The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel - The Tory leadership elections

:)

Rory Stewart, the international development secretary, has just told the World at One that he has secured the eight nominations he needs to ensure that he will be on the ballot for the first round of voting by Tory MPs on Thursday.

also did u know he walked across afghanistan and speaks dari

Esther McVey has officially launched her leadership bid with a speech to the ultra-Brexit Bruges Group in which she pledged to deliver no deal by not allowing MPs any votes on the departure process ahead of the 31 October deadline.

lorraine kelly, we need you now more than ever

Hahahahaha LOOOL

Jeremy Hunt: “Where’s my wife?” pic.twitter.com/31nuHeudik

— Matthew Champion (@matthewchampion) June 10, 2019

Wow. A very aggressive man has just stormed the stage accusing the audience of fake news and calling MPs traitors for supporting May’s Brexit deal. pic.twitter.com/LM4QMxwA7P

— Thomas Colson (@tpgcolson) June 10, 2019

lol no

or alternatively lol yes but they don't care

at least the strategy of keeping boris bolted inside an armorgard box keeps the security requirements low, but perhaps that fucking shouty idiot was a boris fan?

"The Diary of Boris Wimp"

The clown car of Conservative candidates answers questions from CH readers
https://www.conservativehome.com/tag/15-questions

Stewart and Johnson with far far more comments/questions than any of the others.

14. From reader hertscommuter: What is the naughtiest thing you have ever done?

This is a slightly difficult question for someone who spent quite a number of years working in Iraq and Afghanistan, but I expect by naughty you mean something less intense. My mother would probably say that when I was nine, against her instructions, I sat on a cactus and she had to spend the next hour picking prickles out of my back side.

3. What would you do to strengthen the Union?

I am a passionate Unionist – part Irish, part Scottish, part English. I set up the Hands Across the Border group during the referendum on Scottish Independence. As Prime Minister I would seek to build on this record to heal some of the tensions that have bedevilled our Union in recent years. I am clear that a No Deal Brexit would do immeasurable damage to our Union, and so have ruled it out. This is particularly true in Scotland and Northern Ireland where secessionists see No Deal as the ultimate opportunity to seize their objective. I do not believe that any leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party should take such a reckless gamble. Instead, I will establish the position of First Secretary of State for the Union, with real heft and budget within Government, to ensure that, as we leave the EU and build a greener, fairer future for our country, we look to strengthen our Union wherever possible. I have already visited Scotland and Northern Ireland as part of my campaign and I passionately believe that more dialogue and understanding between our constituent nations will help strengthen us. One of the ways I would seek to foster this is through an enhanced National Citizen Service. This would be a compulsory month-long programme bringing together 16-17 years olds from all over the UK to develop life-skills and build relationships that will help better prepare them for adult life.

.@michaelgove picks Queen’s “One Vision” as his campaign song pic.twitter.com/46jUoO0Azi

— Robert Peston (@Peston) June 10, 2019

Ein Fleisch, ein Blut,
ein wahrer Glaube.
Ein Ruf, ein Traum,
ein starker Wille
Gibt mir ein Leitbild.

So the only candidates who couldn't get enough support to get on the ballot are Cleverley and Gyimah, hmm, wonder if there is any sort of pattern here...

(xp) One cokehead showing his appreciation for the work of another cokehead.

All these coke confessions will get the biggest cokehead off all, BJ, elected won't it? :(

Gyimah:

14. What is the naughtiest thing you have ever done?

It’s a long list, and not for public consumption, but I’d candidly suggest that standing for the Tory leadership on a second referendum platform must rank quite high.

Aw bless kinda

3. What would you do to strengthen the Union?

I have Welsh and Irish blood and spend part of my childhood in Scotland.

14. From reader hertscommuter: What is the naughtiest thing you have ever done?

It has to be falling off a table while dancing in a Soho bar and breaking my ankle while at my wife’s work leaving party. I was rumbled when I bumped into a journalist at St Thomas’s Hospital A&E (what were the chances) before taking Home Office Questions some days later – complete with a pair of crutches!

I also had to go to Algeria on a ministerial engagement as Immigration Minister. David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Algerian Minister all thought my mishap was rather amusing. Theresa May, regrettably, did not. Still, that’s certainly naughtier than running through a field of wheat!

(xp) He'll be used to being called Cunt then.

I assume Mark Harper's scraping up the 8 nominations is related to his previous job as Chief Whip.

I'm surprised that only Esther McVey went off the cliff on the following question:

2. “The UK should set a zero carbon target for 2050.” Do you agree and if so why?

If you want to guarantee failure, get politicians to set a target.

Preserving our natural environment is vital for the legacy we leave future generations and we must take action to combat climate change.

Our approach must combine the urgent need for action with protecting the livelihoods of working people. Reducing carbon emissions should be a continuous, dynamic process where we recognise the importance of technology and business in helping us achieve this. They don’t need targets – they just need government to stop slapping taxes on them.

We should recognise that it’s often working people in traditional industries who are expected to pay the price. Climate change affects us all, but this is a hard message to land with someone who has lost their job. It is also true that many of the measures proposed by more wealthy environmental activists would result in rising costs for working families.

cbf to check the number but xps to AF - check this lad’s Wikipedia page for multiple lols

This is a slightly difficult question for someone who spent quite a number of years working in Iraq and Afghanistan

Can't the whole country just vote one of them off every week for the next couple of months instead of allowing 100,000 weirdos to do it for us?

missed this

The former equalities minister Maria Miller introduces Raab, saying one day she might convince him he’s a feminist after all. Gets a laugh. I don’t find it that funny.

