2022
++
Also it might be enlightening to see which of the eleven (?) potentials voted for whatā¦our imprisonment for example ā¦
July 12, 2022
Sorry..article states twelve.
July 12, 2022
(4th PM in a little over 6 years.)
July 12, 2022
I was being kind as I took my time line from 2010 when CMD became PM.
July 12, 2022
Salaries for new lawyers after 3 years at university up to Ā£160k salaries yet for net junior doctors after 5+ years training Ā£29k. The lawyers perhaps have student debt of 50k and interest on it of ~ Ā£3k PA the latter Ā£150k and interest of ~ Ā£9k on it. The medics could easily convert to be lawyers in 1 year. Is it any wonder we have a shortage of doctors? About 50% of those expensively trained do not work long or at all for the NHS. Net pay for the doctor after tax, ni, commuting costs, interest on student debt is perhaps Ā£12k about the same as rent for a room in London. So how are they expected to live on this exactly?
July 12, 2022
So 442 Channel migrants just yesterday and that is only the ones they actually helped over & counted!
July 12, 2022
L/L. Shocking numbers now and good report on GB News about a residential hotel being taken overy for illegal immigrants. Once again we are the forgotten ones in our own country.
July 13, 2022
Holland now stealing 30% of farmers land to build houses for their mass immigration policy. No wonder they are out protesting. Why no MSM reporting about it in this country?
It seems a coordinated effort by the west to have mass immigration without infrastructure for public services.
July 12, 2022
I donāt think anyone in government is bothered anymore
July 12, 2022
LL it’s the government taking advantage because most doctors will surely take up the profession as they have the ability and feel the need to help others.
On migrants we all know MĆ©decins Sans FrontiĆØres and the French obviously think Rosbifs Sans FrontiĆØres.
July 13, 2022
Also the NHS has rather a monopoly initially and also can and does import lots of cheaper overseas doctors and nurses to further undercut pay. As I say about 50% of expensively trained UK doctors go overseas or give up medicine completely. Rather a large waste of training time and money.
July 12, 2022
I remember being told we were raking back control. But the next PM will be chosen by 300 Tory MPs and a few thousand Conservative party members. What a con
July 12, 2022
Yes Mark B, and in each case, the four in 12years, ideologically and morally bankrupt.
July 12, 2022
That should be, the last three PM’s.
July 12, 2022
The issue of analysing the past and avoiding the same mistakes again runs through comments today but is absent from our host’s post.
It’s critically important – at least the quick crowning and shenanigans around Leadsom/May have avoided appointing a loser this time.. who knows-Leadsom might still have been in post had that ridiculous series of events not occurred and the wrong person appointed.
But look at the others-
Cameron-too lazy and ran away like a cry baby breaking promises
Johnson – swayed by events in his own life and perhaps never believed what he said anyway
May – just being May – wrong person from the outset
Perhaps a probation period is the answer?
July 12, 2022
JR,
You made the case for economic incompetence by Sunak (and hence your govt) and the other dullards went along with him! It is a bit rich you then criticise the readers and tell them to get real. You demonstrate to me party before country.
July 12, 2022
The MPs are quite bad at choosing a leader – the old boys network and chances for personal advancement and internecine Westminster bubble alliances and squabbles determine their choice. They are the ones who chose May when they engineered it so the members had no say. The members are far more likely to vote for a fresh face with some electoral appeal rather than a member of the old guard – Cameron beat David Davis easily in the members ballot and went on to win an election. It will be the same this time, the MPs will try to make sure any new talent is eliminated before it gets to the members who will be presented with a couple of continuity candidates from the upper echelons of the previous regime.
July 12, 2022
Well we know Sunak was a dreadful tax to death, borrow, print, inflate, manifesto ratting and a piss down the drain Chancellor. So that surely should rule him out yet he is still favourite.
Sunak said he would not lower taxes – but now says he will lower taxes only when he has got inflation down (but he created this inflation by devaluing the currently and this might take several years anyway even if he did the right things for a change). Lowering VAT, fuel taxes, the green crap levies, insurance premium tax, road taxes and having a bonfire of red tape would bring inflation down hugely. It needs to be done and done now. So much fat, waste and pointless actively in government that could easily be cut to pay for it. Start with the millions of pointless/worthless degrees, HS2, net zero, the climate change committee, the road blocking, half of those (not remotely peerless Boris) civil servants. Those deluded idiots who wrongly claim cycling and walking do not produce C02 for example!
July 12, 2022
Sunak – āMy values are non-negotiable,ā says Rishi. They also happen to be totally uncontroversial: āPatriotism, fairness, hard work.ā
Well āPatriotismā but which country is that for Sunak given your green card and your wifeās opting for non UK domicile?
āFairnessā well what is fair about paying circa Ā£35k PA for education at Winchester and marrying some one worth circa 1/2 Ā£billion who elected to be non dom to save Ā£millions? The world will never be fair mate get over it. What is āfairā about different tax and expenses rules for your wife and youself as an MP – that are not available to other tax payers? Or inheriting hundreds of Ā£millions
āhard workā well with Ā£millions this is not quite so demanding as for others with nothing but when you do work it is best not to do totally the wrong things – manifesto ratting, extended lockdowns, eat out to help out, HS2, net zero, vast tax increases, devaluing the Ā£ and your endless waste of tax payers money everywhere Mr Sunak.
July 12, 2022
Great post L/L.
July 12, 2022
Mark B,
Bitter experience shapes ones view of what is on offer even if they have all been carefully vetted by Conservative Central office.
They are a shower. Many will be beholden to the interests of wealthy globalists. We will never get someone concerned about the nation state like Victor Orban.
George Carlinās view in āThe American Dreamā still holds good.
People will continue to elect āthese rich (expletive deleted) who donāt give a (expletive deleted) about them. At all.
July 12, 2022
We need a leader that represents the views of the referendum result and the voting conservative majority at the last electionā¦..stop trying to be all things to all men; stop trying to unite the country; stop trying to please in international community; and stop appeasing the woke left
July 12, 2022
The (western) Roman empire got through nine emperors (Petronius Maximus,Avitus,Majorian,Libius Severus,Anthemius,Olybrius,Glycerius,Julius Nepos and Romulus Augustulus)in it’s final two decades (455-476).All were to varying degrees useless;no-one remembers their names any more(except for Romulus-and then only because he was the last and had a faintly ridiculous name)and there was only a ghost empire,beset by multiplying problems and mutinous minions, to nominally rule.
At least Cameron,May and Johnson got out alive.I believe the Ukraine war will prove to be the final end of the British Empire.
July 12, 2022
Mark – interesting though your comments usually are, our host has many others to read, and some will always be rejected. No doubt you think yours are much too important for such rejection – but it’s Sir J’s blog, after all.
July 12, 2022
I have read many posts such as yours and, until it starts happening to you you will not understand. The one good thing though, comments like yours were common place after I made my remarks. Not anymore š
July 12, 2022
Some candidates place more emphasis on their ability to win an election than doing what is best for the country.
