The Road to Downing St

[Nearly Sane]

No the BBC should not prop up a PM or an MP, but if all that air time is given to anti-May Shaps, then  equal space should have been given to someone pro-May. Perhaps they did, but I didn't hear it.

Have you said the same about their coverage of Corbyn?

[Rhiannon]

No the BBC should not prop up a PM or an MP, but if all that air time is given to anti-May Shaps, then  equal space should have been given to someone pro-May. Perhaps they did, but I didn't hear it.

Are you sure that there is anyone pro- May who wants the equivalent air time?

[ProfessorDavey]

  Yes, I did hear the sound of breaking glass with her jibe against Corbyn of not even having won a raffle. And unless the Tories were somehow going to be lead by someone who wasn't PM she would have to win a seat first. I can imagine someone might be persuaded to fall upon their  sword but it might not be easy to win such an election. (who knows some burly men might intervene!)

She could always be appointed to the Lords!

Interesting that increasingly we are seeing perhaps the most capable candidates in positions outside Parliament, making it difficult to see how they could be appointed leader (or even PM).

So arguably (and I'm sure many here will argue!!) the most credible candidates (in terms of appeal to a wide section of the population) to succeed May and Corbyn are Davidson and Khan.

[Rhiannon]

If only, ProfD.

[ProfessorDavey]

If only, ProfD.

Which?

[SusanDoris]

Have you said the same about their coverage of Corbyn?

I do not listen to the radio enough to have heard much and am not interested enough to find out what is being said about Corbym.

[Nearly Sane]

I do not listen to the radio enough to have heard much and am not interested enough to find out what is being said about Corbym.

if you don't listen to the radio much how can you tell how balanced the coverage is overall?

[SusanDoris]

if you don't listen to the radio much how can you tell how balanced the coverage is overall?

I can't! I just get annoyed at the bits I do hear!

[Nearly Sane]

She could always be appointed to the Lords!

Interesting that increasingly we are seeing perhaps the most capable candidates in positions outside Parliament, making it difficult to see how they could be appointed leader (or even PM).

So arguably (and I'm sure many here will argue!!) the most credible candidates (in terms of appeal to a wide section of the population) to succeed May and Corbyn are Davidson and Khan.

I think that there is an element of familiarity and some enormously crappy decision making breeding contempt. After the PM, the Mayor of London is arguably the highest profile elected person in the UK and they get the position on a direct vote. The role seems to allow people to be much less party political though in how they are potrayed.


As for Ruth, I think she is more familiar in Scotland and has been not as impressive as her forays onto the wider stage have appeared. I hasten to add that I am not particularly doing her down here, she is a hood politician and has many views that I am not unsympathetic to but there seems to be a novelty factor at work. That plus she is not besmirched by the infighting shenanigans as many in Westminster are after the leadership election. I do wonder if her position on Brexit would become a much more noticeable problem in any leadership election.

[Rhiannon]

Which?

Davidson and Khan. Two of the most able politicians in the country.

[ProfessorDavey]

Davidson and Khan. Two of the most able politicians in the country.

They both come across as normal people, able to communicate with other people.

[Gordon]

Have to say, based on events here is Scotland regarding her management of unpleasant Tories and her defending of the so-called 'rape-clause', I'm surprised at her being seen as some kind of saviour of the Tories - mind you, given the current crew, the bar is set so low you could trip over it.

[Rhiannon]

They both come across as normal people, able to communicate with other people.

I don't do party politics and I would love for the two main parties to have capable leadership that people can relate to.

[Anchorman]

To me Ruth Davidson seems the best potential successor to May in terms of how she communicates and comes across to the public. Of the rest Johnson, Davis, Leadsom, Gove, JRM seem fatally flawed - Rudd and Hammond seem perhaps more acceptable in a 'boring but safe pair of hands kind of way'. However neither engages as Davidson does.

Having said that Davidson is actually deeply inexperienced - her biggest job being leader of an opposition party in a devolved assembly - no actual experience of having to make and implement tough decisions in government. There was a letter in the Times the other day stating that she was a proven winner - err what ... she has never won an election to any parliament or council in her own right, only as a list candidate. She did win the Scottish Conservative leadership election - but to do she only attracted just over 2000 first preference votes - my local county councillor got more than that!

Oy!
Tanky McTank Face is the leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament,not the Assembly, a body which, though proposed, died a death in 1979.

[ProfessorDavey]

Oy!
Tanky McTank Face is the leader of the Opposition in the Scottish Parliament,not the Assembly, a body which, though proposed, died a death in 1979.

A Parliament is an assembly - the best and only way to describe the various devolved bodies set up in the late 90s (in Scotland, Wales, NI and London) is as assemblies.

