As predicted the Conservative party has a clear choice to make between the two remaining leadership contenders.
I am pleased it is Mr Hunt and not Mr Gove in the final. If it had been Mr Gove the media would have had a month of re running all that Mr Gove said and did to stop Mr Johnson running the previous time,Ā trying to make it into a bitter personal feud whatever the candidates wanted. This Ā would have got inĀ the way of a serious debate about the future of our country and its democracy.
The Johnson campaign made clear yesterday to supporters like me Ā it did not want Johnson voters voting tactically to influence who was second. I continued to vote for Boris.
June 21, 2019
Well did you really predict it John, or did you just say you preferred it ? Sorry to hear there was no tactical voting to eliminate Gove, that would have been perfect. I hope Gove gets a job though, he was excellent at education and quite innovative in his other posts – when he sticks to policy rather than politics he is very good.
June 21, 2019
Remainers, which of course includes the BBC, are desperate to smear Johnson and the Tory Party. Very important that we have sparkly clean hands fully visible. Johnson will have a huge mandate from both the Parliamentary Party and the Membership. I hope that confirms him in his course of action – to get Britain out of the EU ASAP and to implement Tory policies. He will be the most cerebral PM since Thatcher, no time to look for bushels!
June 21, 2019
It didn’t make sense when they said the Boris campaign had influenced the Raab vote: it was 31 votes when 33 were needed to stay in the race. How could that have been influenced? Similarly, when Stewart got more votes the first time than the second. How could the Boris campaign have got Stewart to make such an ass of himself at the “debate” in between? Finally, the Boris campaign would want the maximum number of votes possible to impress on the membership that the PCP was in support. So why would they part with a whole lot in the final vote?
June 21, 2019
Will Boris Johnson take this country out of the EU?
Will Boris Johnson obliterate Labour and their client state?
If he can achieve these two aims then he’ll save this nation from EU authoritarianism and totalitarian Marxism
June 21, 2019
The party must survive, sod the country. What a stitch up! Who needs Russians rigging elections when we have the 1922 committee.
June 22, 2019
I donāt get this acorn, if Gove was so popular Hunt wouldnāt have touched him!
Goveās Team had voted to hoover up from the lists of people that got knocked out and he didnāt take on enough support from those people.
June 21, 2019
Whilst continuing to vote for Boris was ““made clear yesterday to supporters like me” what was made clear to supporters not like you?
What any tactical voting initiative, if it occurred at all, would show of course is an awareness and astuteness suitable in a future prime minister. Still, providing for a margin of only two votes was cutting it rather fine, if it was cut at all.
June 21, 2019
What a pantomime this has been – was it all so necessary one wonders…. So now we wait for the ballot papers to go out for the members to vote on, while May acts out her role, still doing her best to influence events in favour of the EU – still wearing her crown with glowing eyes.
May’s choice of candidate to support says so much about her and her lack of effective reasoning.
We hope that Boris, as the leaver, can gain the crown and hang on to it for a very long time – We do not need any more pantomimes like this for at least half an eternity.
June 21, 2019
Now let us see if either candidate will produce a Brexit plan that is clear and not ambiguous in any way, without using clever words to disguise their real thoughts and deeds.
I hope both will want to ditch Mays arrangemen, and not just play around with the backstop.
Life must also eventually go on after Brexit so their thoughts on how they would want the UK to develop in the future will be interesting to hear.
June 21, 2019
Whilst the Conservative party spend another month faffing what do May, Hammond and a WA supporting cabinet continue to do? The lead candidate by far was clear that UK would be out (presumably not BRINO) by 31st October so presumably preparations are being made – though Hammond remains in place. This continues uncertainty maximising approach is not ideal. Moreover doesn’t Mr Hunt have have a job to do as Foreign Secretary?
June 21, 2019
What, exactly, is going to happen on November 1st if we leave with āno dealā?
June 21, 2019
In particular to:
Food
Medicine
Petrol
Gas
Electricity
Imports from the EU
Exports to the EU
Some categorical information from the government. NOW!
June 21, 2019
Perfects you could explain why you think that gas supplies would be affected.
June 21, 2019
The Russians will sell us more Arctic LNG on the spot market,provided we are willing to outbid the Chinese,Japanese and S Koreans(and there’s the little matter of the operator,Novatek,being under sanctions!
June 21, 2019
Don’t panic Sergeant Pike. We have many friends in the world. They just don’t happen to be those nearest to us.
June 21, 2019
Temporary tariff regime for no deal Brexit published:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/temporary-tariff-regime-for-no-deal-brexit-published
June 21, 2019
Thanks for that link. I wonder why this isn’t public knowledge – regularly mentioned in the media etc. – to try to put an end to the hysterical ‘catastrophe’ and ‘cliff edge’ predictions.