It is similar to the attitude of criminals who opine that the reason not to steal is the risk of being caught, instead of the more important one that stealing is wrong.
We do need a winner, both of the Conservative leadership election and the later re-election of a Conservative govt, but most of all we need what is best for everyone.
July 12, 2022
The ability to win the next election is vital. Labour/SNP/Libdims would be a disaster and they would likely change voting to over 16s, probably to PR and give another vote on breaking up the union. Likely to give us many years of evil socialism and dire government.
To win the next election we need someone who can deliver the following:- Ditch net zero, cut the size of government hugely, cut the vast government waste, undo Sunakās manifesto ratting, cut taxes hugely, have a bonfire of red tape, sort out the generally appalling public services. have a criminal justice system and police force that actually deters crime, scrap HS2, scrap the bonkers attacks on landlords and thus tenants, control the borders and deter illegal immigration, scrap the ECHR, get fracking/mining/drilling & a sensible energy policy, vast tax simplification, give top up education vouchers rather than a rigged state only education system, get a level playing field between the dire NHS and private provision to encourage more private provision to lighten the load on the NHS, relax planning and the OTT green crap building regulation to get sufficient houses built, cut all the woke crap and government propaganda, deal with the appallingly biased BBC etc.
None of the candidates even come close to this.
July 12, 2022
Suella Braverman has at least said she will scrap Boris/Carrie & Mayās moronic net zero but would parliament even allow this sensible change?
July 12, 2022
I doubt it.
July 12, 2022
Sunak: not credible to promise lower taxes and higher spending
Indeed so why keep spending or rather pissing money down the drain Sunak.
Sunak: on tax cuts āit is not a case of if but whenā well you ratted on the last manifest promises why on would anyone trust you to deliver tax cuts after the next 2024 election? You would probably lose or cheat again.
Sunak: āToo many women and girls do not enjoy the freedoms that most men take for granted in feeing safe from assault and abuse.ā Well they and you Sunak should perhaps look at the stats as women are far less likely to be attacked or murdered (about 1/3 of the risk of men). We would all feel safer if we had decent policing, criminal justice systems and mental health provisions but we do not. We leave them mainly in the community to repeat offend.
July 12, 2022
At this stage they are playing to the gallery – ie MP’s whose seats depend on them winning elections. That is why they went for the current incumbent even though it was obvious the man was not suitable for public office.
July 12, 2022
‘unelected governing establishment’.
I like the truth especially when it’s delivered by an elected member of Parliament. We need much more of ‘the truth’ to expose the politically driven destruction of democratic governance we are have had to suffer since 1997
On a personal level, I couldn’t care less who Tory MPs decide to install as their leader. I only know one thing, the moral world that I thought I knew doesn’t exist. It’s been consumed by a brutal ideology that sees life and freedom as an inconvenience
July 12, 2022
+many
AND I think it sees humanity as a rather inconvenient obstacle to āsaving the planetā. People no longer count in this bizarre pretence that the world is about to disappear in a gigantic puff of CO2.
July 12, 2022
Good words DOM
July 12, 2022
I think we can all be forgiven for feeling somewhat wary or frankly jaded.
It isnāt a very pleasant experience to put oneās trust in a leader only to find one has been āled up the garden pathā.
And then to find oneās whole universe, oneās āreal worldā a changed and much more unpleasant place.
July 12, 2022
“to put oneās trust in a leader”. This is not the traditional way. Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee were “primus inter pares” – team players who chose a talented cabinet which was small enough to give excellent advice. Only recently has “No 10” become the centre of government. So who advises the leader? – the eternal question. Is it the hairdresser? The taxi driver/chauffeur? The gardener? Or one intimate friend?
July 12, 2022
‘ āled up the garden pathā.’
By one, then May, now Johnson….what next?
Trust and actually carrying out publically sworn intentions in the campaigning should be key.
The elephant is the next GE, get this wrong and the Party will be blown away.
July 12, 2022
Based on the last two incumbents ..or actually we now see ALL of them stretching way back ( probably not Mrs T though)ā¦how on earth can we tell if they have the integrity to DO AS THEY SAY THEY WILL DO?
And now, because govt. is so much more intrusive what they actually do matters a great deal.
July 12, 2022
Yes Mrs T also.
She is not without blame for the wanton destruction and managed decline of the nation in all areas.
The nation just as a business opportunity and nothing more. Anyone can wave a flag for appearance sake.
So I think your first assessment of ALL is nearer the mark.
July 12, 2022
Cuibono,
āhow on earth can we tell if they have the integrity to DO AS THEY SAY THEY WILL DO?ā
You canāt.
Based on previous PMs they will either fail to act or pursue policies that were not prominent in their election campaign.
July 12, 2022
Peter. Exactly. I see Meghan and Harry are going to speak at the UN. Bigger hypocrites it’s hard to find.
July 12, 2022
Look around at our āreal worldā and see what leaders have done to us over the past 50 years.
We are right to be VERY cautious indeed!!
Things are already set to get worseā¦much worse.
July 12, 2022
And the betrayal will go on. Look what’s happening in Sri Lanka and mainland Europe over net zero policies.
The Euro is in free fall but still the tories will plough on with the same failed policies.
We need a proper conservative to lead us.
July 12, 2022
I’ve just been following the runners nd riders for the PMs job. It would appear that anyone with true conservative values is going to be sidelined.
I very much feL we are going to be saddled with Sunak and Tugenhadt both who will lose you the next election.
Braverman would probably trounce Sunak in the run off so she must be buried.
Another act of self harm by the tory party.
July 12, 2022
+1
It is probably for the best that they are trounced.
July 12, 2022
In Wragg,
as usual you are badly informed the EURO is not in free fall but is loosing value compared to the US dollar for the moment as is the case for all currencies except the Rouble
July 13, 2022
Wrong bill
Euro v Dollar down near 20% in a year.
Hitting its lowest level since 2002.
July 14, 2022
UKĀ£ vs US$: 1.40 one year ago, 1.18 this Monday, hitting its lowest level since 15 April 1985.
Which indicates that bill might be right, donāt you think?
Do you ever check before writing your āasinine statementā.
(macrotrends.net āPound Dollar Exchange Rate, Historical chartā)
reply Pound up against Euro
July 12, 2022
Sri Lanka went green…then it went broke
July 14, 2022
Economic mismanagement and corruption, certainly. āGreeneryā, I doubt it.
But you might be an avid reader of prophecytracker.org. Or is it of the independentsentinel.com?
reuters.com , news.yahoo.com or abcnews.go.com do not quote anything green as the reason for the troubles, but funnily enough tax cuts that had to be reversed.
July 12, 2022
Well they have put up taxes to the highest level for 70+ years, often lowered living standards, delivered open door low skilled immigration, delivered generally appalling and declining public services, delivered rip off energy prices, blocked the roadsā¦
July 12, 2022
In short they delivered far to much largely parasitic government largely living off the backs of most real workers.
