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Newbury Today Forum _ Random Rants _ Will the Next Prime Minister Please Stand Up
Posted by: Simon Kirby Jun 24 2016, 08:04 PM
It seems a reasonable enough time for David Cameron to move over, but who next?
It might be nice if there wasn't any "leader" at all - it's an anachronism and harks back to a time when states were ruled by an absolute monarch, which itself is just a vestige of some primitive stone-age governance. Parliamentary democracy is not a bad system and all this cult of personality leaves me cold.
Anyhoo, that's not likely to happen, and I'm wondering who's going to get the nod as the Conservatives' next leader. Gove is being talked-up, and I'd quite like that because he's so objectionable he'd likely loose them the next election. Boris Johnson might be a reasonable choice as he's on the liberal wing of the party and not a complete ****, and even if he does play the fool he's certainly not one.
Posted by: blackdog Jun 24 2016, 11:15 PM
A lot depends on the MPs - how many of them were really, solidly pro-EU and bear a grudge.
Gove - objectionable, but I'm not sure any Tory leader could lose the next election. Strikes me as an honest politician - a rare trait, probably makes him unelectable as leader.
Johnson - buffoon, but otherwise another Bullingdon boy - I suspect his blatant use of the EU issue for his own ambition might leave him with a lot of enemies in the Parliamentary party. If MPs believe his PR they might elect him in the belief that he's a shoo in at the next election.
May - kept quiet during the referendum, acted like a loyal lieutenant who didn't really agree with the boss - is not too pro-EU to lack credibility in the EU exit negotiations.
Osborne - don't think he's a viable candidate unless the party is seriously upset with Gove and Johnson.
Fallon, Hammond, Grayling - outsiders.
Real outsider Ruth Davidson - any by-elections due in the next couple of months?
Bottom line - I haven't got a clue!
Posted by: TallDarkAndHandsome Jun 25 2016, 05:52 AM
Gove - objectionable, but I'm not sure any Tory leader could lose the next election. Strikes me as an honest politician - a rare trait, probably makes him unelectable as leader.
Johnson - buffoon, but otherwise another Bullingdon boy - I suspect his blatant use of the EU issue for his own ambition might leave him with a lot of enemies in the Parliamentary party. If MPs believe his PR they might elect him in the belief that he's a shoo in at the next election.
May - kept quiet during the referendum, acted like a loyal lieutenant who didn't really agree with the boss - is not too pro-EU to lack credibility in the EU exit negotiations.
Osborne - don't think he's a viable candidate unless the party is seriously upset with Gove and Johnson.
Fallon, Hammond, Grayling - outsiders.
Real outsider Ruth Davidson - any by-elections due in the next couple of months?
Bottom line - I haven't got a clue!
Interesting that you think an honest politician is unelectable!
Rather sums up the disconnect between the public and Westminster.
Posted by: On the edge Jun 25 2016, 07:33 AM
David Cameron is one of those vary rare politicians who doesn't need the job to keep him in a very comfortable lifestyle. He's also someone who doesn't do things without thought or planning. He's also said several times that he doesn't want to serve beyond his present term.
Therefore, I'd suggest that he has actually delivered what that they've needed for this past 40 years; something that keeps the party broadly together. He's 'out Baldwined, Baldwin'. My view, the whole thing is planned, a 'yes' would have also seen him end his term this time.
So who do the Tory Leadership see as being on the candidate this? I suspect the ticket is quite simple, Johnson, Gove or May. All have played their role in round one of the selection process impeccably.
What round two looks like will be interesting though.
Posted by: blackdog Jun 25 2016, 05:03 PM
Not so rare in the Conservative Party - and once you've had the top job you're set for life anyway.
Posted by: On the edge Jun 25 2016, 07:55 PM
Yes very true; good example here!
Posted by: je suis Charlie Jun 25 2016, 08:26 PM
And it won't be Corbyn, loosser
Posted by: On the edge Jun 25 2016, 08:57 PM
Umm that's what was said about Clement Attlee...be careful what you wish for.
Posted by: blackdog Jun 25 2016, 10:57 PM
Another Atlee would do very nicely - if only there was one around.
Posted by: On the edge Jun 26 2016, 06:01 AM
Amen to that.
Posted by: Biker1 Jun 26 2016, 08:52 AM
Or Labour!
Or is Tony Blair scraping the barrel these days?
Posted by: On the edge Jun 26 2016, 01:40 PM
Or is Tony Blair scraping the barrel these days?
Actually, the comments made here have changed my view. Cameron probably simply didn't care, just took and stayed in office to enjoy the perks of power. Nothing more than that.
The Labour side is actually far worse.
Tony Blair has set himself up for life. He's simply just copying. The people's party don't go for the hereditary stuff do they? So we are 't likely to see generations of Blairs, Kinnocks, Straws, (or the one who gave it up) Benn's are we?
Posted by: TallDarkAndHandsome Jun 26 2016, 04:05 PM
The Labour side is actually far worse.
Tony Blair has set himself up for life. He's simply just copying. The people's party don't go for the hereditary stuff do they? So we are 't likely to see generations of Blairs, Kinnocks, Straws, (or the one who gave it up) Benn's are we?