June 21, 2019
Mike there is much more deliberately being held back from the public but I find it appalling that most MPs are ignorant of this and much more information regarding Brexit as evidenced by their responses when taking part in MSM interviews. I consider it appalling that even ‘Leave’ MPs who still think the WA would be acceptable if only the backstop was removed. They clearly have not read and/or understood the ramifications for the UK if it were ever agreed. I would make articles like “Avoiding the trap of the Withdrawal Agreement ā the way ahead for a new Prime Minister” and “The Seven Deadly Sins in the draft Withdrawal Agreement” (on Briefings For Brexit) compulsory homework for all MPs.
June 21, 2019
I think you know the answer! Bit like May not disciplining the Kitkats and her actions before and at Chequers. No inquisition by MSM!
June 21, 2019
Published on 13 March. And studiously ignored by all ever since. How is the GATT XXIV going now?
June 21, 2019
JR, your party is beyond belief: gives a warning to Chris Davis after being found guilty in court of fiddling his expenses, today suspends Mark Field protecting those from an unknown woman with unknown intent, bearing in mind milkshake attacks and incitement from Brand to use acid! Can your party be any more wrong on everything?
Chris Davis will be rightly ousted in the by election by the public. The Tory party ought to have done that after all the promises for fiddling expenses in 2009. Field will be found not guilty of anything, his actions perfectly reasonable within s. 3 Criminal Law Act, s.2 HRA etc. I thought you had access to barristers and solicitors like Wright and Cox! Field should not apologise for anything, the trespasser had no right, permission or authority to be there.
Reply I think you should study what Chris did before rushing to judgement.
June 23, 2019
No need, he was found guilty in court. Judge said the offence did not require proof of dishonesty but it would be a matter for people to make up their own minds (sic). MPs made that law that he broke. After 2009 scandal he should have known better as such issues would attract scrutiny. 377 MPs have their credit card suspended! Suggest he and you read Steve Bakers website on his view of expenses.
etc ed
June 21, 2019
November 1st 2019 could be as anticlimactic as January 1st 2000.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30576670
“How the UK coped with the millennium bug 15 years ago”
This is quite apposite, given the current media hysteria about “crashing out of the EU without a deal”, “going over the cliff edge”, and so on, which has been fed by the government almost as much as by the opposition.
“Have you ever been in a car crash?” the article asked. “Unfortunately, unlike the car crash, time will not slow down for us. If anything, we’re accelerating toward disaster.”
However the difference could be that the UK government put in the work to prepare the country for possible problems from the Millennium Bug, while we know that David Cameron forbade any contingency planning in case he lost the referendum and we are also not entirely sure how much preparation has been done under Theresa May.
June 21, 2019
life will carry in much as normal.
June 21, 2019
Mike Wilson
You will continue to buy food
You will continue to have access to medicine
Your Petrol will still come from the middle east
Your gas will still come from Russia
Your electricity will still come from French Nuclear power stations
Imports from the EU will continue
Exports to the EU will continue
There you go, cleared that up for you
June 21, 2019
Good morning-again
Well this time you have firmly planted your flag. So, if Alexander Johnson MP turns out to be another Remainer wolf in a Leave sheep skin jacket there is no getting away. That and your party will be well and truly finished.
June 21, 2019
Not a snakeskin jacket?much more Boris,don’t you think?!
June 22, 2019
Well if you take into account the, ‘Gove’ factor then it just might as well be a stab proof one.
That’s a joke BTW š
June 21, 2019
ConHome seem to already be picking Johnson’s cabinet for him, and the likelihood of a Oct GE. Well if the author of, and commentators on, that article are ‘on the money’ with regards his cabinet picks then expect Corbyn in Downing Street by Christmas… š
June 21, 2019
@Jerry,
Hunt would be continuity May.
They’ve tried a Remain based Cabinet and it was a disaster.
Time for the Brexit side of the party to have turn.
June 21, 2019
I’ve just read their picks, and I can only agree with you. A remix of the same faces is a good way to make the country see this as May Pt II. When the Captain has steered into the iceburg and then had to be pried off the wheel as they tried to circle round to do it again, continuity and staying on course may not be good things.
June 21, 2019
I was disappointed that Gove was not the other candidate in the final 2. He would have brought the fight to Boris and it would have made for a much more interesting debate. But Iām sure you are right that the media would have whipped it up and turned it into a negative campaign. One thing we can be pretty sure of with Mr Hunt is that it will be civilised.