July 12, 2022
āI wonāt make families pay for net zero, vows Zahawi
Chancellor pledges to put tackling households bills before UK carbon cutting aims if he becomes PMā
They already have done! As a science graduate (albeit Chemistry @ UCL) Zahawi has probably managed to work out what a hugely damaging, rip off, pointless con trick Net Zero actually is.
July 12, 2022
I see reported that UBER spent ~ Ā£90 million on ālobbyingā the government and regulators in France.
But if you look at the net zero agenda and so many other areas it is surely clear that very similar ālobbyingā is going on all over the place. Why else would we get such appalling laws and such deluded governments? The EU evem worse and UK is little better – follow the money. Is this perhaps why they make no serious attempt to deter channel and other migrants.
So Nadine drops out and supports the ex-remainer/Libdem Lizz Truss together with Rees-Mogg. Where does Truss stand on tax cuts, net zero, migrants, undoing the manifest ratting, bonfires of red tape. Oh well a better bet than Sunak I suppose just!
July 12, 2022
Every second ad on facebook is promoting EVs…..billions have been spent, billions will continue to be spent…..and they expect a return on their investment
July 12, 2022
Well like the Canadian truckers, the Dutch farmers have caught on.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/are-angry-dutch-farmers-spearheading-an-uprising-against-the-elites/
July 12, 2022
Actually things have got very dramatically better in most – but not all – respects over the last 50 years.
July 12, 2022
It can be enlightening to read about each candidate on Wikipedia. There, their respective track records before the leadership campaign are set out. Here for example is part of the entry for Suella Braverman:
‘Braverman has described herself as a “child of the British Empire”. Her parents, who were from Mauritius and Kenya, came to the UK “with an admiration and gratitude for what Britain did for Mauritius and Kenya, and India”. She believes that on the whole, “the British Empire was a force for good”.
‘Braverman stands on the right wing of the Conservative Party, is a hardline Brexiteer, and supports sending cross-Channel migrants to Rwanda. She has said, “If I get trolled and I provoke a bad response on Twitter I know I’m doing the right thing. Twitter is a sewer of left-wing bile. The extreme left pile on is often a consequence of sound conservative values.” ‘
July 12, 2022
Another shibboleth to run past the leadership aspirants: would you attend the WEF at Davos?
July 12, 2022
Yes, writing off all candidates, political naivety and ignoring people with real strengths.
Re your last paragraph, Cameron, May, Johnson, soft Right (BJ centre left) PMs all succumbed re Brexit but also economically, obvious to the electorate and a fundamental reason why people have zero trust.
Nevertheless little pushback from MPs, the power of the payroll plus the odd scrap thrown to those who are not on it means that once the Executive is established the die is cast not forgetting that you are not in the majority within the parliamentary party.
It seems not widely understood but managing the Tory MPs is like herding cats from the One Nation to the Spartans and PM has to hold it all together.
The position Boris has left you in politically and why has already forced thinking to tack right as we see by the regular espousal of Thatcherite values. A Lib Dem/Labour election alliance piles even more pressure on you as that would take much of your centre ground.
Accordingly you on the right need to seek answers re pushing back against the unelecteds and then coordinate and gather behind the candidate with the most strength. If you stay fragmented you will let in a compromise candidate and nothing will have changed.
My MP Leo Docherty is for Kemi Badenoch. We didnāt see eye to eye re Boris but on this I am with him.
In nature vigorous seemingly over harsh pruning, fire or a cull is needed to re invigorate and encourage new growth.
Your party needs the same.
July 12, 2022
As far as I know, up to now none of the candidates has openly asserted the superiority of international law over the sovereignty of our national Parliament. I read here:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jul/03/germany-and-ireland-denounce-boris-johnsons-bid-to-ditch-northern-ireland-protocol
“While the UKās proposals passed their latest parliamentary vote last week, more than 70 Tory MPs abstained or were given permission to miss the vote. The proposals were also criticised as breaching international law by former PM Theresa May. Other senior figures not to cast a vote included the former Northern Ireland secretaries Julian Smith and Karen Bradley, and Johnsonās former attorney-general, Geoffrey Cox.”
I would have thought there should be at least one who was prepared to be the leadership candidate standing up for international law and pledging to halt this “illegal” Bill. Perhaps not Theresa May, but surely there are others who could make their bid for leadership?
Reply All the candidates say they support the NI protocol Bill and agree with the government that is entirely legal.
July 12, 2022
Your final pargaraph is excellent. It captures the genuine whiny tone of Brexit. Always the victim, always a new grievance. You won the referendum, you have had a Conservative government for 12 years, but you will never be happy. Because you despise reality
July 12, 2022
It is lefty rejoiners like you Gary who despise reality.
We left the EU.
Your socialist ambitions have been thwarted.
July 12, 2022
We mustnāt forget Mrs Thatcher was a grocers daughter looked down on by much of the Tory establishment. Heseltine still resenting her and spouting pro EU propaganda. It took them three elections to get their own back.
Cometh the hour, cometh the woman or man.
July 12, 2022
On the whole the sort of person who would even stand to be leader is unsuitable for that reason. However, it might be wise to elect someone with a few Conservative policies because those running with Labour policies won’t attract any Labour voters.
July 12, 2022
The leadership race at the moment seems to be largely about which taxes to reduce and when. Promising tax cuts is easy. I would like to hear just one of these candidates articulate a coherent and realistic vision that chimes with what most people outside of middle class London want, with a timed plan for implementation of well defined policy changes to deliver that vision in the 2 years to the next election and in the 5 years beyond. But that would require taking on vested interests and a modicum of guts and patriotism, essentials which none of the candidates are displaying.
July 12, 2022
At last several of the candidates have got round to saying the size of government must be reduced (and some say the efficiency of what remains must also be increased) in addition to relying on some growth from cutting taxes. It is a question of which ones you believe, that is who would be both capable of and want to endure the trouble of delivering that and who is just mouthing all this as a route to achieving their personal ambition of power. On those terms the only ones I have any confidence in are Suella Braverman and just maybe Nadhim Zahawi.
July 12, 2022
‘What is best for the country’ is a comment I endorse, but it must include the whole country. Recently, there has been too much bandwagon hopping, and appeasement of minorities at the expense of the majority. Lets have equality for all and more democracy, where the majority are not ignored on many, if not most, issues.
July 12, 2022
Sir John, you say that the PM is ‘circumscribed’ by an unelected governing establishment. Let’s put it in plain English: he’s told what to do by them. In the case of Mr and Mrs Johnson, captured by them as well.
If that is the real world in which you say we must live, I wonder what you think is potentially up for change. In my view, almost all the policies your government has pursued over the last two years or so should be up for change, but the unelected establishment doesn’t want them to change. It wants to go on governing as it has been doing, imposing disastrous measures that have massively damaged people’s livelihoods and future prospects, in the interests of the 1%.
I am among those posting comments on this site who don’t see any sign from the 12 candidates that they recognise what you do, and will tell us how they intend to restore this country to being an electoral democracy.
July 12, 2022
To provide best for the future you need to take account of what happened in the past.
