An excellent article, Has the Tory party and the country been deprived of the leader the country needs and the membership seemed to be moving towards wanting in Kemi Badenoch by the limited choices now presented by the MPs or was their choice the right one leaving Kemi perhaps for a future occasion?
I am torn, having regarded Kemi as an outstanding parliamentarian well before the recent contest, but believing that MPs must inevitably have a better insight into the character and abilities of the contenders than the membership as a whole. Certainly Penny Mordaunts’s deficiencies were highlighted by the events of the public contest when early indications of her popularity with the members threatened to foist an individual with as many flaws and fewer virtues than Boris on the country.
Peter McLaughlin
1 year ago
This is the first good sense I’ve read or heard about this contest.
When the last three were asked if they would support another Scottish independence referendum, Sunak and Mordaunt both replied with non committal waffle.
Liz Truss said no.
Straight answer. While being disappointed Kemi Badenoch is out, I warmed a bit to Ms Truss.
Max Price
1 year ago
Great article. Very well written.
Maureen Finucane
1 year ago
At least Thatcher wasn’t thick.
Carlos Danger
1 year ago
My guess is neither Rishi Sunak nor Liz Truss will make a very good prime minister. We’ll see what happens.
“You can have it (Ford Model T) in any colour as long as it’s black” – Henry Ford.
Jeff Butcher
1 year ago
I don’t like Sunak, who seems to me to be nothing but another corporate suit. However Truss is a maniac! I shudder at the idea of her representing a Scout group let alone a nation. Is is not possible to find someone reasonably sane?
Reading commentators whose judgement I would be inclined to trust (William Hague, for example), I form a better opinion of Sunak than the ‘corporate suit’. He is a thinking man, a man who listens and learns and, I understand, an honourable man (though we may question how any honourable person could serve so long in a Johnson administration).
Henry, your last sentence is the key one for me. It was too hypocritical of Sunak to have supported Johnson so long for me to perceive him as honourable. In addition, he appears to be a puppet of the WEF and I suspect it is intended for him to become PM because he is very pro digital ID. Not good, from my point of view.
This is the very model of an academic blog. It is evidence-led, logically argued and (as others have noted) beautifully written. Thank you, Prof. Cowley.
That said, both main parties do need to revisit their rules for choosing a new leader. Parties in opposition have all the time in the world, but parties in government do not. The 1922 Committee moved things along at a rare clip, but even so, our government is paralysed for two months. That’s never a good idea.
I seem to recall that French inaction to Hitler’s reoccupation of the Rhineland was because Paris was between governments. No one felt in any position to do anything. Does anyone want to bet that nothing of much significance is going to happen between now and early September?
I hear the EU are in support of the Unification of Taiwan to China.
Kevin Branch
1 year ago
I think what the ‘don’t blame the members’ argument overlooks is that it was the members who selected all the “eccentric” MPs in the first place.
Members probably shouldn’t choose leaders. It would certainly have avoided the unfortunate Corbyn incident. But it is a second order problem next to fact that joining a political party has become a weird quirky thing to do even if you are someone who follows politics. And MPs come predominantly from party membership.
The core problem seems to be culture within big political parties, possibly because they do not attract broad membership, or possibly that is a symptom of something else.
This is the 7th time the tories have run this process. And with the arguable exception of Davis/Cameron it has never managed to present two candidates who were both credible as PM. So something is certainly going wrong.
The modern MP selection process in both parties is tightly controlled by the party management, and like the tory leadership contest, the only possible winner is somebody already carefully vetted.
It ensures the MPs are even more properly representative of the Westminster establishment, rather than the provincial electorate.
It was the huge left-wing change in Labour Members that caused Corbin’s election!
Frank McCusker
1 year ago
Truss. I’m sure she’s a decent person, but she does seem to be making it up as she goes along
Vibeke Lawrie
1 year ago
For all his faults only Boris hasthe biottle the belly and the bravura to lead out of the mess a mess largely of his own making.
Jon Hawksley
1 year ago
It is a mess. The job should go to the person who can do it best, not the person who wants it most. Each candidate making up their own policy as they go along renders have a political party with a thought through idealogy pointless. The role of a prime minister is to manage a government not make-up the governments’ policy. We have partisan politics with two principal tribes but then the tribes fragmented into sub-tribes with members dancing about to get their noses in the trough with a ministerial salary on top of their pay as a full time MP. At the end of the day the Queen is going to ask someone who can command a majority in Parliament to form a Goverment. Does the current process get the best person? Or does it get the person most obsessed with being Prime Minister?
