Next Tory Leader.

May met with Brady yesterday and the 1922 members are meeting today to decide what to do next.

My bet is that they won’t push her out as who on earth would take Brexit on. May stays.

Yes Eloe . It’s hard though to pass any judgement on his time as PM as it was so short and the problems are so intractable. No PM ever stays long enough to make an impact even if they wanted to. The prison service is a disgrace - no votes in improving it ( rather the reverse) so it spirals more and more out of control. We have a string of reports from the Inspectorate which are heartbreaking. We should hang our heads in shame - but then there’s so much else to hang our heads in shame at - schools, health, benefits - and then some people are deluded enough to think BJ might be the answer to our broken society. So given a bad lot .........

Jeremy Hunt 10/1

One of the longest serving Health Secretaries who resided over the worst collapse in patient standards in the NHS history. The NHS slipped in almost all of its core standards under Hunts watch, with the expansion of privatisation of areas of health provision in the NHS.

Whether this will work against his chances is a mute point. Market forces is still a Tory mantra, and with their eye on trade with the USA and Hunt’s connections to people like Murdoch, he appears to be a possible runner. Not sure he’s right wing enough for the party members though. He might be considered a bit wet.

I’m inclined to agree firecracker, I shall never vote for them again, they’re a disgrace!

I don't care who they pick for the next Tory leader the Conservatives are finished, I'll never vote for them again after the Brexit fiasco or Labour.

I bet they go for a total (alleged) bounder

Are you thinking of any bounder in particular SG?

Incidentally, there's something about that word 'bounder' which makes it sound cosy and unthreatening. Too PG Wodehouse, I think. Let's not forget that in modern parlance a 'bounder' is an absolute sh*te.

Me too kittylester Rory Stewart has a lot of good sense.

But I bet they don’t go for someone level headed and sensible. I bet they go for a total (alleged) bounder .

maryeliza I assume you were referring to Rory Stewart?

He comes across as quite reasonable doesn't he, but Matthew Norman's piece in the I yesterday reminded me of a supposedly heartfelt pledge that Stewart made when appointed prisons minister - "“I will quit if I haven’t succeeded in 12 months in reducing the level of drugs and violence in those prisons,” (BBC Breakfast News last summer). He won't have to fulfil that promise now as he has been offered the post of International Development Secretary.

Far from reducing the problems, the prison system continues to teeter on the edge of collapsem, and the situation has worsened considerably since his appointment. Under his watch suicides have risen by a fifth, self-harming by a quarter and deaths in custody for the year to March have increased by 18 to 317.

Norman suggests people should Google "prison death inquest" to see a catalogue of disgrace. He refers to an inquest in April citing the case of Anthony Robinson who went from being called "Fat Bob" to "Skinny Bob" by the time of his death. Inmates said it was obvious that he was visibly dying. He bled to death from an untreated ulcer which none of the medical staff had bothered to diagnose and treat. It was described in the inquest as "catastrophic neglect".

Stewart hasn't been in office long and obviously couldn't be expected to perform miracles in such a short time. The prison situation is not personally of his doing but is yet another casualty of the "austerity" programme his party continues to pursue. But, given his stirring words on appointment, I don't recall him being particularly vocal about terrible crisis in our prisons and the disgraceful conditions endured by prisoners and staff.

RS would have been my choice but after Jane’s comment ...

I can’t forgive Boris for poor Nazaneen in jail.

True Jane it’s a bloody poisoned challace

Boris Johnson was a terrible mayor of London, wasted money hand over fist
, was totally lazy and told umpteen lies.

I go agree

Very good point, jane.

Good point jane

I sincerely hope it's not Rory Stewart.
I think he's a man of integrity and has the potential to be a great Prime Minister but anyone assuming office as a Tory PM at this point isn't going to be there very long and their political career would be over.

I’m gender critical GG so I do not even accept that the word ‘feminine’ is anything other than a socially constructed concept invented by the patriarchy and supported by their handmaidens such as yourself to try and keep lively, intelligent and successful women in their place. I certainly don’t want to be considered nice or non confrontational whe criticising absolute shits like BJ and JRM.

In my opinion both parties are in the grip of an unpleasant far right and an equally unpleasant far right.,

I don’t really know much about Rory Steward so I think it may mr gove however I agree he’s a back stabber who probably has enemies.

Not an inspiring front or opposition bench.

A plague on both their houses!

Maryeliza sgree totally about Boris Johnson. He is a liar and has been sacked twice for it; by The Times and by Michael Howard when he was party leader. He squandered millions in London when Mayor on that stupid bridge project and only last week he was called out for tweeting that he had just voted when there were no elections where he lives. I seriously doubt the judgement of anyone who thinks he is a candidate. Gove is a backstabber. I am glad (as undoubtedly are the Tory party) that I am not involved in the selection process

maryeliza54
You appear to have no time for most people, in government or out.
Why are you repeatedly scathing and often vehement in your character annihilations.
I can't remember many, if any posts which show a more feminine non-confrontational persona.
You have a lot to say but much is repetition and links.
Try being nicer.

No, I think life in the shires is extremely pleasant indeed. But a different country in which the poor inhabit

I’m not sure which shires you mean whitewave but I’m sure there is plenty of rural poverty and deprivation, just as there is plenty of privilege in urban areas.

BJ is not a buffoon - he is a nasty lying cheating hypocritical uphimself entitled waste of space who opens his mouth before engaging brain and would be a disaster for this country. He was a shit mayor who avoided detail and hard work and wasted millions. The Olympics were the success they were ( and their legacy isn’t much) mainly because of all the hard detailed graft and leadership of Tessa Jowell. As for his performance as FS - words fail me. The Tory party membership are not representative at all of this country and btw there are only about 100k of them. They are being infiltrated by racist ex UKIP members - the party advised by Tommy Robinson, the party whose last leader defended his girlfriends ‘jokes’ about Harry marrrying a mixed race woman and one of whose members is currently making ‘jokes’ about raping Jess Philips. The only leader I’d like to see is RS and god knows what a seemingly decent bloke like him is doing with that lot.

That is true, probably best to have someone most of us have never heard of, given the circumstances

I think it will be gove but it’s usually not the most well known who gets the top job is it from history

I’m not a fan of Theresa May, but given the choices for her replacement, I think I’d rather she stayed

Boris, as previously said, is a buffoon, and a very self serving one. Jacob R M, is possibly one of the most unpleasant men ever to have been in British politics, Gove, words fail me!

Having said that, I never intend to vote conservative again, so let them do their worst!