ChatterBank0 min ago
Who should be the next Tory leader?
Does anyone actually care?
I have a mild interest, and would like to know if anyone else does too, and in fact if anyone else knows much about the candidates. So, who's it to be?:
Ken Clarke, Liam Fox, David Willetts, Theresa May, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Andrew Lansley, Tim Yeo, David Davis?
Have to admit I don't actually know much about most of them, with the exception of May, Clarke and Fox....
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Davis is the bookies favourite and with his background may appeal to more Labour voters than the others. I personally like Dr Fox as I think he comes over well in interviews and in this media driven society you need to look good in front of the cameras (possibly where Hague and IDS failed). I just hope ken clarke doesnt get it!
Ken Clarke is 65 by the time the next election comes around he'll be nearly 70.
Rifkind's 59 but that'd still leave him at retirement age when the next election comes around.
The Tory party are somewhat in the same position that Labour were in ten years ago with few people with experience of government.
Add this to the fact that Tony Blair is likely to hand over to Gordon Brown in a few years giving the electorate the new pair of hands to vote for (remember the John Major election) and I think that any new leader of the Tory party will need to be young enough to fight 2 general elections.
Still a lot depends on the method they use to elect the leader. The Tory grass roots may well want a candidate who is "one of us" which could mean another leader without enough appeal outside of the party.
Dispite his age I think Ken Clarke is the only one in the party able to connect with the public and genuinly understand the things people want sorting out, and most importantly get the votes. The tories also need to give up the Euro paranoia, so what if he likes Europe, future progress on this is down to his party and the public not one man. It suspect however it will end up with the usual infighting, followed by the selection of an upper class, faceless canditate who gives labour and the lib dems and easy ride...........still its amusing to watch if nothing else!!
Anybody but Clarke!
When Kenneth Clarke was Home Secretary, he refused to refer to the Court of Appeal the case of the four people who had been wrongly convicted of killing Carl Bridgwater, despite overwhelming evidence that they were innocent. He was so blinded by prejudice that he is totally unsuitable for any high office. This issue is in addition to the obvious fact that he is unsuitable in any case, because of his fanatical support for EU-integration.
Although not a card carrying Tory I am more likely to vote for them than anyone else, so I too follow this reasonably closely.
Not Clarke, too set in his ways, famously didnt read the Maastricht Treaty before helping it through the commons, a key part of the Major govenment which is arguably the most vacuous administration in post war history, apparently liked by the public but wont connect to the young voters. I like Davis, Fox and Cameron, they are not "tainted" by Thatcher years and will be more than a match for Brown who i think will be a short lived rather ineffective PM.
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