June 21, 2019
Hunt has been anything but civilized so far. He has milked the MSM campaigns against Boris in a most unseemly way for the son of an admiral and Head Boy of Charterhouse. In particular, he has milked the Ratcliffe Bash Boris campaign, while saying at the beginning of each sally that he doesn’t want to.
June 21, 2019
A serious debate about the future? A novel notion. I don’t think either candidate is equipped or inclined to serve that up. An unscholarly piece in the Guardian by two scholars at least manages to identify the solution to the present impasse, namely a GE. Leaving aside the reality of the two candidates and focusing on the perception of them, it is surely best for Brexit if Hunt wins this contest. This gives Farage and his party a clearer run at forming a government and actually delivering what the Conservative party cannot do, a proper Brexit. Sir John, it is not too late to switch your vote to Hunt, and then switch your allegiance to the Brexit party!
Disclaimer: I am not a member of the Brexit party. Or even especially enamoured of Farage. But he’s the only show in town, and for that deserves some respect.
June 21, 2019
How many weeks to get to this point? This could have been done in one week and the whole leadership balloting finished in 2 then the important job of finishing Brexit could actually be done. Mind you if the Tory party had done a proper job in the first place of selecting somebody that wasn’t trying to wreck Brexit the whole thing would be over now. Instead we have an enormous waste of time and money- which is what government is best at.
June 21, 2019
The election is an internal party matter, but if the 1922 committee wanted to consider its election rules, it could adopt a single transferable vote and have the shortlisting done in one hit, rather than have this drawn out theatrical affair. The idea that you could get supporters to vote for the easiest opposition is quite absurd.
June 21, 2019
Sophie’s choice
Neither of them inspire confidence.
A PM must be good at detail and avoid vanity projects which makes me nervous about Mr Johnson and Mr Hunt is a Foreign Office remainer so worries me greatly.
In truth I wasn’t rooting for any of the candidates from the start and feel we may do better with a vacuum.
Government does best when it does least.
June 21, 2019
More interesting for the future. State pensions
MPs and civil servants define the state pension as a contingent liability and so off the books.
Cabinet office refuse to say what makes a contingent liability.
How the latest WGA whole of government account lets the cat out of the bag. They made an error and admit to what’s going on
Page 8 onwards
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/803751/WGA_2017-18_WEB_1.pdf
Contingent liabilities are liabilities that are
unlikely, and will not crystallise unless a specific event occurs.
Civil servants are saying they won’t pay the state pension, but they carry on taking money saying they will
Someone is not being honest.
June 21, 2019
Response to Mr Carney?
June 21, 2019
Yes indeed can Carney, Hammond and May not just shut up and go – in total disgrace to enjoy their undeserved gold plated pensions.
The Radio 4, Today programme seems to have taken on the roll of attacking Boris at every turn. A Carney interview today and then by (slightly) twisting what he actually said and putting this into their news headlines.
I too am delighted it is not Gove in the final. Not that I think he had any real chance of winning. He is another daft socialist who want to kill private schools and is not full of green crap and other lefty lunacies too. He also is disliked hugely for making us suffer the appalling T May. Also hated by the education establishment and lacks any any ballot box appeal too.
June 21, 2019
“now” full of green …. not “not”
June 21, 2019
Both Carney and Hammond in hyper project fear mode! Good, their days are numbered.
Con home suggests a cabinet for Johnson. Maurdant must not be anywhere near office, nor Fox. Both like the comforts of office above national interest and will of the public. Both a complete disaster. Priti Patel needs a top job she has more grit and conservative values than these shysters put together. Rees-Mogg or Redwood for Treasury Secretary. Strong culture secretary to make radical change of the BBC, reduced in size, output and no license fee tax.
Also off the radar is the weak position of Javid on immigration, asylum and refugees. There is current uspension of controls to get a grip withcatching and deporting illegal immigration current soft approach because of Windrush. Also immigration still out of control despite three manifesto promises!
A tough party leader to reverse the left wing inclination and oust the likes of: Grieve, Letwin, Boles, Sanbach, Bebe, Clarke, Gauke, Rudd, May and Stewart. The voting records are clear of those who need to be ousted and those prepared to act in concert with Marxist Labour.
June 21, 2019
We’ve heard it all before from Carnage š„±
June 21, 2019
I imagine 4 or 5 could not resist voting for Hunt, rather than Boris. Some might not forgive Gove for the past doublecross.
June 21, 2019
Who would ever trust Gove. He is responsible for the last three years of May and supported her servitude plan very strongly. He might be an intelligent weasel but completely untrustworthy.
June 21, 2019
Thank goodness it is Hunt as we shall now have a serious debate.