You have a whole group of former cabinet people who either were directly or indirectly complicit in loading us up on tax, lockdowns, high inflation and some stupid green policies.
We need a Fresh Start candidate, or as close to that as we can get.
July 12, 2022
We do not get to choose a leader though John do we.
The Conservative Mp’s do the selection, and the Conservative Party members vote for one of those, who is put forward.
Thus we are in the hands of the Conservative Mp’s, we can only hope you all make the right choice, which we can only hope is based on personal knowledge of ability, work ethic, integrity as you have outlined, and not on the wish of a job.
July 12, 2022
Within the process it will be interesting to see the extent to which the parliamentary party is in accord with the conservative party at large and how much this aligns with the electorate as a whole. The parliamentary party, being in my judgement, the ones likely to get it wrong. because they are a very divide entity.
July 12, 2022
I think the names the MPs eventually vote to put to the membership will be Sunak and Mordaunt; or possibly Sunak and Zahawi.
And it really doesn’t matter because whilst it may be a test of character and political skill I very much doubt there will be anything much in the way of two competing programmes since the WEF is effectively governing this country and none of the candidates will ignore the WEF.
So they’ll all promise to “Build Back Better.” Rather like they are doing in The Netherlands at the moment.
None of them will pledge to do what is really at the root of all our problems: Reform the Governmental Institutions (Civil Service, House of Frauds, Devolution, FPTP) which have served us so badly for the past two decades (and in the case of the Civil Service, for far longer).
July 12, 2022
Donna :
Agreed.
July 12, 2022
Also Agree
July 12, 2022
I hope that your party will choose a laissez faire candidate who will resist the urge to meddle. We need fewer laws not more and a steady hand on the tiller not one that moves wildly with the perceived tide.
I want to see less importance given to focus groups and Twitter storms, we in the real world just get on with it based on our convictions. Government should do the same.
Those who served in Johnson’s cabinets are tarred with his brush and evidently went along with his policies – please consider this when choosing a candidate Sir John.
July 12, 2022
This unappealing and unpleasant “need to live in the real world” requires us to accept there is no much needed second Thatcher in the offing. Let us at least hope for one with vision and grip who recognizes what is ailing in this country. At present they all seem too keen to outbid each other in offering tax cuts, bar Rishi obviously who created the need.
July 12, 2022
It’s a pity my two picks, Sir John Redwood and Jacob Rees-Mogg, aren’t standing.
July 12, 2022
Good job the latter isn’t standing – he is used to lolling about in the chamber.
July 12, 2022
Heās also busy reminding MPs that we had a referendum in 2016ā¦.and weād better start doing something about it
July 12, 2022
Conservative Home did a members poll, Penny Mordaunt, Kemi Badenoch, Rishi Sunak, Suella Bravermanā¦
Will the powers that be, allow any of those in the top four get in? Sunak seems the MPs favouriteā¦so yes, him, probably!
Cynicism? Or learning from previous experienceā¦.?
July 12, 2022
Cuibono
spot on
July 12, 2022
The new leader needs integrity, initiative and inspiration. Johnson had the inspiration but lacked the other two, May had the integrity and if she had any initiative it was of the wrong-headed type.
If the Conservative Party could find someone with these three characteristics, can you imagine the envy from his fellows? Such a person would be roundly rejected.
July 12, 2022
As it seems you Sir JR are not standing, I’m drawn to Liz Truss. Kemi Badenoch also talks more sense than most.
But I will not be surprised if we end up with Rishi Sunak. His appalling incompetence as Chancellor sets him up nicely for the job………….
July 12, 2022
they follow the money !
July 12, 2022
I am not hopeful of seeing any change, never mind improvement, regardless of whoever is chosen as leader.
We have been lied to and duped for so long that, (as is clear from the comments here), all trust is lost.
Either the majority of our politicians are corrupt or incompetent. Even, the theory about them being under the control of the WEF is starting to sound plausible !
July 12, 2022
I see the weather is due to continue warm for the next couple of weeks with one possibly rather hot day. We are after all in the middle of the summer. So what do we have? Hysterical headlines and official warnings about a āheat health emergencyā. There must be 10s of thousands of people in the public pay promulgating this and other hysteria who would be far better employed doing something useful – like supplying goods or services to other people which they pay for voluntarily because they find them useful.
Thatās the way to get tax cuts – stop wasting taxpayersā money.
July 12, 2022
Richard1 :
Agreed. Far more people die from cold than heat.
July 12, 2022
It is such a shame that No 10 seems to be completely detached from parliament now. It lives in its own little world and makes decisions (climate change, Ukraine, Covid) and then imposes them on the Cabinet. This is very dangerous indeed because it is asking to pander to minorities. It does make it easy for journalists though to “blame Boris”. I hope the next leader will haunt the tea rooms like Harold Macmillan and find out from the MPs what the incredibly sensible British public (we understood covid perfectly from the very beginning) wants and needs.
July 12, 2022
I doubt the No.10 incumbent actually made the decisions re. Covid or Climate Change. He appears to have been doing as ordered by the Globalists/WEF and ‘er indoors.
I don’t necessarily think that applies to Ukraine.
July 12, 2022
It’s a bit unfair to tell us to get in the real world John. We are just the voters who put their trust in someone they think is going to be honest, patriotic and stick to their manifesto promised. So far recently we have had Cameron who walked away when he didnt get what he wanted, Mrs May who was less than economical with the truth and Johnson who was frankly the worst of the lot. Most of us are just humble people trying to make the best of life. Most are hard working and life is tough for many. We don’t need a load of over priviliged MP’S saying one thing and doing another especially when we find out many are doing their utmost to pay the least tax possible here while some people can’t pay their bills even though they have more than one job. Your party really has just one chance left to save the party and the country.
Reply Yes you are the voters, and important for being so. You chose and voted for the MPs currently in Parliament who now have to choose one as PM.
July 12, 2022
reply to reply … and recent history has shown what poor judges the voters have been, or that the people available turned out to be so poor.
July 12, 2022
Thank you for your reply. Yes I am aware of this but quite honestly there is little to choose between you all and from reading your diaries I sense even you are exasperated with some in your party.
July 12, 2022
We know that the next PM will be an existing MP and that he/she will have to be acceptable to both wings of your party, JR. That is why we despair at getting the courageous leadership needed to tackle the problems besetting this country. It is more likely we will get a ‘steady hand on the tiller’ as the course towards the rocks is maintained.
July 12, 2022
For what it is worth, for me the main contenders come down to Liz Truss and Penny Maudant ( the latter a confirmed Brexiteer and the former a converted Brexiteer ). Liz Truss is the more experienced ( UK Minister and international negotiator ) but I believe Penny Maudant has terrific credentials which she can use to grow into the job and her personal life experiences will give her the backbone to overcome challenges. Penny has well publicised policies which sit comfortably with me, a Leaver, and I suspect with many conservative
( C & c ) orientated voters. I would be happy with either.
When Rishi burst on to the scene I thought he was likely to be the next Conservative leader but his stint as Chancellor has not been impressive. He needed to have had greater control of furlough payments to avoid fraud and his choice to increase Nat Ins contributions and agree an international level of increased corporation tax has been lamentable.