They can't even form an opposition let alone a government.... sad state of affairs. Corbyn is going to be sat round his shadow cabinet table with John McDonnell. They have a lot of jobs to cover... LOL!
Posted by: TallDarkAndHandsome Jun 26 2016, 04:07 PM
[I guess Chilcott is out soon. I expect lots of redactions to cover Blair. Otherwise he may end up in the Hague...
Posted by: On the edge Jun 26 2016, 05:57 PM
Odd isn't it, the wannabe blue parties seem to have taken in much water. LibDems and nu Labour both seem to have run along side an iceberg. Might this mean the emergence of a real left wing party?
Posted by: TallDarkAndHandsome Jun 26 2016, 06:11 PM
Hope so. Would give people a real choice. Power to the people!
Posted by: blackdog Jun 26 2016, 09:31 PM
Perhaps New Labour and the Tory left (okay, the Tory not so right) will get together in a new centrist party while Corbyn takes the left wing and Gove the right.
Posted by: motormad Jun 29 2016, 08:54 AM
I'd love to have Boris as PM. He's hilarious.
Posted by: On the edge Jul 3 2016, 06:01 PM
Looks as if he'd been a bit too hilarious!
Still, we are going to get a polished Mrs Thatcher; public school boys love matron, so they are digging in for the long haul.
Posted by: spartacus Jul 3 2016, 07:37 PM
The article which was going to be in the Daily Torygraph makes interesting reading. So damaging did May’s campaign think it that they insisted it be removed or the newspaper would suffer consequences after her coronation…
Reproduced in full on Guido Fawkes webpage though
http://order-order.com/2016/07/02/read-full-article-pulled-telegraph-pressure-may-campaign/
Take the demoralised, underfunded UK Border Force. As the public discovered after a people-smugglers’ vessel ran aground in May, it has has only three cutters protecting 7,700 miles of coastline. Italy by contrast has 600 boats patrolling its 4722 miles.
Unsurprisingly, Mrs May’s overwhelming concern with taking credit and deflecting blame made for a difficult working relationship with her department, just as her propensity for briefing the press against cabinet colleagues made her its most disliked member in two successive governments.
It is possible that Mrs May’s intimidating ruthlessness could make her the right person to negotiate with EU leaders. However, there’s little in her record to suggest she possesses either strong negotiation skills or the ability to win allies among other leaders, unlike Michael Gove, of whom David Laws wrote “it was possible to disagree with him but impossible to dislike him,”
It’s surely about time – and not too late – for conservatives to look behind Mrs May’s carefully-wrought image and consider if she really is the right person to lead the party and the country.
There’s a vast gulf between being effective in office, and being effective at promoting yourself; it’s not one that Theresa May has yet crossed.
Posted by: On the edge Jul 3 2016, 09:02 PM
Fascinating Spartacus, quite difficult to disagree with much there, but then the Tories do seem to be quite good at picking odd balls when in what they think is a fix. Ted Heath, and Margaret Thatcher herself being good examples. The Home Office is notorious for being a basket case. No, she hasn't actually covered herself in glory, but as far as the senior division in her Department is concerned, she's essentially not rocked their boat; rather protected them, probably because she has to let them tell her what to do. So for PM I'd argue she'd be Sir Humphries choice!
Posted by: blackdog Jul 4 2016, 11:58 AM
Any of the candidates would be better than Boris, but none fills me with optimism. Of course their real problem is that they are all Tories 
Posted by: Andy Capp Jul 4 2016, 12:28 PM
Hitherto I would have favoured Boris than the others. Theresa May has 'something of the night' about her.
Posted by: On the edge Jul 4 2016, 02:11 PM
Tony Blair passes muster then, but by the end of the week he'll be damaged goods.
Posted by: Turin Machine Jul 4 2016, 08:43 PM
And now nippy Nigel's called it quits, disaster for UKIP methinks! The rest of them can't even play catch without getting the ball in their face! Still, I expect all us racist, Xenophobic, Daily Mail reading little Englanders will have to look elsewhere. Sigh! 
Posted by: On the edge Jul 4 2016, 08:56 PM
You could always join the Liberal Democrats to strengthen their Liberal (Cobdenite) wing which has taken a bashing in recent years from the Lloyd George Liberal / Gaitskell socialist axis presently calling the shots! After all, that's what Sked's UKIP looked like originally.
Yes, I'm being perfectly serious!
Posted by: Biker1 Jul 5 2016, 07:55 AM
Also she is from the "remain" camp. Is it right that she should oversee our exit? (If it ever happens after we have re- referrended a few times!
)
Posted by: Andy Capp Jul 5 2016, 08:22 AM
)It was one of the problems with a Brexit: it may not be easily possible. Brexit doesn't have ovewelming support of parliament.
Posted by: On the edge Jul 5 2016, 09:29 AM
)Interesting point that. She was in reality just as active as Jeremy Corbyn. If you think about it, against the British constitution, a referendum is really an admission that politicians don't know the will of the people on a particular question. So arguably; the lead Government side should have been disinterested; if they took any other stance, why was the referendum held?
Posted by: Cognosco Jul 5 2016, 10:22 AM
With the mutterings of curbing the House of Lords it's no wonder they were mainly against it, they don't want to lose access to the other gravy chain when they have
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