Chris Mason (I think) on the BBC was talking about the Tory leadership and indicating that some Sunak supporters are 'lending' their votes to Liz Truss, in order to stop Penny Mordaunt getting second place in the final vote. The theory is that no Conservative member would vote for Truss, but many, possibly a majority, would vote for Mordaunt. If the party faithful have a choice between Sunak and Mordaunt, Mordaunt would win, so if the MPs' vote can be rigged to make Truss and Sunak the top two, Tory members will vote for Sunak, as the least worst option. Or something like that.
To be honest, I haven't looked that closely, but I am aware from news reports that Penny Mordaunt has a strong majority amongst the 'grass roots', hence the attempt by Tory MPs to swing the voing away from Mordaunt, as the received wisdom (BBC opinion) is that Rishi Sunak has a better chance of winning in a two horse race against Truss.
Here’s a radical idea that will never take off. How about they vote for the person they think will do the best job for the country. Then if that person is knocked out, they then vote for the next person they think will do the best job for the country. Mad idea, right!? God they’re all such a bunch of self-serving arseholes. If Truss wins, we’re genuinely thinking of emigrating.
It also shows a complete lack of awareness, because that particular play has gone awry time and again. In 2016, none of the major GOP candidates went after Trump in a big way. He wasn't a real threat, and they would need his voters, so they focused fire on each other reasoning that if they could get it to a 1v1, there weren't enough people who'd actually vote for Trump to win if the field wasn't divided. By the time it became clear that they'd miscalculated, he already had it in the bag.
It won't surprise anyone that I've never been a Tory supporter, but in fact there have been a few Tory MP's in recent years for whom I developed a grudging respect, for their insistence on speaking the truth. Ken Clarke, Dominic Grieve, Philip Hammond, Rory Stewart and Anna Soubry were literally purged from the Conservative Party for their resistance to its change into the English Nationalist Party, and any of them would make a better Prime Minister than any of the pitiful trio left in this current race.
Even if Sunak wins - and he clearly is the best of a very bad bunch - he will be appointing a cabinet full of back stabbing self serving idiots, because that’s all he’ll have to choose from.
Apparently more than 1,800 Tory Party members have written to CCHQ demanding that a certain A.B.de P. Johnson’s name should be on the ballot. It’s happening.
This government (the one lauded elsewhere in this thread for being a defender of women's rights) has, oh so quietly, removed references to women's 'sexual and reproductive health & rights' & 'bodily autonomy' from a statement organised by the UK Govt. The statement was to show international solidarity, including on abortion rights. This is how it starts. Roe v Wade wasn't overturned last month. It was slain by a thousand tiny cuts over the past few decades as the right slowly worked to destroy women's rights. This is a tiny wound in British government support for women's rights. The same method will work here. And before anyone says it, bear in mind that the road to a ban on abortion in the UK is paved with a thousand "I think you're overreacting"s and a million "it could never happen here"s. Here's the full story: https://humanists.uk/2022/07/19/abo...ganised-international-human-rights-statement/ Vin
“Lauded elsewhere in this thread for being a defender of women’s rights” - has it really? I don’t think this government has been lauded for pretty much anything in this thread.
Except that wasn’t how it went at all. Indeed I’m not sure the government’s plans were discussed in detail at all. Didn’t the topic come up due to the opinions of some of the candidates - nothing to do with government policy ?
I might be mistaken but I am sure that I have seen it written that Truss is VERY popular with the grassroots. Maybe getting her into the last two is an attempt to block Rishi, with someone who is clearly a sandwich short of a picnic, someone who will be more easily manipulated?
I think they are all more popular with the grassroots than Rishi She is lazy and will likely be easily led. Also she will give away important jobs to people who wouldn’t have a chance under anyone else. She is probably worst case scenario in the short term. But given how much they banged on about “electability” with Boris I can’t get my head around why any MPs are voting for her to be leader They might have accepted defeat meaning we get 18-24 months of them trying to steal as much as they can with their power before fleeing into the sunset. What a time to be alive
I must admit that I have never seen anything about Truss's popularity, or not, as the case may be. However, I have seen that Penny Mordaunt is seen as being popular with paid up Tory members, so whichever of Truss or Mordaunt is put forwards (always assuming that Sunak is a 'shoo-in'), the party faithful are likely to select someone other than Rishi, who appears to be the MPs' preferred candidate, to judge by the numbers voting for him. Is it time to get the popcorn and settle back to watch unseemly in-fighting, back-stabbing, etc?