David Javid’s “leadership” statement in the Hse of Commons after his resignation has left a bad taste and whilst I did think he may have been a safe pair of hands and a possible future Conservative leader then I’m less inclined to think so now.
Liz Truss and Penny Maudant will be had to beat in a fairly run race. A female leader may restore a little calm to those Conservative MPs who have been eating red meat for far to long.
July 12, 2022
I think we need someone with real Conservative values and beliefs as our next leader. This basic requirement was absent from the last three leaders.
Low tax, small government, pro education and enterprise and someone who loves the UK.
We need a leader who will implement the advantages, opportunities and benefits being free of the EU project affords us.
Reduce the influence of single issue groups and reign back the woke agenda. Force the BBC to fulfil it’s charter.
July 12, 2022
The last paragraph sums up the whole problem. When political leaders and parties change there should be some alterations in the composition of the unelected governing establishment to enable changes to be introduced. Like the last cabinet there are too many of the U G E with there own secret agenda’s that influence decisions. Will the new PM have the handles of the dump valves to open them to drain the swamp once and for all?
July 12, 2022
I was hoping for a critique of the candidates along the lines of the one on Sunak yesterday.
We can easily work out which ones you are not supporting from this piece but we really want to know, from your in-depth knowledge of seeing them in action at Westminster, who you actually favour.
No reason to hold back when, presumably, your not expecting a cabinet post ?
July 12, 2022
You clearly set out the Machievellian considerations that should be in the minds of those welding a vote. For those of us on the sidelines it’s easy to be unrealistic.
Of course, in reality it’s a compromise, and you can only chose from that select group of MPs who put themselves forward. I wish you well.
July 12, 2022
Do we need a PM really?.
Perhaps a computer-generated virtual image PM would suffice.
July 12, 2022
Well, there is the tele prompted one in the US!
July 13, 2022
Yes but there are some ‘software’ errors in it.
š
July 12, 2022
We don’t yet have the definitive list of candidates, so I will not yet make my choice. I read however in the Times that Patel has FROZEN all flights to Rwanda, until a new leader is elected. There was NO NEED whatsoever for her to do this, so she clearly does not fully support this policy and therefore she CANNOT be the next PM.
July 12, 2022
Have any taken off yet?
July 12, 2022
Mark Steyn, GB News, last night had a very helpful table of where all the candidates stand on several key issues. I’m reproducing it here:
Candidate EU HS2 Vaccine Passports Net Zero
Badenoch Leave Support Support Support
Braverman Leave Support Support AGAINST
Hunt Remain Support Support Support
Javid Remain Support Support Support
Kwarteng Leave Support Support Support
Mordaunt Leave Support AGAINST Support
Shapps Remain Support Support Support
Sunak Leave Support Support Support
Truss Remain AGAINST Support AGAINST
Tugendhat Remain Support AGAINST Support
Zahawi Leave Support Support Support
Unfortunately, Steyn didn’t include their positions on tax and squander …… but Sunak is lead tax/squander and most of the others are claiming to support tax cuts (not that you can believe a word they say).
The main thing to take from this breakdown (ignoring the Leave/Remain vote since we are now out of the EU) is that on these issues there is hardly a scrap of difference politically between Badenoch, Hunt, Javid, Kwarteng, Shapps, Sunak and Zahawi. We will just get more of the same with a different face.
Truss appears to be the most independent thinker. Mordaunt supports the Net Zero lunacy.
It will be interesting to see who makes the final two …… and how they adjust their positions. ie Mordaunt has already backtracked on her Woke/Trans position.
July 12, 2022
Any real Conservative should be for Leave, Against HS2, Against Vaccine Passport, Against Net Zero and they should be in favour of real border controls and cutting taxes and the size of the largely parasitic state. This is also where most voters are!
So non get more than two from the four right! Only two against the evil, vastly expensive, dangerous, pointless and totally absurd con trick of Net Zero.
July 12, 2022
Indeed the Conservative Party members and the voting public do not want Sunak one little bit. Green card, very rich, out of touch, a huge tax increaser, a manifesto ratter, wife a tax avoider of Ā£millions (legally of course), a net zero, vaccine passport and HS2 enthusiast.
July 12, 2022
Beaverton comes out best and also had the intelligence to make her own mind up. Her chances of being selected are therefore zero. Conservative MPs are mainly yes to all questions.
July 13, 2022
I don’t think any MP will vote for Beaverton, but 20 must have voted for Braverman.
July 12, 2022
9 contenders, 4 questions each & so 36 questions but only 9 correct answers. A monkey would have scored 18 right on average. Only two would be leaders got the average monkey score of two, the rest scores 1/4 or 0/4 totally pathetic!
July 13, 2022
LL, I assume the ācorrect answersā are Leave to EU, and Against to the other three questions. In which case, out of a possible 36 answers the set of contenders got 11 right.
If to be as good as a monkey a contender must get at least two right
Braverman has two (EU, Net Zero)
Mordaunt has two (EU, Vaccine passport)
Truss has two (HS2, Net Zero)
So thatās three would be leaders passing the monkey test.
I am not sure what your comment says about your statistical āprowessā. Would āpatheticā be a good way to characterise it?
July 12, 2022
Reads like a Labour Party list
July 12, 2022
‘reading the public mood’.
The last 3 PMs and sheep like Cabinet have got this hopelessly wrong. Is that down to feedback from local Party membership, SPADs or close confidents/spouses?
July 12, 2022
‘the new PM will be an existing Conservative MP’
The candidate list all individually start talking about ‘left’ & ‘right’, as if it is some badge or medal.
The Conservative Party in recent years have positioned themselves somewhere to the ‘left’ of the Socialist Labour Party. Both in fiscal policy and state control. Then there is the assumption of experience in Government, everything done by the executive (the Cabinet) is a collective decision, so the candidates are in the main also part of the problem. They have conspired to bring the country to its knees. Although Boris gave the illusion of being a Head of State his day to day power came from those he surrounded himself with, those that were involved cant hide from that.
So looking in the round at the candidate as to what we the People are going to be awarded with, it will NOT be a Conservative as PM.
July 12, 2022
+1
July 12, 2022
Whoever is installed Iām not holding my breath that things are going to improve any time soon.
Iām encouraged to see that the farmers in Holland and Italy are taking to the streets and the overthrow of the Sri Lankan president.
Iāve just been reading Walker RN and I wonder if he were still alive what he and his generation would make of Britain today?
July 12, 2022
I feel that it is essential that you choose a woman because the world seems to be going through a very strange phase.
I do not hope to find another Thatcher, but I think a woman would be better able to fight the battles that need to be fought. And yes, they will be battles.
Who knows shat laws a Labour/LibDem/SNP coalition government would pass to ensure a Conservative Party never got elected again? Look across to the USA to see what the appalling Democrats are up to. Incompetent socialist idiots have conspired with Big Tech to get a demented old fool elected. Opponents, ‘civilians’ and politicians, are branded terrorists and the power of the State set upon them.