And you will note that I used the term 'assembly' (note no capital) not 'Assembly' (note capital, as you did). This was specifically to indicate her highest achievement in broadest terms - which is reasonable give that I rapidly moved on talk about Sadiq Khan, whose highest achievement to date is also associated with a devolved assembly (in this case in London). Albeit he obtained 1.15 million first preference votes in attaining his position as mayor, while Davidson received just 2,200 first preferences in attaining her position of leader of the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament, which is a devolved assembly.

[Harrowby Hall]

Would the Conservative Party be in the state that it is in had Ken Clarke been elected party leader?

When Hague, Duncan Smith, Howard and Cameron each became party leader, their primary qualification for the post was that their name was not Kenneth Clarke.

[ProfessorDavey]

Would the Conservative Party be in the state that it is in had Ken Clarke been elected party leader?

I think it would have depended on when he had been elected leader.

If he'd been elected instead of Hague in 1997 he would still have been trounced by Blair in 2001 - arguably doing slightly better than Hague but he'd have still been on the wrong end of a landslide.

If in 2001 (instead of IDS), well that's more interesting, although I doubt he'd have done that much better than Howard in the 2005 election - maybe pushing Labour down toward a slightly uncomfortable majority. By 2010 he was yesterday's man and Cameron did well (ish) in that election precisely because he looked like the future rather than the past (Brown).

[Spud]

apart from him being in a temple at the time and if he continued about to refer to heathens and idols made of mud

Similar I guess to visiting a catholic church and reciting the second commandment out loud, so no wonder the ambassador was worried. However, here's a quote from a Buddhist scripture:
<<Buddha said to him, "The sight of my foul body is useless; he who sees the Dhamma, he it is that seeth me">>
So Buddha himself would probably not have been offended.

[Anchorman]

A Parliament is an assembly - the best and only way to describe the various devolved bodies set up in the late 90s (in Scotland, Wales, NI and London) is as assemblies.

And you will note that I used the term 'assembly' (note no capital) not 'Assembly' (note capital, as you did). This was specifically to indicate her highest achievement in broadest terms - which is reasonable give that I rapidly moved on talk about Sadiq Khan, whose highest achievement to date is also associated with a devolved assembly (in this case in London). Albeit he obtained 1.15 million first preference votes in attaining his position as mayor, while Davidson received just 2,200 first preferences in attaining her position of leader of the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament, which is a devolved assembly.

A Parliament is an assembly - the best and only way to describe the various devolved bodies set up in the late 90s (in Scotland, Wales, NI and London) is as assemblies.

And you will note that I used the term 'assembly' (note no capital) not 'Assembly' (note capital, as you did). This was specifically to indicate her highest achievement in broadest terms - which is reasonable give that I rapidly moved on talk about Sadiq Khan, whose highest achievement to date is also associated with a devolved assembly (in this case in London). Albeit he obtained 1.15 million first preference votes in attaining his position as mayor, while Davidson received just 2,200 first preferences in attaining her position of leader of the Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament, which is a devolved assembly.

Far be it for me to argue wot the dregs of the pseudodemocratic shambles known as Westminster, but the Scotland Act, passed by that pseudodemocratic shambles, establishes a Scottish parliament.
Who am I to argue with the rabble in Westminster?

[ProfessorDavey]

Far be it for me to argue wot the dregs of the pseudodemocratic shambles known as Westminster, but the Scotland Act, passed by that pseudodemocratic shambles, establishes a Scottish parliament.
Who am I to argue with the rabble in Westminster?

Nope - the Scotland Act established the Scottish Parliament which is a devolved assembly.

Note the definition of an assembly being 'A group of people elected to make laws or decisions for a particular country or region' (Oxford Dictionary).

At similar times the Government also enacted the Welsh Assembly, the NI Assembly and the Greater London Assembly, which are also all devolved assemblies.

And the Westminster UK Parliament is also an assembly, albeit not a devolved assembly.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

watching Graham Norton, picture of Boris very popular. I think the GOBP might want one more night of posh passionate political porking courtesy of the Blond Old Etonian.

Also the BBC attached a piece of Boris's WhatsApp message to something Davidson had said.

Keep a look out for ''Boris says'' attachments of this kind as he is turned into a Budget Churchill.

[Nearly Sane]

Seen elsewhere from Frankie Boyle 'Jacob Rees-Mogg, P G Wodehouse's flirtation with fascism given physical form.'

[Nearly Sane]

And in this piece Boris Johnson as a 'malevolent baked Alaska'


https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/17/tory-power-sustained-cruel-confidence-tricks

[Nearly Sane]

But he's a bit of a larf....



https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/foreign-affairs/news/90394/boris-johnson-blunder-risks-five-more-years-prison-british

[SteveH]

The Next Prime Minister will be St Jeremy of Corbyn. I hope.