After the vote we could have a re-run of Churchill and Eden.
Mr Hunt is developing into a very good Foreign Secretary and his business skills will come into play setting up many trade deals around the world
June 21, 2019
I agree he could be effective
June 21, 2019
“a re-run of Churchill and Eden.”
As in a far past his best Churchill persistently not making way for an eager.though sickly,Eden during the first named’s postwar administration?
June 21, 2019
Why do we want a serious debate? We are not doing the electing. It is the Tories talking to themselves and wasting a month doing it, whilst Rome burns and Eeyore keeps putting the country down. It can only be because they want to run up to the Parliamentary closedown. It should be abolished this year of all years or at least shortened to a couple of weeks like the rest of us get.
June 21, 2019
I don’t feel able to vote for Jeremy Hunt. He upset Doctors and Nurses up and down the country, when he was Health Secretary.
I think I read somewhere that some of them left the profession because of his hectoring, but I cantā be certain of that.
June 21, 2019
What is certain is that the NHS is far worse after his ministrations than ever it was. He was hobbled somewhat by the crazy re-organisation of 2012, but he did nothing much to turn that around or make improvements. Far more box ticking, as I discovered once again for myself when I had some hospital treatment only a couple of weeks ago. They were far more concerned with the forms than the treatment, no doubt because the tick-boxes concern the politicians whereas the treatment only concerns the patients.
June 21, 2019
It is even worse than that. He ONLY had the English NHS to deal with as the others have theirs devolved.
June 21, 2019
A serious debate requires serious people and for such people the Conservative Party is no longer home .
As lifetime Conservative voter ( up to 2016)I watched Phillip Hammond speak with humour clarity and seriousness last night ( Mansion House ). I felt real sadness to think these qualities of sense, proportion and what Graham Greene called ‘calmality’, have departed the stage.
On to the next fiction then
June 21, 2019
While I enjoy the works of Graham Greene, with regard to Phillip Hammond are you sure you didn’t mistype “calamity”?
June 21, 2019
You obviously like people who are uniformly negative and pessimistic about everything. Personally I prefer to look on life positively
June 21, 2019
Phillip Hammond spoke of there being no economic headroom for a ‘disorderly’ Brexit. Well. That seems far more likely since No Deal was taken off the table as an option – rather like telling a car salesman that he has a deal and it’s down to him to make one up.
The Tories are responding to their market – the people who are likely to keep them in office – the voting public.
This may seem like a lack of seriousness to you and you really ought to get out of the London S/E bubble to see why Brexit happened – Grimsby, Boston, Middlesbrough, Peterborough… go to those places – have a walk around. (I was in Boston last week)
Workers priced out of vegetable picking by BOGOF supermarkets and into full-time welfare by government policy and no hospital staff despite promises that mass immigration wasn’t just competing with them for jobs and housing but providing essential staff too – plenty of hand car washers though !
Ultimately you reflect the condescending and insulting BBC attitude which has made voting people more entrenched and led to Brexit Party successes which are impacting the Tories more than anyone.
You never, ever learn.
June 21, 2019
I don’t regard this as a serious contribution, and least of all from somebody who is supposed to be obsessed with numbers:
https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2019/06/a-paramount-duty-of-government-is-to-ensure-britains-prosperity-hammonds-mansion-house-speech-full-text.html
“My approach to Brexit has been shaped by the simple observation that no one, however passionate their views on Europe, voted to be poorer … ”
He has no clue how many people voted to leave the EU notwithstanding their belief that it could prove economically damaging, just as people may accept the need for their country to go to war even though they know it may prove costly.
In any case it all has to be put in a proper perspective; my position was, and still is, that the economic impact of EU membership has been vastly overstated, and for the UK it has most likely been a slight negative impact rather than a slight positive impact, and in or out of the EU the long term trend rate for the natural growth of the UK economy has been and will continue to be close to 2.5% a year, and so any small setback on leaving the EU will soon be made up.
June 21, 2019
I voted for Brexit utterly bricking myself about the economy but did it all the same.
What does Hammond know ???
June 22, 2019
If you had followed my contributions to this blog over the years you would have known far more than either Osborne or Hammond were prepared to let on, even though they also knew it.
June 21, 2019
Way Off-topic: Why are the green activists who terrorise peaceful events not arrested and charged with something? In an environment where politicians have been assaulted by conventionally dressed people anyone could be carrying anything irrespective of appearance…everyone is to be feared. One heroic MP stood up to tackle the threat but today faces cries of assault rather than praise. The protester(s) should be apologising for the disturbance, threat and fear they are causing. It is a disgraceful situation that the UK is on a slippery downward spiral where the disruptive and violent are protected and the law abiding victimised. This culture developed in the classroom has now spread to the ‘do-gooder’ protestor. The UK is a country that protects the yob and neglects the honest – this is the easy, fashionable choice, not the choice of law and order.