Lets hope what is happening to Putin dissuades Jinping from invading Taiwan or WWIII will be on the horizon as Big Tech in the USA will find a way of nuking China to protect its chips.
July 12, 2022
Has that ever really been the case? It sounds nice on pamphlets and in interviews, but the Tories have only ever had one goal in mind when choosing a leader – TO WIN THE NEXT ELECTION.
working behind the scenes, appears to have a great deal of authority and influence, as we keep hearing. Are we ever going to see this element brought under democratic control, or do we voters have to live with it, knowing full well that our voting intentions are watered down and altered by unknown hands?
Let’s get this out into the open – for those of us who have realised what enormous control is exerted on us by unelected globalist organisations. THIS leadership election is about whether we succumb totally to the new world order or whether we stand up as a nation, and say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
To quote a famous SF film: WE will not go quietly into the night!
July 12, 2022
Typical Holywood trash misquoting Dylan Thomas.
July 12, 2022
Sir JR
We have had three years of the so-called Brexit freedom with no positive results.
On the NI protocol which we proposed we have only been able to antagonise our European friends and a majority in NI.
We need a radical change at the top.
Is the Conservative party able to deliver?
July 12, 2022
I cast my eyes around but fail to identify European friends – please advise.
July 12, 2022
There was a couple seating at a restaurant in Gibraltar that where a bit confused by the whole NI protocol ā¦.the rest of Europe couldnāt give a damn
July 13, 2022
Denmark Norway Sweden Finland Iceland Baltic States Greenland Faroes
July 13, 2022
Add them all together and still less than Germany and France in economic and political power terms
July 13, 2022
Bill, you know we haven’t had three years at all.
1. We didn’t leave fully until Dec 2020 The transition period started on 1 February 2020, and ended on 31 December 2020 during the transition period, the UK continued to be treated by the EU as a Member State and EU law continues to apply in the UK. This meant that the UK continued to participate in the EU Customs Union and the Single Market four freedoms (free movement of goods, persons, services and capital). So we have had 18 months at most as we were tied in before the end of the transition period and had a divorce payment to make from 2016 as commitments were made prior to the vote.
2. We have been through an unprecedented global pandemic closing down the country for months on end, furloughed workers for 18 months.
3. The NHS got their rise from the side of the bus May gave it to them immediately; what little good that has done. “The NHS in England is to get an extra Ā£20bn a year by 2023 as a 70th “birthday present”, Theresa May – Thatās Ā£394 million more a week by 2023/24, which is when our payments to the EU reduce. Mrs May has suggested that post-Brexit this money for the NHS would come, at least in part, from money previously sent to the EU.
July 12, 2022
If “two competing programmes” are put to the membership of the Conservative party, presumably neither of those will be the 2019 Conservative manifesto. If so, then whoever wins should go to the country to attempt to gain a mandate for that programme.
Whoever gets selected will be the third PM in a row (and 4th out of the last 5) to get there by winning a party leadership election rather than a general election.
July 12, 2022
I have seen an alternative suggestion for how the new leader/PM is chosen.
1, All the candidates are put on the next flight to Rwanda.
2, Once they arrive, they have their passports taken away, they are each given some cash and they are left to their own devices.
3, First one to get back to 10 Downing St is the next PM.
Maybe it could even be turned into a reality TV show.
July 12, 2022
Good idea. Then we’d find out how competent they REALLY are when they haven’t got legions of SpAds and Civil Serpants telling them what to do.
July 12, 2022
A typical and ridiculous Lib Dem type policy
July 12, 2022
Which of the candidates are in cohorts with the establishment already sabotaging Brexit? Names need to be heard.
July 12, 2022
Kemi spoke honourably of truth, and Suella worthily, in kind. But will they be as lilies among thorns?
July 12, 2022
Can they lie as convincingly as the men?
July 12, 2022
Two candidates will be offered to the membership. I think this is wrong and why duffers always get through. Have you learned nothing over the last 30 years? It is the same with General Elections, we are offered the choice of who the party select and we must decide who we don’t want, rather than who we do, a negative way of doing it. No new leader until 5th September? Really? It would cut the time required with this long winded process if after the first round the no-hopers were disposed of with a higher bar and the rest, maybe half a dozen were put to the membership – after all we are only talking of a couple of hundred thousand votes nationwide, if everyone votes. We are going to get a PM we probably don’t want or who has already failed (Rishi). According to Con Home he is lying third but will probably get in to continue his wrecking of the economy because of course, politicians take no account of members or the public, but who is likely to benefit them personally.
July 12, 2022
Since the root of our present economic crisis is the cost and reliability of energy I am looking for the candidate that will ditch the present Net Zero plan and get to a more realistic position. Anything else is second order.
July 12, 2022
Regarding net zero and food security, the candidates might want to consider the protests currently underway in Holland:
https://www.newsweek.com/popular-uprising-against-elites-has-gone-global-opinion-1722653
It appears the farmers have widespread support from ordinary Dutch voters.
July 12, 2022
“The other truth is the unelected governing establishment will be looking to circumscribe or control an incoming Prime Minister.”
I would have thought there is a good argument for any incoming Government to have the option of replacing the top civil service management.
July 12, 2022
Questions for leading Britain as PM:-
1. Can we trust you?
2. Did you vote for Brexit?
3. Can you deliver the 2019 manifesto?
4. What are your economic & STEM achievements?
5. What are your priorities at home and abroad?
6. What will you do to turn the country around?
7. How do you get things done and avoid paralysis?
8. What will your legacy be?
July 12, 2022
Yes Mark B, and in each case, the four in 12years, ideologically and morally bankrupt.
July 12, 2022
Irrelevant who becomes Leader . We will get the same Net Zero tripe and vaccine lies plus more war on Russia with Ukrainian blood being the price our politicians are happy to pay . No hope of anything good from your party or the other lot . The future looks frightening !
July 12, 2022
Another factor, rarely stated, is the ability of a leader to attract donations to keep the party machine going. Much as I may like a candidate and a party at a general election if I don’t even get a leaflet through the door or any other contact at all I would be definitely less likely to vote for them. I am sure I am not alone in this.
As you say Sir John we have to live in the real world and sometimes one positive aspect of a leader may compensate for other aspects.
It is interesting to think back to how Margaret Thatcher actually endorsed John Major when she was forced to resign. At least you stepped up when John Major “resigned” – even though, sadly, you didn’t win then it kept the pressure on. I always think of “Cones Hotline” when thinking of those wasted years.
It seems western democracy is currently going through a period of crisis – with Macron having to face a vote of no confidence yesterday too.
How did we get here?
July 12, 2022
“…would they be confident enough to recruit a talented team of Ministers?” unlike Johnson? “It is important the MPs present two candidates to the membership and that both agree to fight a good campaign to give members a clear choice.” Not another stitch-up as with the globalists’ choice, May.
July 12, 2022
Perhaps you could enter the contest Sir John?
