The Tory leadership race has begun. The choice looks likely to be between:
- James Cleverly
- Kemi Badenoch
- Tom Tugendhat
- Dame Priti Patel
- Mel Stride
- Robert Jenrick
- Suella Braverman
I have some immediate thoughts.
The first is how dire these options are. I would not want any of them as headteacher of a school, let alone Leader of the Opposition.
Second, none will excite the public. Some (Cleverly, Tugenhadt, Stride and Jenrick) will bore them rigid. Patel might also be in that list.
Third, Patel, Braverman and Badenoch persistently come across as extremists. Jenrick would, too, if only he could come across as anything.
Fourth, at this moment Labour must be laughing themselves silly at the idea that they might have to face any of this lot.
Fifth, so too will Farage, for whom each of these is an open goal. That is especially true of Braverman, who would, I think, stand aside for him.
Sixth, Labour's desire to become the UK party of the centre-right is made all the easier to achieve by such a motley crowd.
But, and this is the most important point of all, this leaves the social-democratic left wide open, with a vacuum waiting to be filled. We may be living in rotten political times, but the chance that things could be better has to exist when things have got this bad.
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Truth be told, it does not matter how bad the Tories will be. They will always have enough money to polish whatever turds they put out anyway.
It won’t matter when the City stabs Stymied’s Labour in the back, causes another crash and the great ‘sophisticated’ British electorate vote the shambles that is the Tory party back in again in their ‘wisdom’.
So it goes…………………..
Whoever it is I am reasonably sure they will be able to continue to pull Starmer (willingly) rightwards.
My main concern is where the left is, where’s the protest in support of the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap and those lovely 7 rebellious MPs? Where the alternative left party?
Do we have to reach a France situation before the left gets organised? When are those who are able to organise big protests going to do so?
I am ready to get out on the streets, and I’m sure many others are too. We really should be having a summer of protest.
The Left alternative exists. It’s the Green Party.
Not true it wants an unaccountable committee to determine how much money is created.
https://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2023/07/07/the-green-partys-policy-on-money-and-so-on-the-economy-is-a-work-of-econimic-fantasy/
@Schofield. Unfortunately too many people in the Green party have come under the influence of Positive Money. PM strikes me as being like a doctor who knows there is something wrong with the patient and then prescribes a cure that is worse than the disease
Thank you and well said, Richard.
Richard and readers should beware of Farage and the trap set for Labour.
Readers and Richard may be aware of the rumours circulating about Starmer and a Labour Party official and how, in return for dropping Leveson II, Murdoch rushed cynically to the side of the soon to be victor. It’s not just Starmer’s personal life, but his time as DPP that is of interest for when the tide turns.
It’s not just Leveson II that exercised Murdoch. Part of the quid pro quo included Labour easing its campaign in Clacton, thus gifting the seat to Farage, a friend of Murdoch for thirty years.
I love the MSM and centrist log rollers rabbiting on about Starmer being ruthless in opposition and in power. Starmer has been a kick down and suck up type all his life.
Off topic: It will be interesting to observe how Labour in Westminster and Manchester handles what happened yesterday at Manchester airport and the truth outs about who has been training and even deploying alongside British (and American) police and military. For British security forces, that relationship goes back twenty years.
I have heard the rumours from well placed sources.
One rumour relates to a particualr appointment.
Owen Jones is specific about Murdoch.
Thank you, Richard.
Was one on Politics Live at lunchtime, former party official, now junior minister for overseas matters..?
Maybe
Feet up, popcorn ordered…. bring on the clowns.
Maybe next year….
Don’t bother, they’re here!
erm… as I looked at the list I wondered if this was the cast for a pantomime? (or maybe a remake of Up Pompeii)
As was noted, parties lose elections – thus who is in the tory party now is mostly irrelevant – it is what LINO does/does not do which will influence outcomes in 2029, by which time the assorted never-weres could well be history.
One observes that all but two are descendants of recent immigration. For the party of the English establishment, this seems a little unexpected.
They would probably argue that it shows that by hard work and education, migrants can contribute to the society- given the chance. But given the recent election campaign they wish to downplay that thought.
It may be a small thing but what sticks in my mind about Jenrick is his instruction to staff at a reception centre for migrants, to paint out cartoon figures which were to give some comfort to the children.
As was said to Senator Joseph McCarthy. – Have you no decency, sir?’
… or children of your own”?
Thank you, Richard.
In his early days in politics, Tugendhat reminded me of the Tory wets, a group his family would have known. He became neoliberal and neocon for career reasons. The old Tugendhat could provide a path back for the Tories. The Tory wet tradition gets an airing intermittently.
I remember the original ‘wets’. I met a lot of them.
They make this lot look like pygmies.
Thank you, Richard.
Wasn’t Christopher Tugendhat a prominent one nation Tory type?
Thank you, Tony. Yes. His uncle.
I believe the Tories will pick one of the bores for now as a caretaker and when a seat becomes available Boris will run for it. If by then Labour hasn’t made any real change to society i.e. scrapped the cap on two child benefit,then I hope either a independent,green or Libdem should oppose him.
The Left in England is currently occupied by Galloway’s “Worker’s GB” Party (authoritarian) and the Greens (liberal):
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2024
The Greens are the only party that recognise the foolishness of chasing “growth” as a priority.