The trouble is, not a single one of us knows whether an incumbent Tory leader will make “the best” Prime Minister. There’s only one way to find out, and it’s quite often the case that the chosen one will rise to the challenge and confound their critics, whilst in the process transforming their own persona with the assurance of authority in office. I’d suggest that anyone putting themselves forward would need what i’d consider to be a healthy degree of obsession, aka ambition.
Sarah Atkin
1 year ago
Just a point on PM’s entering and exiting Downing Street after a GE; Harold Wilson did – elected in 1964 and voted out in 1970. That counts doesn’t it, even though he won again in ’74 and resigned in 1976?
Nigel Watson
1 year ago
LibLabCon only allow potential candidates to even stand as MPs and merely appear on the ballot paper if they are controllable – think ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ style photographs and videos.
The Kemi phenomenon was designed to convince fools that there was still reason to engage in our utterly corrupt & controlled political system – she spoke an excellent game, you see, so people’s hopes were cruelly raised before being quickly dashed again when she was inevitably removed from the game: how can people seriously still believe that her name would still be on the ballot paper by the time the rank and file membership got to vote?? It was NEVER going to happen.
I can’t help but think that the here today, gone tomorrow, Kemi Badenoch phenomenon was just a deliberate attempt to troll the general public – here’s what you could have had, plebs – but hey, you get to vote on whether you get WEF controlled Rishi, or WEF controlled Penny. What does this do to the general public? The answer is that it demoralises them, so they’re easier to manipulate and control. See Yuri Bezmenov for more details. I did a video about this Badenoch kabuki theatre show THE KEMI BADENOCH PHENOMENON: ACCEPT YOU WERE TROLLED, PLEBS, AND ENJOY YOUR ERSATZ DEMOCRACY! – YouTube
I suspect Kemi was rejected because she lacks cabinet experience. Assuming her career prospers, she will be in a much stronger position the next time the leadership is up for grabs.
My concern was that any ambitious Tory wannabe leader would be reluctant to vote for a candidate younger than themself because it would effectively scupper their own prospects. Rishi seemed to be ring fenced from this and I’m sorry to say that Penny probably attracted more attention than she merited because of some rather fetching photographs that appealed to a certain demographic. The one remotely Conservative voice in this unseemly reality show didn’t stand a chance, even though she is of an age with previous, equally inexperienced, Prime Ministers.
An excellent article, Has the Tory party and the country been deprived of the leader the country needs and the membership seemed to be moving towards wanting in Kemi Badenoch by the limited choices now presented by the MPs or was their choice the right one leaving Kemi perhaps for a future occasion?
I am torn, having regarded Kemi as an outstanding parliamentarian well before the recent contest, but believing that MPs must inevitably have a better insight into the character and abilities of the contenders than the membership as a whole. Certainly Penny Mordaunts’s deficiencies were highlighted by the events of the public contest when early indications of her popularity with the members threatened to foist an individual with as many flaws and fewer virtues than Boris on the country.
This is the first good sense I’ve read or heard about this contest.
When the last three were asked if they would support another Scottish independence referendum, Sunak and Mordaunt both replied with non committal waffle.
Liz Truss said no.
Straight answer. While being disappointed Kemi Badenoch is out, I warmed a bit to Ms Truss.
Great article. Very well written.
At least Thatcher wasn’t thick.
My guess is neither Rishi Sunak nor Liz Truss will make a very good prime minister. We’ll see what happens.
I agree. If it’s Truss and her Thatcher tribute act you can wave goodbye to the recently acquired Red Wall seats
It will be. She’s got it in the bag.
Vote Conservative, get the New World Order.
Vote (New?) Labour, get the New World Order
Vote LibDem, get the New World Order
Nothing new, it’s been the case for at least two decades
‘Our Democracy’ (TM) is great, innit, plebs?
“You can have it (Ford Model T) in any colour as long as it’s black” – Henry Ford.
I don’t like Sunak, who seems to me to be nothing but another corporate suit. However Truss is a maniac! I shudder at the idea of her representing a Scout group let alone a nation. Is is not possible to find someone reasonably sane?
Reading commentators whose judgement I would be inclined to trust (William Hague, for example), I form a better opinion of Sunak than the ‘corporate suit’. He is a thinking man, a man who listens and learns and, I understand, an honourable man (though we may question how any honourable person could serve so long in a Johnson administration).
Fair points – he has at least got a brain which I’m not sure is the case with Truss
Yes she got all her geography wrong when she met Lavrov.
Henry, your last sentence is the key one for me. It was too hypocritical of Sunak to have supported Johnson so long for me to perceive him as honourable. In addition, he appears to be a puppet of the WEF and I suspect it is intended for him to become PM because he is very pro digital ID. Not good, from my point of view.