July 12, 2022
If any politician, and especially a PM candidate, starts any policy sentence with āāwe need to have a conversationā¦.āā Is trying to emulate the Blairite style of government and shouldnāt be trusted
I’ve heard the term ”we need to have a conversation..” quite a few times this morning
July 12, 2022
Political speak meaning ‘ of course voices can be raised, but will carry no weight whatsoever, we will do what is written by our masters anyway’.
July 12, 2022
Sunak is xxxx. Sunak could never have achieved Brexit nor resolved an immensely divided country and party. He could never have achieved the biggest Conservative majority since 1987, successfully combatted Covid, nor effectively dealt with the challenges of the SNP and EU. He would never have delivered the global leadership, friendship and help to the terrified and suffering people of Ukraine either. It takes a gifted person with very rare qualities to judge these complexities correctly and to deliver the solutions to them too. It is therefore heaven-sent we had Boris at this time and not Sunak. In my opinion the best candidate now is Liz Truss. She has good judgement, is a more nuance version of Margaret Thatcher, is trustworthy and was never disloyal to Boris when the arrivistes and conspirators in the Conservative Party ganged up on him. I put a bet on her to win last night and if I can assist her in any way to win I will.
July 12, 2022
@ Paul Freedman – that would be the same Liz Truss who was made to look a fool by Lavrov over references to Voronezh and Rostov? And the same who thought dressing up to look reminiscent of M. Thatcher’s style and perching on top of a tank was a good idea, somehow revealing her credentials for something?
July 12, 2022
The Process is basically undemocratic. The People are not electing the PM or even the cabinet. We don’t have a say really which persons govern us.
ON the assumption we elect a Potitical party and an MP then all MP’s of that party should be put before the public for a vote.
The PM is chosen on the basis of what is best for the party not what is best for the country or public opinion.
1 vote for Redwood āŗ
July 12, 2022
The last four Tory PMs – Major, Cameron, MY, Johnson – are as responsible as Blair and Brown for the dire state of this country. Your faith in Tory PMs is touching. And completely illogical.
July 12, 2022
you mean mistaken? Rather like the rest of us!
July 12, 2022
Kemi Badenoch is communicating (e.g. her speech today) but the BBC has hardly mentioned her.
There is no point in communicating when the main national broadcaster has its own political agenda.
Sir John, you know exactly what I mean!
July 12, 2022
I agree Sir John, choice involves compromise. However with the last three Prime Ministers, the choice enabled the most dire un-conservative leaders to take office. The choice of the parliamentary party and members was not in the interests of the country imo and has resulted in a great deal of harm and suffering to the British people with the climate and energy policies, high taxation, socialism, out of control immigration and non conservatism the norm.
We should expect better. It is as if whatever dire international plan is hatched by lefties in Marxist world organisations must be foisted on us. The UK interests never top the agenda. Either something is wrong with the selection process or the whole electoral system needs reform.
In other news, the Dutch farmers protests gain ever greater momentum as their government attempts to force WEF climate policies on them and put many out of business. I note that none of our media or the BBC ever mention it. It is a taboo subject, like vaccine dammage.
July 12, 2022
As you say, BOF, the government/media currently allow little or no opposition to the dominant policy directions – Net zero, mass immigration, state support for the pharmaceutical industry, inflationary state spending, military confrontation etc.
How is a future Prime Minister who wanted to change direction to deal with this challenge?
Unquestionably, a vital first step in reshaping the political landscape must be to defund and break up the state propaganda organ, the BBC. Then end Ofcom’s remit over media, which allows that body, with its many ex-BBC members to exercise censorshop, as it did with Covid. Also, a crucial step must be to remove the recent legislation that would give an incoming Labour government quasi-dictatorial state powers, e.g. the online harms bill and the police and public order bill.
If the post-Johnson Conservative government does not do these things, it would have only itself to blame were Starmer to take the reins of power and impose restrictions that would make Johnson’s lockdowns look trivial by comparison. Make no mistake – the green agenda and the biosecurity agenda go hand-in-hand in the brave new world those behind Starmer would love to impose on us, if they’re given the chance.
July 12, 2022
Delivery track record too, vitally important!
Fishi has spoken with forked tongue… done the opposite of what he said, upped loads of taxes contrary to the manifesto too. To reduce HMG debt we must cut government overhead costs significantly and reach private performance/staffing/cost efficiency levels.
And personally I want a Brexiteer PM candidate who makes a definite commitment to cessation of dinghy illegals entering/staying in the UK by a set date. Push backs or fly-outs am not fussed.
July 12, 2022
It is very difficult to hear or read about the real world now because the it is almost completely censored by the present government and the mainstream media (e.g. today the Dutch farmers’ protests against the shutting down of agriculture in Holland and the seizure of their land). Somehow, this appears to be so across the western world. It does make me wonder (perish the thought) if the selection, election of a new leader is just a charade.
July 12, 2022
An elderly female neighbour, German, just had horrendous experience with their railways. Flights went fine, but making connections with different trains, deserted stations and platforms, nobody to answer questions, move luggage, load luggage and remarkable difference between older rolling stock and modern ones. She has been woken up with the English railways vs German – – so much for German efficiency she agrees.
July 12, 2022
Of course it’s a charade, Iago. ‘If elections made any difference they wouldn’t have them.’ Applies here too.
July 12, 2022
Sir John,
It will interesting to see who gets the most sympathetic coverage from the BBC/Sky/Channel 4 etc. As opposed to whoever receives the most negative reporting and vitriol, such as Boris Johnson constantly received.
If the mainstream media along with Labour/Lib Dem/SNP and the EU are against any particular individual candidate, then we will know that that’s the person who should be Prime Minister.
July 12, 2022
Hahahaha Grant Shapps hanging onto the coattails of the favourite.
July 12, 2022
Does that also mean HS2 is dead in the woods
July 12, 2022
The Conservative Party seriously has nothing better to offer the nation than this embarrassing stampede of political pygmies to replace its out-going Prime Minister with? If Starmer gets into Downing Street off the back of this Tory inadequacy, regardless of his hollow undertakings to the contrary, from day one he will reverse Brexit and steer England back into the grip of the eu. It’s amazing given the intensity and import of the political times in which we’re all living that the Conservatives can’t field more serious figures for the nation’s political captaincy that this.
July 12, 2022
The leader will be decided by the Globalist UK Establishment regardless. The tactical voting system will ensure that happens. None of the so called candidates have your or the countries interest at heart. Self preservation is the name of the game.
July 12, 2022
I donāt remember reading in the Tory or Labour manifesto that theyād introduce a 20mph limit across Wales and that the EU would introduce speed limiters to all new cars this weekā¦..Remember that little clause called the ālevel playing fieldā coming to you soon
July 12, 2022
Not just Wales, just been reading Wokinghams plans to narrow our “main” town centre access roads and reduce speed limits on them to 20mph. Junctions wil be ‘altered’ to make turning out from them more difficult (??) and new cycleways introduced using existing “green verges”.
Well I doubt that the electric scooters wizzing past here on ther pavement will worry too much about any speed limnits but the neighbour busy extending his garden out into the green verge may be in for a shock!
