DavidL There is every chance the Tories will need to protect their rightflank following the referendum, especially if it is a narrow In producing a risk Out Tory voters will go to UKIP to keep fighting the fight
davidherdson Wasn't Heath also just about the favourite against Macleod in 1965?
Wasn't that Regie Maudling? Enoch told the tale of Macleod ducking it against Home in the last magic circle 'election'.
It was Maudling in 1965. Not sure what you mean by 'ducking it' but Iain Macleod refused to serve under Home in 1963 (as did Enoch) and as editor of the Spectactor authored that excoriating attack on the 'magic circle' (his phrase) that had propelled Home to the Premiership.
PS It was RAB Butler who, indecisive and gutless as ever, refused to fire the gun. Had he too declined office under Home, he himself would have become PM.
Word-perfect, possibly, but (in the true Guardian tradition) completely impractical.
Labour should put its thinking head on before it is too late. It should have agreed on an experienced interim leader who commands general confidence to take the party past the Scottish elections and the European referendum and into 2017, while preparing Labour – and its electoral system – for a proper contest between its next generation of leadership candidates in time for 2020. Ideally it should still do this.
Fine - except that there is no mechanism to do so.
Is there anything stopping you launching your campaign for interim leader? Get your nominations on that basis?
"The vote sparks the fourth Tory leadership election in eight years, with former home secretary Michael Howard emerging as the strong favourite.
One possible rival, David Davis, has already said he is backing Mr Howard in the leadership contest, saying he had decided to turn down requests to run himself."
"The vote sparks the fourth Tory leadership election in eight years, with former home secretary Michael Howard emerging as the strong favourite.
One possible rival, David Davis, has already said he is backing Mr Howard in the leadership contest, saying he had decided to turn down requests to run himself."
Yes, sorry what I meant was that he was favourite whilst IDS was under siege.
But sensibly Davis realised that leading the party to defeat in 2005 would not be a good look so decided he would claim the crown later. Ahem.
FPT: "It is astounding that Labour still doesn't get this simple point. Brown's coronation makes him, AFAIK, the only PM in the last 100-odd years who did not have to face any sort of contested election to attain that office"
It looks like a bomb attack has really messed up the Iranian embassy in Damascus Wednesday late afternoon UK time. The explosion was rather large.
It will be interesting who the casualties were as its a key co-ordination point for the Iranian effort inside Syria. Insurgents are obviously suspected but it should be noted plenty in the Assad camp are concerned about the Iranians and how much power they have including a lot of officials and militias that really answer to them not Bashar Assad.
Yokel Well if it means the Iranians getting more involved that will be interesting, it is already Iran who are providing much of the muscle behind both Assad and the Iraqi government in terms of hardware, military officers, special forces and Shia militias
Yokel Well if it means the Iranians getting more involved that will be interesting, it is already Iran who are providing much of the muscle behind both Assad and the Iraqi government in terms of hardware, military officers, special forces and Shia militias
They pretty much cant get any more involved in Syria than they already are other than a) sending in airstrikes (logistically they are not well geared for strikes over that range and have an IFF problem with non-friendly hardware up the air in the region) and/or b) landing mainline forces. Exactly how they bring those in in any numbers is a problem in itself. When Palmyra airbase falls they've lost one of their main air transit points.
Given that, the actual bodies they can bring are already largely in place, there isn't a major injection even from Hizbollah, they can short term boost but to some extent are just replacing the dead. The insurgents don't seem to have as much of a line fighting resources problem.
UKIP polled more votes than the LDs in 490 constituencies. The LDs more than UKIP in 123. UKIP polled more votes than Labour in 106 seats out of 613 where they both stood. UKIP polled more votes than the Conservatives in 61 constituencies out of 623 where both stood.
UKIP polled more votes than the LDs in 490 constituencies. The LDs more than UKIP in 123. UKIP polled more votes than Labour in 106 seats out of 613 where they both stood. UKIP polled more votes than the Conservatives in 61 constituencies out of 623 where both stood.
Figures which show how inefficient the UKIP vote was. The LDs won eight times as many seats.
Yokel Iran has an army of over 500,000 and over 1 million in reserves it also has a larger population than Iraq and Syria combined, if it wished to mobilise really wipe out ISIS it probably could do so, though it would be a bloody and long conflict
UKIP polled more votes than the LDs in 490 constituencies. The LDs more than UKIP in 123. UKIP polled more votes than Labour in 106 seats out of 613 where they both stood. UKIP polled more votes than the Conservatives in 61 constituencies out of 623 where both stood.
Figures which show how inefficient the UKIP vote was. The LDs won eight times as many seats.
Comments
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1m9D1CqtjKAjfeXKp0TznN8_cJUiuWHafIB67sV1kFqo/edit#gid=0
In just 34 seats did the LDs retain more than two-thirds of their 2010 vote share.
PS It was RAB Butler who, indecisive and gutless as ever, refused to fire the gun. Had he too declined office under Home, he himself would have become PM.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3225127.stm
"The vote sparks the fourth Tory leadership election in eight years, with former home secretary Michael Howard emerging as the strong favourite.
One possible rival, David Davis, has already said he is backing Mr Howard in the leadership contest, saying he had decided to turn down requests to run himself."
But sensibly Davis realised that leading the party to defeat in 2005 would not be a good look so decided he would claim the crown later. Ahem.
"It is astounding that Labour still doesn't get this simple point. Brown's coronation makes him, AFAIK, the only PM in the last 100-odd years who did not have to face any sort of contested election to attain that office"
Eden, McMillan ?
It will be interesting who the casualties were as its a key co-ordination point for the Iranian effort inside Syria. Insurgents are obviously suspected but it should be noted plenty in the Assad camp are concerned about the Iranians and how much power they have including a lot of officials and militias that really answer to them not Bashar Assad.
Labour polled more votes than the LDs in 561 constituencies. The LDs polled more votes than Labour in 70 seats.
In just 23 seats did the LDs outpoll Labour by more than 10,000 votes:
Dorset Mid & Poole North, Fife North East, Sutton & Cheam, St Ives, Devon North, Chippenham, Edinburgh West, Kingston & Surbiton, Torbay, Cornwall North,
Ross Skye & Lochaber, Lewes, Dunbartonshire East, Inverness Nairn Badenoch & Strathspey, Norfolk North, Cheltenham, Thornbury & Yate, Yeovil, Wells, Gordon,
Eastbourne, Twickenham, Westmorland & Lonsdale.
Labour outpolled the LDs by more than 10,000 votes in 368 divisions; by more than 20,000 votes in 93 constituencies.
UKIP polled more votes than the LDs in 490 constituencies. The LDs more than UKIP in 123.
Given that, the actual bodies they can bring are already largely in place, there isn't a major injection even from Hizbollah, they can short term boost but to some extent are just replacing the dead. The insurgents don't seem to have as much of a line fighting resources problem.