June 21, 2019
In fact it is a country where people who use the ballot box peacefully and lawfully are called a ‘mob’.
June 22, 2019
And where to believe in democracy is considered, ‘extremist’.
June 21, 2019
Troublesome Stewart is also out of the way.
So we get a debate between a possibly Brexity front runner and a more Remainy second place.
Thatās all very well and of course there is the huge dividend from being free of the loathsome, duplicitous May, but to some extent it is only part of the story.
The Brexit Party are still buoyant and will hold the next Prime Minister to account.
So it is a question of trusting the next incumbent to actually deliver a genuine Brexit and not just talk the talk.
June 21, 2019
In short, leaving date is Oct. 31st, what can stop it? The PM, by requesting a further delay, or vote of no confidence in the new Government. The ERG should be able to apply pressure to avoid former, so the tactics must be focused on ensuring the Johnson Government last longer than 3 months!
16 Hustings! How many times are they going to repeat themselves over the next 4 weeks? Surely the arguments can be properly aired in less?
June 21, 2019
I suspect there is a view among Cons that the wrongly condemned ‘No Deal’ will be the only outcome due to EU pig-headedness. When put to the HoC it will be rejected, thus triggering a GE.
In that case the long-drawn-out hustings will act as pre-election free advertising for Conservative policies with no interruptions from Labour or any others. Except of course the increasingly discredited biased interruptions by the BBC’s hand-picked grievance-mongers.
June 21, 2019
Please tell me where it says No Deal has to be put to the HoC.
No Deal is the international treaty default. Why do all you people keep saying HoC have to approve it first?
Unless there are literally no Real Brexiteers in line for No.10..
June 21, 2019
As I think JR once said, you cannot rule out No Deal any more than you can ban rain next week. Yes, we get it. But thanks to Letwin, Cooper and possibly a convicted criminal wearing an electronic tag, the HoC has passed a bill to do just that. So I assume they have to undo that. Or do you know better?
Reply The Commons voted to allow no deal in its latest vote on the subject
June 22, 2019
By accepting the Lisbon Treaty and, thereby, all Article 50 contained therewithin, they have accepted that Leaving the EU without signing a Withdrawal Agreement (Treaty) is lawful and correct. Also, as EU law is superior to UK law, any law the UK make that contradicts EU Treaty (Lisbon) law is unlawful and can be ignored.
That’s my take on it. Feel free to disagree.
June 21, 2019
On Lawyers for Britain 3rd June 2019, Stanley Brodie QC gave a legal opinion on the Article 50 extensions which concluded:
Stating the outcome shortly, it would seem to be as follows:
(i) The application by the Prime Minister for an extension of time until June 30th under the proviso to Article 50, made on or about the 14th March 2019, was legally valid, but was rejected by the EU.
(ii) This was followed by the Agreement proposed by the EU. It did not comply with the terms of the proviso; nor was Article 50 referred to or relied on by the EU. It was not effective to stop the Article 50 process running up to and including the 29th March at 11 p.m. Whichever way one looks at it, the Agreement was either unlawful or made for an unlawful purpose or ultra vires .That means that the UK left the EU on the 29th March 2019 by default as there was no valid or lawful impediment to prevent it.
(iii) Recently the EU has imposed a further extension of time on the UK until the 31st October 2019.This imposition cannot be supported by the terms of Article 50, which seems to have been ignored. It is an example of the willingness of the relevant parties to agree extensions of time without limitation, no doubt based on the notes issued by the civil service.
(iv) The irony seems to be that ever since the 29th March 2019 , the United Kingdom has left the European Union ā without a deal ā. I need hardly point out that there are consequences for the European Election.
June 22, 2019
Jack Leaver, I do hope you are correct, but think you are not. The agreement to extend the deadline proposed by the EU will be lawful – the CJEU will make sure of that. And the CJEU overrules our courts.
So the only EU limitation on extensions to the named TEU Art50 limit of 2 years is that it has to be mutually agreed. It was.
The only UK legal limitation in the way (possibly) is whether May was authorised by Parliament (vide Miller) to accept a different date to the 30th June extension. She was. The EU Withdrawal Act was passed by MPs and contains the option of different dates to the 29 March, with equal status to the 29 March date, under UK law.