Isn’t that Tony Blair’s new project?
This is the very model of an academic blog. It is evidence-led, logically argued and (as others have noted) beautifully written. Thank you, Prof. Cowley.
That said, both main parties do need to revisit their rules for choosing a new leader. Parties in opposition have all the time in the world, but parties in government do not. The 1922 Committee moved things along at a rare clip, but even so, our government is paralysed for two months. That’s never a good idea.
I seem to recall that French inaction to Hitler’s reoccupation of the Rhineland was because Paris was between governments. No one felt in any position to do anything. Does anyone want to bet that nothing of much significance is going to happen between now and early September?
I hear the EU are in support of the Unification of Taiwan to China.
I think what the ‘don’t blame the members’ argument overlooks is that it was the members who selected all the “eccentric” MPs in the first place.
Members probably shouldn’t choose leaders. It would certainly have avoided the unfortunate Corbyn incident. But it is a second order problem next to fact that joining a political party has become a weird quirky thing to do even if you are someone who follows politics. And MPs come predominantly from party membership.
The core problem seems to be culture within big political parties, possibly because they do not attract broad membership, or possibly that is a symptom of something else.
This is the 7th time the tories have run this process. And with the arguable exception of Davis/Cameron it has never managed to present two candidates who were both credible as PM. So something is certainly going wrong.
The modern MP selection process in both parties is tightly controlled by the party management, and like the tory leadership contest, the only possible winner is somebody already carefully vetted.
It ensures the MPs are even more properly representative of the Westminster establishment, rather than the provincial electorate.
It was the huge left-wing change in Labour Members that caused Corbin’s election!
Truss. I’m sure she’s a decent person, but she does seem to be making it up as she goes along
For all his faults only Boris hasthe biottle the belly and the bravura to lead out of the mess a mess largely of his own making.
It is a mess. The job should go to the person who can do it best, not the person who wants it most. Each candidate making up their own policy as they go along renders have a political party with a thought through idealogy pointless. The role of a prime minister is to manage a government not make-up the governments’ policy. We have partisan politics with two principal tribes but then the tribes fragmented into sub-tribes with members dancing about to get their noses in the trough with a ministerial salary on top of their pay as a full time MP. At the end of the day the Queen is going to ask someone who can command a majority in Parliament to form a Goverment. Does the current process get the best person? Or does it get the person most obsessed with being Prime Minister?
The trouble is, not a single one of us knows whether an incumbent Tory leader will make “the best” Prime Minister. There’s only one way to find out, and it’s quite often the case that the chosen one will rise to the challenge and confound their critics, whilst in the process transforming their own persona with the assurance of authority in office. I’d suggest that anyone putting themselves forward would need what i’d consider to be a healthy degree of obsession, aka ambition.
Just a point on PM’s entering and exiting Downing Street after a GE; Harold Wilson did – elected in 1964 and voted out in 1970. That counts doesn’t it, even though he won again in ’74 and resigned in 1976?
LibLabCon only allow potential candidates to even stand as MPs and merely appear on the ballot paper if they are controllable – think ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ style photographs and videos.
The Kemi phenomenon was designed to convince fools that there was still reason to engage in our utterly corrupt & controlled political system – she spoke an excellent game, you see, so people’s hopes were cruelly raised before being quickly dashed again when she was inevitably removed from the game: how can people seriously still believe that her name would still be on the ballot paper by the time the rank and file membership got to vote?? It was NEVER going to happen.
I can’t help but think that the here today, gone tomorrow, Kemi Badenoch phenomenon was just a deliberate attempt to troll the general public – here’s what you could have had, plebs – but hey, you get to vote on whether you get WEF controlled Rishi, or WEF controlled Penny. What does this do to the general public? The answer is that it demoralises them, so they’re easier to manipulate and control. See Yuri Bezmenov for more details. I did a video about this Badenoch kabuki theatre show THE KEMI BADENOCH PHENOMENON: ACCEPT YOU WERE TROLLED, PLEBS, AND ENJOY YOUR ERSATZ DEMOCRACY! – YouTube
I suspect Kemi was rejected because she lacks cabinet experience. Assuming her career prospers, she will be in a much stronger position the next time the leadership is up for grabs.
My concern was that any ambitious Tory wannabe leader would be reluctant to vote for a candidate younger than themself because it would effectively scupper their own prospects. Rishi seemed to be ring fenced from this and I’m sorry to say that Penny probably attracted more attention than she merited because of some rather fetching photographs that appealed to a certain demographic. The one remotely Conservative voice in this unseemly reality show didn’t stand a chance, even though she is of an age with previous, equally inexperienced, Prime Ministers.