Of course, I’m never going to ride a bike again and nor will my wife, so I’m afraid this is all very ‘eco’ but probably isn’t going to help older people in the community very much, if at all…
July 12, 2022
Cuibono – so right! It’s going to be a nightmare.
July 12, 2022
The problem is that we know practically nothing about most of the candidates. The system is at fault. Leaders are chosen and we only discover afterwards what they believe in. Who would have guessed that Boris Johnson would be a socialist and climate change zealot? MPs really do need to grill these candidates closely. I hope that our host will tell us which candidate he favours, because I trust his judgement more than anyone else’s. Personally, I would vote for whichever candidate is not going to force me to buy a heat pump or an electric car. But I have no idea what any of them would do on this issue.
July 12, 2022
It is possible to read about most candidates on any free online encyclopedia. There, their respective track records are usually set out, and also their beliefs as they stood BEFORE the start of the leadership campaign.
Stances on Brexit, the number of times they voted against Mrs. May’s Withdrawal Agreement, their views on the ECHR, ‘wokism’, the importance of free speech, the Northern Ireland Protocol, Net Zero, self-sufficiency . . .
July 12, 2022
The Electorate won’t do all of that – but I hope the final choice between 2 will mean all Party members will read all that with care. It could mean another 5 years of misery, or wipe out at the GE.
July 12, 2022
wikipedia?
Otherwise but with much more work go to members.parliament.uk with the name. In the left column, you can find āparliamentary careerā, āvoting recordā, āspoken contributionsā, āearly day motionsā, āwritten questionsā, āregistered interestsā.
Beware you might spend more than a few minutes.
July 12, 2022
The one qualification you do not discuss in your post is a proven track record. It matters which of the candidates have proved themselves effective in previous positions, and can surround themselves with similarly effective people.
As far as I can tell it is a choice between those who have disqualified themselves (for example, by their handling of the economy) and those whose performance is uncertain or unproven. I am very tired of being given choices of the ‘least worst’.
July 12, 2022
Dear Sir John, Your party will either lose the next election by a landslide (not just to Labour) or scrape back in as in 1992 and be given another chance. The aftermath of Covid 19 is the equivalent of the ERM fiasco, although not self-inflicted or so badly and handled. And now no Boris.
Seasoned pros tell us the choice for your party members is bound to be Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss, In that case you are heading for a heavy loss (barring Labour suicide) and unlikely to regain office for many years. Neither has thus far shown the charm, personallity or communications skills to reach all parts of the country. Two years of competent government will not be enough; you must win hearts.
You have interesting candidates who have more chance of becoming party leader in Opposition. You will, I fancy, have to take some risk in your choice now if you are to retain power.
July 12, 2022
Sunak’s launch of his campaign this morning was gruesome to watch. He can’t think on his feet ….. and if you shut your eyes you would have thought Blair was speaking.
Not just the content of his waffling. He even SOUNDS like Blair.
July 12, 2022
I listened intently to his speech this morning and I only heard him say one policyā¦.to increase taxes – I await to being corrected
July 12, 2022
If the Remainer Conservative MPs fix it so the membership only have a choice between a PPE Goldman Sachs anywhere person with a wealthy non Dom wife and an ardent Remainer with French/British dual nationality whose French wife works for the French government and who studied theology at university then the Conservatives will stumble on to lose the next GE. We will then have a Lab/LD/SNP coalition who will institute proportional representation. If by this time the Online Harms Bill has not banned all other parties for being harmful even if legal then the following GE will resemble the last EU MEP elections and the Conservative Party will be finished as a governing party.
July 12, 2022
Sir John will you advise us here on which candidate you vote for, step by step?
July 12, 2022
I agree Ian I think those will be the final two with Sunak being too connected to Boris heād get slaughtered daily by the Labour mouthpieces and the papers, versus Tugenghat saying Iāll be the fresh start. If Moudant and Truss donāt gang together they will split their vote.
We donāt want a fresh start we want the manifesto being enacted that we voted for and gave the conservatives collectively an 80 seat majority to enact. The PM is just the figure head, it was decided Boris wasnāt wanted by the party due to his character (the general public chose that character but as we are reminded they chose a majority of Tory MPs to get the manifesto delivered). Net Zero by 2050 not 2030/35, no tax rises, Brexit whilst keeping the United Kingdom united as one. We were told no deal is we didnāt get good terms, we didnāt get good terms yet we still paid up and kept our part of the bargain, its running out now thank goodness and the contributions drop, what do the prospective candidates plan to do with that money? A strong growth program, promote the UK on trade missions around the world, take small businesses that manufacture and take them with these trade delegations, opening up worldwide trade wider and stop just looking after the CBI big business buddies (most of whom arenāt even UK companies), improving import prices and keeping 80% of the vat we currently send to the EU ourselves to spend on our priorities. No more fines for prostitution and drugs taxes, every single patient on doctors lists that didnāt fill in a census form should get called in to the doctors to see an administrator and get registered properly or strike them off the doctors lists.
July 12, 2022
Your post carries the implication that the Conservative Party is a broad church and must remain so. Unfortunately, this has led to intellectual incoherence, which will not necessarily appeal to voters. It is necessary to decide whether the present large State is desirable or whether a much smaller State should be the aim. I would warm to candidates more than I do if they were willing to discuss the issue(s).
July 12, 2022
The Conservative Party is so broad churchā¦..it now encompasses the green party and the labour party
July 12, 2022
The existence of an āunelected governing establishmentā is evidenced by how little difference there exists between all the Parliamentary parties on all the big issues of climate alarmism/Met Zero, high tax and spend, uncontrolled immigration, curbing freedom of speech through the OHB and consequently electing a new leader or even another party will not make any difference. If we are then not allowed to make popular policy changes through peaceful referendums then the country may become another Sri Lanka.
July 12, 2022
My choice would be Rishi Sunak- a man who will not promise something that he might not be able to deliver.
Many could learn from him.
July 12, 2022
Remember the brother who lost a leadership election and buggered off to Americaā¦.well I bet Sunak does the same
July 13, 2022
History suggests these unknown individuals who inherent the leadership are not able to win elections. They are often political chameleons who have got on by saying what the former leadership wanted to hear and then turn out to be political driftwood with no clear ideas of their own.
Liz Truss voted Remain when Theresa May was PM and pretended to be a staunch supporter of Brexit when Johnson was PM. Who knows what she really thinks. Penny Mordaunt thinks men who self-declare they are female should be able to compete against real woman at sports and go into ladies toilets. Rushi Sunek is weak on the Northern Ireland Protocol and won’t be able to negotiate with Brussels or restore Stormont. Jeremy Hunt has been inspected before and found wanting. Tom Tugenhat is another Dominic Grieve. Nadhim Zahawi is a complete unknown to the public and his behaviour in attacking the PM within 1 day of being appointed Chancellor was frankly bizarre. They are as dull and grey as Theresa May and John Major and like them will turn a healthy majority into election defeat.