June 21, 2019
This chap thinks it will have to be delayed because of the large volume of new legislation which still has to be passed to prepare for it:
https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/foreign-affairs/brexit/house/house-magazine/104732/stark-choice-next-pm-delay-brexit-or
“The stark choice for the next PM: delay Brexit or leave in chaos”
“MPs who chatter incessantly about a no deal scenario would be wise to actually consider the … lack of time to get all these bills through both Houses … one can only hope that out of more than 300 legislators at least one asked the candidate promising to leave the EU deal or no deal on 31st October how precisely he was planning to get these five major pieces of legislation through both Houses before exit.”
Well, maybe it is lucky that in 2004 Parliament agreed to ministers having the power to make emergency regulations which could temporarily stand in for those and other major pieces of legislation:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/36/section/22
“22 Scope of emergency regulations”
“3) Emergency regulations may make provision of any kind that could be made by Act of Parliament or by the exercise of the Royal Prerogative; in particular, regulations may … ”
Not the best way to proceed, admittedly, but the blame for that will lie with those who have been trying to obstruct our liberation from EU law.
June 21, 2019
Indeed deliver a real Brexit (one that Farage approves of) or the Conservative Party is surely finished.
June 21, 2019
I suggest the Conservative Party makes sure It does not cede control over the contest to media opponents such as the BBC. An event with Andrew Neil using his normal format would be good as he is such an incisive interviewer. But they should certainly not do eg a question time event where the BBC selects the audience and involves it’s choosen members of the public.
June 21, 2019
Last night’s QT was a Bash Boris fest with obviously no right of reply to the many labels pinned on him, from racist to homophobia and back again. It was allowed to go on for at least a quarter of the programme and was clearly set up in advance.
June 21, 2019
Were ‘dark arts’ employed by the BoJo camp? Part of me hopes that they were. The Conservative Party is in desperate need of leadership that understands politics. The May operation was hopeless at it.
June 21, 2019
Well, if so they cut it rather close!
June 21, 2019
Yes the media would love to orchestrate the process. Among 160,000 voters who have close contact with the candidates, the media are quite irrelevant as are their partial opinions. I hope the interchange between the limited electorate and the candidates is largely isolated from the media cabal, they are no longer players. Not that this will stop them from cluttering our airwaves with their irrelevance.
June 21, 2019
I agree that we have the two best candidates for the run off. My preference is for Boris; I think he is the bigger person and the wider public will react better to him when it comes to a general election, particularly if this is sooner rather than later.
However, I still have a question for him, which is who is he likely to appoint Chancellor? This appointment will be key in the new government, and even more so than usual. First, it must be someone who is clear that private enterprise, low taxes and financial efficiency are key to the Conservative message and be capable of articulating why that is so. It must be someone with the vision to take full advantage of our new freedom, with the strength of character to take on the Treasury and move them from the Gordon Brown agenda to which they are so wedded, but also someone with sufficient interest in the technicalities to carry out the root and branch reforms that are needed to mend our broken tax system. I do not favour bonuses for Civil Servants, but if they have to be, then the only KPI for the Treasury should be the number of thousand pages that are removed from Tolley’s Tax Manual!
I should very much like to see our host get the job, but am aware that in politics there are many other reasons for appointments than being the best qualified. The leadership process has though revealed a lot about what the candidates and their supporters think, and have given indications as to who might fill the bill. I would include Raab, Truss, Rees-Mogg and possibly Javid in my ‘B’ short list. I think it would be a disaster if the appointment went to someone just because they had been supportive in getting the PM into office.
June 21, 2019
I have written to him suggesting that if he were to become PM, it would be a fine thing to appoint Sir John as Chancellor. Perhaps others might do the same.
June 21, 2019
Certainly Boris is wider, but Jeremy is taller. It would be interesting to know who tips the scales further. I sincerely hope this is one of the first questions answered in the forthcoming hustings. I can’t help but think that Brussels will respect a weighty presence, and the weightier the better.
The good news is that both are much more substantial figures than the featherweight May. Let’s just hope a super middleweight can get the job done. Just a pity the great Pickles wasn’t standing. Then we’d have been in business. Still, nothing stopping the two candidates piling on the pounds in the meantime.
June 21, 2019
Serious debate ? From Boris. Hilarious Sir John. You should be doing a comic turn.
June 21, 2019
Simon confuses seriousness with solemnity. For 20 and more years Boris has addressed all manner of serious topics in Parliament and the Press. If he does so in a manner which compels attention and invites debate, whatās wrong with that?
The pompous, priggish, pious and judgemental have had their time in the sun, and precious little good they did with it. Now for something different.
June 21, 2019
Johnson might be different in a superficial way. He has yet to prove he’s serious about anything much other than becoming PM.