— Beth Rigby (@BethRigby) June 10, 2019

Matt DC OTM except the final two die together.

raab is an MRA

Raab has a lot of skeletons just waiting to tumble out wrt women (as does Johnson, obvs).

rory stewart’s book on afghanistan is not bad. he wipes his arse with a hand full of gravel at one point

well that explains the haunted look i guess

I can remember people joking on here about hitler and billy bremner etc.. on the labour leadership election before it looked like Corbyn was more than a placeholder. this most amazing tory 10 shortlist is more toxic than the stale farts of death in the fuhrerbunker and bremner's coffin combined, and then thinking about the freakazoids that get the last vote on this contest .. lol i just give up.

Tory leadership campaign pic.twitter.com/XsYJE2LB93

— ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (@neka) June 9, 2019

proving to be the most prescient UK tv program ever!

Hot take - the most likely candidates don't actually intend to follow through on the promises they're currently making, they just understand the value of pitching to their party before pitching to the country. Unlike, say, Liz Kendall or Yvette Cooper who tried to do the opposite.

what could possibly go wrong

Matt is right that Johnson's tax proposal isn't really a proposal, it's a statement of which wing of Toryism he's aligning himself with. the on the nose-ness of it, plus the current media strategy - don't engage with the media - feels like he's trying to create the same procession that led May to the leadership. I don't see any way he ends up unopposed but he might well hoover up a bunch of the other candidates and shorten the ballot process.

i also think he's reasonably explicitly demonstrating to the faithful that he wants to go full Trump/Bannon and it's just crazy enough to work as long as he can get to the final 2. i don't think any of the potential opponents are seriously going to try to attack him from the left.

But then after already pissing off vast swathes of the electorate he should be trying to win over for the sake of 40 odd thousand head-bangers, he has to do a damaging policy u-turn in a GE cos he didn't really mean it. It doesn't seem a good strategy to me.

obv he isn't thinking that far ahead - but he should be. and they have to let him out of that box at some point as well.

His approach is working so far, but then the great British media allows Boris to get away with shit no other politician would dream of even attempting to get away with. I only hope the infidelities, abortions, illegitimate children, coke, sexual harrassments, racism is going to be flung in his face when he does stick his head above the parapet but I wouldn't bet on it and, a la Trump, I'm not sure anyone really cares.

he has to do a damaging policy u-turn in a GE cos he didn't really mean it

He may calculate he can pivot without much damage, he may even be right. There might not really be that much calculation to it

But also if your trade is in identity and persona then policy isn't even all that relevant, so what if you u-turn

He’s *possibly* toast at the next GE because Labour people in his constituency have been running an unseat Boris campaign for two years.

some of the noise from his camp has been about how he is still the one nation liberal tory who was mayor ...blah blah .. and the only way they can project this nonsense by keeping him out of sight. That is the Boris they'd pitch to the electorate imo .. and maybe Trump style stuff wouldn't be by design and maybe they'd calculate he could get away with some of it .. but going full Trump/Boris would be a complete fail imo. When people say he's popular with members, don't forget that is such a small number these days they daren't even disclose it out of embarrassment and good lot of them are probably dead!

Would be so sweet if Johnson pulled a Balfour and lost his seat while PM

Hot take - the most likely candidates don't actually intend to follow through on the promises they're currently making, they just understand the value of pitching to their party before pitching to the country.

It is probably true that they either already know "renegotiate the backstop or No Deal" is nuts and doesn't make sense, or will find that out just like May did, and similar may apply regarding tax plans etc; but I'm not enjoying watching the press gamble the entire country on this without asking any questions more relevant than "what posters did you have on your wall when you were 14" while we helpless onlookers try to uncover traces of the line between "pretending to be recklessly dictatorial and cronyist for votes" and "actually being recklessly dictatorial and cronyist", and I imagine it's not winning us a great deal of goodwill on the EU side, or indeed Scotland.

(Or from any other non-Westminster-and-maybe-DUP govt/institution except Trump, and if anyone thinks his momentary blurtings of apparent goodwill are worth a thing, well...)

Yes, none of this matters because there's nothing I can do about it and we all need to sit through it and not scream ourselves too hoarse to make some kind of futile protestation afterwards that it wasn't actually our fault.

is such a small number these days they daren't even disclose it out of embarrassment and good lot of them are probably dead!

A third of them might be dead, a third of them are pensioners many of whom may not have actually paid any attention to politics since 1981, and a third of them are Brexit Party entryists swelling the ranks to vote for the looniest loon. Yay!

I think there's a good chance he or at least the party is toast at the next election btw but I can't see us getting a GE any time soon because they know that, and even the "never Boris"/"never No Deal" Tory MPs are probably "never willingly giving up a seat by voting no confidence" Tories long before they're never anything else.

CH has been keeping its own list of declared MP supporters: https://www.conservativehome.com/parliament/2019/06/leadership-election-candidate-support-numbers-hunt-27-johnson-19-raab-13-gove-12-javid-10.html

the winner of the leadership race gets potentially 3 years as PM before having to win a general election. they've got little reason to be appealing to anybody beyond their membership.

Maria Miller, who is backing Dominic Raab to be Tory leader, says allegations which led to him signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement were brought "vexatiously". Under the terms of the NDA, the other party can't dispute that claim. #r4today

— Kevin Schofield (@PolhomeEditor) June 11, 2019

The NDA refers to sexual harassment claims brought by a woman. The judge who granted it was Tom Tughendhat’s father Justice Michael T, who should have recused himself from ruling on his son’s friend’s case. #RevokeA50 #StopRaab

— Kate Makuen FRSA 🖖🏻 (@VesperUK) June 11, 2019