Leader Watch

He of the compromise that never was. No great loss.

Presently can’t see beyond Hunt and Johnson being the two remaining candidates. Still waiting for Gove’s knife placement, though.

I see our present leader is on her bike today! 

My good lady said this morning 'who's going to run the country till her replacement takes over?'

To which I replied, 'don't worry, no one's been running the country for the last two years anyway!' 

So what happens now ?

Rob has kindly listed the array of talent that Tory MP's have to choose between, in order to narrow it down to a final 2. 2nd Referendum (Losers Vote) advocate, 'Little Sammy' has seen sense and dropped out. Nominations have closed and we're down to the final 10. As Rob says, Penny Mordaunt has disappointingly decided to back Jeremy 'Theresa In Trousers' Hunt. This naturally means that the Penny 'swimsuit' photo will only appear if it's a very quiet day on the campaign trail...whereas it was a cast iron certainty for an airing if Penny was a prospective Prime Minister. Who would therefore not agree that Esther McVey is now the unopposed official TFF glamour candidate for the top job ?

So procedurally speaking, things should pan out something like this:

1. First ballot to take place this coming Thursday (13th) Between the times of 10am and noon. You need to get at least 17 votes to go through to the next round. All candidates getting fewer than that number cast for them will be eliminated.

2. Seconds out....Round 2.  This is due to take place on the following Tuesday (18th) Now the threshold is increased to 33 votes being required in order to stay in the race. All candidates getting fewer than 33 votes are knocked out.

3. In each case, if all candidates reach the threshold, then it's the candidate who received the lowest number of votes who gets eliminated.

4. Things then speed up a bit, with ballots scheduled for consecutive days. So after next Tuesday's (18th) vote, there should be one on Wednesday (19th) and Thursday (20th).

BoJo's tactic of not speaking to the biased BBC is probably a sound one. Even better if he gives their intended Interview programme a miss as well. Never particularly popular with other Tory MP's though, but if they want to retain their seats and win some votes back from Mr.Farage's stunningly successful new party, then they may decided that Boris has to be the man. Gove finding that his leadership bid isn't going better with coke. Saj Jav the Riv Mac favoured candidate, is staying fairly quiet. Rumours that Sadiq Khan will tomorrow endorse Javid for Tory leader, can't be substantiated. But I'll take up the bagpipes if it's true.  

Alpine, I now find myself reading and digesting your posts with much greater enthusiasm and interest than when you kept banging on about militants infiltrating every football club in the country, which is ridiculous and outrageous. Please don't take up that theme again.

I very much doubt that Esther McVey will get anywhere near the final vote for the new Tory leader. She certainly did herself no favours with her handling of universal credit, although the reasoning behind its introduction, namely to force people who are unfit for work to get back into work, is one of the most stinking policies that the Tories have ever come up with.

Still Esther, should she succeed, would be so much better to watch on TV than Theresa May, with her wrinkled face, ill-fitting trousers and attempted disco dance moves. I also completely agree with her on the subject of forcing little kids to listen to all of this LTBG (?) stuff. Can you imagine them going home after hearing that crap and telling their parents that they now don't know if they are a boy or a girl, or that it is perfectly normal to have two daddies or mummies? Small children are so easily influenced by what they hear at school, and the people who are insisting on this policy must have taken leave of their senses. Well done, Esther McVey, for speaking out against it.

During the day I have listened to some of the candidates for the Tory leadership, and none of them appeal to me in the slightest way, particularly Michael Gove. I say this, not because of his cocaine snorting, which happened many years ago, but because he cuts such a pathetic figure and also speaks in that false posh voice. As Rob often says, Boris Johnson is a clown, not only by virtue of his appearance but also the manner in which he presents his views. Dominic Raab is an avowed "no-dealer" and Jeremy Hunt is a staunch remainer. With the next general election two years away, God help us!

AJ, I must pick you up on a comment which you made in your last post, unless I have missed something or am being extremely naive:

"Rumours that Sadiq Khan will tomorrow endorse Javid for Tory leader, can't be substantiated."

Why would Sadiq Khan do that when he is a former cabinet minister and MP for the Labour party?


Next we have the removal of free TV licenses from pensioners (of whom I am one at the age of 72), and also Boris Johnson's plan to cut taxes for the most highly paid. Would anyone care to kick off on these?

So what the hell is wrong with Gary Lineker?

He was a superb footballer and a great ambassador for his country. After all those years at the top level he never once got a red or even a yellow card. As a very young footballer he stood out when interviewed as he could put forward his view in coherent sentences.

You did not really believe that he nicked crisps from kids did you?

He did once accuse a politician who had suggested invasive medical checks on immigrants of being racist, and got some stick for breaching the impartiality of the BBC. He is a sports reporter though and not a news reporter and it was in a private tweet so the issue blew over. Surely that is not what you mean? He was right wasn't he?

Sure he has had some difficulties in his private life with a couple of divorces. Most people at some stage have had difficulties in their private lives, and that is how it should remain....private. The trouble is that the tabloids know that their low attention span readership lap up such trivialities.

The main problem with the media is that they can not differentiate between what is "In the public interest" and what is "Of interest to the public". Two completely different things and they routinely defend publication of their smut by falling back on the first reason for publication, whilst knowing all along that it actually falls into the second category and that there is no justification whatsoever for publication.