June 22, 2019
What are you talking about Simeon?
Mayor of London voted in twice where he d did an excellent job.and voted in as an MP.
June 21, 2019
Why did Mark Field apologise for his actions (he deeply regrets it) ? To me it seemed entirely reasonable given the nature of the event and the actions of the protester. How was he to know what the intentions of this silly woman were. She might have been taking Jo Brand seriously or have been a brainwashed terrorist or similar.
Climate Change protesters are hardly rational as we know after all. Not helped by Gove listening to people like Greta Thunberg. Is it not time to hold these (dubious at the very least) organisations financially responsible for the endless damage and disruption they cause.
June 21, 2019
These organisations and their members personally responsible that is.
June 21, 2019
Yes, how did the protester expect to be ejected?
June 21, 2019
These climate protestors appeared to be acting with a sense of undue entitlement on private property and at a private function. Most people would react similarly to eject such people in a forceful but peaceful and non-violent manner if they gatecrashed their private party. Security were doing the same on the other side of the room, but of course no complaints about them, because they’re not in the public eye.
Can’t blame the guy at all.
June 21, 2019
I suspect that much the majority of people would regard Mark Field perfectly correct in the action he took, and that there is no need for him to attribute any blame to himself. Why should sanctimonious hypocrites assume they have the right to disrupt a private function. Many people might consider it use a pity the lady concerned didnāt get her a*** kicked as well.
June 21, 2019
Watching the video on the BBC news, he acted quickly and with minimum force. pushing her out by the back of the neck. The BBC called it assault. Defence is assault in May’s Britain so she suspends him.
More fake news. We now get more of our energy from clean sources than fossil fuel. Presumaby, that is excluding transport and heating and when the sun is out and during a gale in the summer.
June 21, 2019
I think they were reporting on the amount of energy being produced/i> in the UK, not consumed. (I suspect we are importing much more of our energy than every before.)
June 21, 2019
If it had been found subsequently that she had a concealed weapon of some sort, he’d now be a hero.
He has nothing to regret, except that his spontaneous (and, in other circumstances, brave) actions have caused him trouble.
June 21, 2019
Decades ago Solzhenitsyn wrote that “idolized children despise their parents and when they get a little older bully their countrymen.Tribes with an ancestor cult have endured for centuries.No tribe would survive long with a youth cult.”
Perhaps “Andy” being one of Li’l Greta’s greatest supporters on here would like to challenge Solzhenitsyn’s wisdom?
June 21, 2019
I see the proceeds from Pink Floyds musical instruments amounting to millions is going to a climate change charity. You couldn’t make it up.
June 21, 2019
Quite, especially after the milk shake episode. Another organisation protester might have been arrested/prosecuted – maybe she has?
June 21, 2019
Mark Field is the Member for the Cities of London and Westminster, so at a City dinner with the Lord Mayor, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Governor of the Bank of England present, and with no security staff in sight, he will have felt personally responsible for their safety. The woman was fast advancing on them, and he did his best, despite not being trained, to deal with the situation when no-one else was. He didn’t cause physical harm to anyone.
It is all too typical of the present inhabitant of no 10 Downing Street that in her dying days she publicly humiliates him rather than thanking him. In earlier times the Home Secretary would have offered to resign after such a near miss.
June 21, 2019
Very well said, Rose.
June 22, 2019
+1
June 22, 2019
Mark Field should have grateful thanks for preventing who knows what? He was firm not violent and marched her away with no thought for himself. Well done.
June 21, 2019
Apparently on the news this morning, Hunt’s advisers are advising him as the underdog to attack Boris and his record. I hope not. The only thing I took away from the BBC debate was how dignified Boris behaved and was the only one not trying to talk over others. Hunt will do himself no favours, not that I want him to win, if he goes down this route. If Hunt does win the leadership however, it will make it much easier for those of us who are torn between Farage and Boris.
June 21, 2019
I hope both candidates are probed thoroughly to see how they react in different settings.
Some sustained, forceful probing on Mr Johnson’s record (and Mr Hunt’s) would be welcome and informative. But done in the Dimbleby, Peston or Neill style rather than Maitless
June 21, 2019
As Farage said himself, I would make a deal with the devil if it got us put of the EU.
June 22, 2019
I agree with you JoolsB that is exactly what I thought this morning when I read that Hunt was taking the gloves off and attacking Boris. What a foolish act. I want to hear about Hunt not what Hunt thinks about Boris, this just runs the party down because he was elected to be the face and leader of London by the public twice, Hunt is vilified and hated in the NHS press anyone would think no extra money had gone in to the NHS since 2010. We are led to believe there is less money in the English NHS and that is all he was in charge of – and this is what happens when you only bash your opposition you donāt talk up your achievements so perhaps he hasnāt got any to talk up.
