Wonderful character assassination of Johnson on radio 4. "What are the Tory Party thinking about!" says Max Hastings "You wouldn't trust him with your wallet or your wife" says Hesseltine. They loathe him! I'd put your money on Gove. He wont survive a month of that
Dear Lord we your humble and miserable servants of PB do beseech you to consider the thread writers of this site and pray that you place a pair of wicked sinners - Boris Johnson and Michael Gove into the cauldron of the Conservative party leadership.
Let them sacrifice and eat babies in your name and ensure that in doing so the meek and mild of PB earn many pieces of silver.
Just a thought on nationalism for everyone to disagree with.
We all feel closer to people who are like us in one way or another. Maybe they are also British or Swiss or whatever. And sometimes this is genetic: if someone looks like us, then they might share DNA with us. But this closeness extends beyond genetics.
If a Catholic (of whatever skin colour or race) sees violence being meted out to a Catholic, they will instinctively hate the attacker and feel sympathy with the victim. One of their tribe has been attacked.
There are other bonds. Your football team is one, your friends at the pub, your chess club, your political persuasion, your employer, profession, or even being a PB-poster. (Or even for the truly perverse, there is the tribe of EUphilia that williamglenn and Jean-Claude Juncker are members of.)
We feel close to those with whom we can - in one way or another - identify with.
We are all members of multiple tribes. Some tribes stretch beyond national boundaries and therefore are seen as challenges to national identity and the nation state. I might mention Muslims in much of the Western world, or Jews in Eastern Europe prior to the Second World War.
It's OK and perfectly natural to have these competing loyalties.
The danger comes when one of these tribes is elevated above all the others, or when one is called to renounce all other loyalties. Fundamentalist religions are like this, as is extreme nationalism.
And here's the thing: extreme nationalism is not thinking that your country is better than others. It's thinking that the national bond is the only one that matters.
The Internet and globalisation have weakened the national bond, because they make it easier to be members of tribes that stretch beyond national borders. And the reaction to that is Trump and, I increasingly fear, Farage.
People just need to wake up to the fact that globalisation is likely to mean true diversity within countries rather than homogeneous nationalism. All I did was to point it out rather than pretend that everyone will just become secular Westerners. Anne Widdecombe, strict Muslims and Orthodox Jews all probably agree on issues of gender and sexuality, and if secularists genuinely want a diverse society they’ll have to accept that.
I don’t think my country is better than others nor that the national bond is stronger. I just think mass immigration is bad for the poorest in society and rewards the richest, even though it doesn’t really affect me either way.
I hereby declare, with complete lack of logic, that we can count all non Boris votes together, and therefore it is effectively Johnson 160, Hunt 152. See, very close.
I hereby declare, with complete lack of logic, that we can count all non Boris votes together, and therefore it is effectively Johnson 160, Hunt 152. See, very close.
Not so illogical. If Hunt and Gove could now team up....
If Boris runs the country as well as he has run this contest, we will be fine......
He has a lot less control over relevant factors when running the country. Even of the factors he has controlled during the contest, they will be far more unreliable when it comes to actually governing. So it seems a faint hope.
I presume the two spoilt ballot papers were Stewart backers.
Maybe Stewart was one himself.
He's denied it. Wouldn't surprise me if Ken was one.
I don't think it'd be Ken. Grieve and Greening would be my bet
Philip Lee.
My guess is that Lee and Greening are intending to leave when Boris gets chosen (or possibly and more dramatically a little earlier) and left their papers blank. I doubt any MP would take the risk of adding graffiti to a ballot paper, for risk of being found out.
Remember Heidi seemed convinced there is a bunch of Tories ready to jump
Greening would be a very good call to hold Putney as a LD. Lee would be unlikely to hold Bracknell.
I could see Grieve and Lee quitting as they have already faced deselection threats
The LibDems did make second, if distant, in Bracknell in 2010. And you could argue it’s Chelmsford dropped West of London.
I don't know Chelmsford but I would have though it was a bit more upmarket than Bracknell.
The LDs have never tended to do that well in the new towns, which have mainly been Con-Lab fights. Bracknell is more Brexity than Chelmsford.
A 1% difference is neither here nor there.
It also depends on, if he defects, who he takes with him. I still have, limited, links in the constituency so whilst I can’t see it being fertile ground given a four party split anything could happen.
As this goes to the hustings (16 of them) and TV debates, if they are not concluded by the 12th July or so the membership will have voted. We receive our votes on the 6th to 8th July and the two votes for Hunt will be returned immediately
As this goes to the hustings (16 of them) and TV debates, if they are not concluded by the 12th July or so the membership will have voted. We receive our votes on the 6th to 8th July and the two votes for Hunt will be returned immediately
All the hustings are before ballot papers are sent out
The British people voted in 2016. Everyone said they had made a crazy choice, and so-called experts intervened to try to deny them their rights. But they proved the nay sayers wrong, and now great things are happening!
Comments
Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt
Johnson 160
Hunt 77
Gove 75
Is Ruth going to kybosh Boris by giving him the black spot of her backing?
Hunt 77
Gove 75
So Hunt scrapes through to face Boris
Revenge on Gove?
I don’t think my country is better than others nor that the national bond is stronger. I just think mass immigration is bad for the poorest in society and rewards the richest, even though it doesn’t really affect me either way.
Gavin Williamson back in the cabinet. Eesh.
Tory members can now decide whether they want a ultra unicorn seller or a mildly unicorn seller.
I think we know the answer.
At least I do not have to vote for the apologist for racists and terrorists at the next election.
Williamson, Truss, god knows who else, truly the cabinet of none of the talents.
I win a tenner if Boris wins, a grand or so if Jeremy does.
It will be less entertaining than Gove, but perhaps mose sane in the debates.
Perhaps if the Gove camp had stayed beneath the radar they might have pipped it by a vote.
I cannot see Williamson in the next CoE markets, is anyone running one?
Of course spiderman didn't do very well with the WA votes!
If you are out shopping for unicorns, the longer the horn the better.
NEW THREAD
So pretty pleased overall. Perhaps should have weighed in a bit more on Boris in the days when he was out of favour.
https://news.avclub.com/groundbreaking-climate-change-discovery-made-by-sigh-1835625168