June 21, 2019
You say the Johnson campaign made it clear it did not want voters to vote tactically, yes, that’s because they had to be careful about the one’s who did. Imagine if the whole camp decided individually to vote tactically- dope
June 21, 2019
I predicted Gove and a Remain on 27th May. I was completely wrong about Gove, but Hunt is a full on fraudulent (**) Remain. ** Fraudulent because Parliament handed the decision to the electorate, so it is not up to the likes of Hunt, or any other Remain MP, to prevent the UK leaving the EU, whatever their opinions still may be.
June 21, 2019
The one important thing that politics in Uk has to do is to see off the scourge of Farrage. Hunt vs johnson is neither hear nor there just a time filler..in the end we will have a GE or another Referendum on the whole silly thing..it’s all part of the fix to bring us into line with the EU because there is really no credible alternative
June 21, 2019
There is only one way to see off the ‘scourge’ of Nigel Farage MEP – Deliver on the promise to Leave the EU. Fail to do that and could be out next PM. Think on that.
June 21, 2019
The odds against Hunt are 1/13. The arrogance and conceit and lack of interest in getting back to government are overwhelming. If it was another Jeremy (Clarkson) it would be an absorbing contest and a little more difficult for CP members.
June 21, 2019
I think you know the answer! Bit like May not disciplining the Kitkats and her actions before and at Chequers. No inquisition by MSM!
June 21, 2019
Given that over half the PCP back Johnson (presumably a little more if tactical voting) and just under a quarter (presumably fewer) Hunt, could a Hunt victory really deliver an effective leadership. There must be a autocorrect to check with members that they are OK with Johnson and stop wasting time
June 21, 2019
Sir John, could you see yourself eventually backing Hunt, if only because it became apparent that he was the least worst option? (It seems unlikely that he would articulate and hold a position on Brexit that was more convincing than that Johnson has shared with you.) What revelations about Boris, whether they concerned his personal life or policy position, would be INSUFFICIENT grounds for switching your allegiance?
June 21, 2019
B J š J B
What’s the difference?
June 21, 2019
Oh. Dear! ….seems like Boris upset his latest squeeze, red wine might have been splashed, laptops flung, opinions raised ….cause? Perhaps someone didn’t want Javid anywhere near Cabinet, or Gove kiss and make up? The boys in blue seem happy with their call out after midnight, beats doing endless paperwork. It was all going so well!
June 21, 2019
What are we to make of “neighbours” taping through the wall and then giving the tape to the Guardian? This is like the Stasi. Who set up these “neighbours” and how long have they been there?
June 22, 2019
aha! so the domestic reported by the Grauniad, well it would be wouldn’t it. Set up to record, or what?
June 22, 2019
I agree the best course of action was just to vote honestly since Boris was likely to win on his own merits.
I also feared a stitch up where after some “clever” voting Boris found himself out of the running.
If he delivers brexit then he earns the job, no one else but Raab and Esther had a realistic plan.
June 22, 2019
There you go ,hunts says if parliament blocked no deal he would support it, a vote for hunt is a vote for remain.
June 23, 2019
Perhaps Rose, this sort of public domestic row could be helpful to other couples. Iād suggest they speak to an organisation like Relate for relationship advice, if one partner is more anger prone and likes to slam doors or smash things then they need to learn how to control those urges, if they are prompted by the other partners lack of empathy, carelessness, and on then how they can learn to change trigger points. My husband thinks this is nothing to do with anyone, you wouldnāt stop a surgeon operating on you because he shouted at his wife to calm down and had an occasional late night row. He wants someone fighting for the Country not lying down and capitulating. There are lots of support for the wailing women crashing the mansion house, shouting and making themselves unwelcome pests there is just no consistency and people are held to double standards.
It is a new courtship during a stressful time exacerbated by the mediaās constant personal attacks and digging into Borisā private life, what do we know about Hunts wife? Do they never lose their cool with each other? Genuinely I donāt care, I donāt want the media to pry itās nothing to do with the job we want the two men to do.
Boris should just tell the media weāre doing relationship counselling (couple therapy) and Iād appreciate you allowing us to work through this privately WHILE I GET ON WITH THE REAL DAY JOB OF DELIVERING ON THE POLICY WE ALL MADE TO THE ELECTORATE IN 2017 AND THE 2016 REFERENDUM.
June 26, 2019
John,
Regardless of his position on Brexit you know, as well as I do, that Boris Johnson is unfit to lead the party let alone the country.