I thought that Sunak did well last night. Came across as the most even-tempered and the most competent.
Truss was slightly more impressive than Mordaunt this time. Her only verb seems to be 'deliver' - tho she hasn't done, much. But nor has Mordaunt, whose only adverb seems to be 'incredibly'.
Tugendhat sadly didn't do himself justice, and for some reason he has had an unfair press over the weekend. But he deserves a good ministerial post and will surely get one.
Do not know what to make of Badenoch. She was gratuitously snubbing to Tugendhat, a mistake that showed. I'd never heard of her until she threw her hat in this ring, yet she claims to have sat round every decision-making table and now thinks those decisions were all wrong and she alone knows how to cut through the country's problems. Is she bigging up her previous roles? Anyway I thought her rather an unpleasant woman.
Interesting that none of them wanted the challenge of an early GE.
It was a pity that the presenter told them to challenge one another and then did such a poor job of controlling the discussion.
If I were a tory voter I'd be in despair.
I reckon the final two will be Sunak and Truss.
Is Truss still popular with the membership? If so she’ll be the next PM??
Honestly this country is as mad as a box of frogs.
Do check Penny Mordaunt's voting record re. privatisation by stealth of the NHS.
Blossoming
The only thing I can’t understand is why these ‘debates were ever given airtime in the first place. This is not a General Election, only a tiny percentage of the UK’s population will be eligible to vote for the next Conservative leader. Are they trying to copy the Americans?
Does this normally happen? Or is it just a very good distraction from the fact that Johnson has admitted he met Russian oligarch and ex-KGB officer Alexander Lebedev without officials present?
Yes, after 7 foreign Secretary's before her failed to get Nazanin released, she managed it because we finally paid up.
We could have done that 7 foreign secretaries earlier!
Lucca
*Truss would be appalling with her slagging off of her outstanding state school*
Absolutely that was shocking of her.
She slagged off her State school but forgot to tell us her father was a professor of maths, not exactly a normal household. Somehow I can't imagine her being very popular at school, she's stiff and wooden.
Though the only one for going to face down Putin when she has already failed with Sergei Lavrov he actually laughed about her when she did her Dr Zhivago act.
I don’t think Liz Truss is a liar. She is often very literal and lacks charm. If her parents hadn’t been so left wing she would have gone to Leeds Girls High School, a very high performing private school in the area, with very high achievement record, plus own theatre swimming pool etc etc. to get to oxford from a Leeds Comprehensive was rare. The Labour MP for the area is throwing his hands up in despair at her ingratitude but then he came from an aspiring family who sent him to a £40k plus per annum public school.
Her main complaint was the waste of talent and how her Oxford peers were no brighter than those in her Leeds 6th form at Roundhay but the ones at Oxford she soon realised were there because they went to private schools.
She is serious about calling out the State when it fails.
And don’t forget after 7 foreign Secretary's before her failed to get Nazanin released, she managed it.
She was the first to publicly criticize Putin on the world stage… And she was right, gradually all followed.
I just get a bit tired of all the negativity she attracts. I have no skin in the game. No Tory. It’s surprising how much charm seems to matter.
The Conservative party members do not seem to care if they elect liars. It is almost a positive qualification to be a serial liar and get away with it.
dragonfly46
Yes Liz Truss is a disgrace - I went to the school she is so keen to slag off. It was and still is a highly thought of school in Leeds.
I will say again Badenoch lies and deliberately gives the wrong impression about her upbringing. She has learnt from the master.
Do we really want more lies and the lack of integrity.
Apparently she's learning from Gove.
The only thing I can’t understand is why these ‘debates were ever given airtime in the first place. This is not a General Election, only a tiny percentage of the UK’s population will be eligible to vote for the next Conservative leader. Are they trying to copy the Americans?
Yes Liz Truss is a disgrace - I went to the school she is so keen to slag off. It was and still is a highly thought of school in Leeds.
I will say again Badenoch lies and deliberately gives the wrong impression about her upbringing. She has learnt from the master.
Do we really want more lies and the lack of integrity.
Callistemon21
^Sunak did well with his furlough exercise back in 2020, but middle England in the shires won’t vote for him^
Why do you think that, Ladyleftfieldlover?
Is it because he believes in higher taxes?
I don’t think he necessarily believes in higher taxes. Just keeping them high until just before the next election then he will miraculously be able to bring them down #it’swottheydo
Up the creek without a paddle
Callistemon21
Her family obviously knows how to play the system.
Does she have the same aspirations for all in this country?
Somehow I doubt it.
vegansrock Badenoch is my MP and I do live in a Tory heartland. There are very few people from any ethnic background here. The reason people vote for her is that they really would vote for a donkey with a blue rosette. It's the ethnic minorities who don't like her. Young people (ie anybody under about 45) don't think much of her either because she is so right wing and just doesn't engage with her constituents at all. I know people who have written to her about free school meals, fuel prices, pollution and help for refugees - she just doesn't reply or her assistant sends a standard reply. At the last pre-election hustings, she was asked a question about the environment. Her reply was she couldn't answer because she didn't know the official Conservative policy. Asked about building more social housing, she said she didn't approve because people didn't like council estates on their doorstep. At one stage, she was in favour of fox hunting because she had met some farmers in the constituency who approved. I don't think she has ever listened to anybody outside of a very small group of committed Conservatives in the constituency. People saw through the "I'm an engineer from an immigrant background" baloney very quickly. She's not popular, but other parties have given up round here.
Her family obviously knows how to play the system.
Does she have the same aspirations for all in this country?
I think Kemi Badenoch is a good speaker- confident and concise - it's just a pity that her politics seem to be to the right of Ghengis Khan.
I hate to say it C21, but he doesn’t look like most of us. Look at how ‘we’ treat asylum seekers from the Middle East compared to those from Ukraine.
Urmstongran
^This young woman will have lived with one of the worst health care systems in the world in her parents country of Nigeria, so she will be more than aware of the results of poor health care provision.^
Which is maybe why she has chosen to chosen to come over here? Better standard of living for most things for herself & her family. Who would blame her for choosing the wonderful UK? I wouldn’t.
Er? She was born in the UK! It wasn't much of a choice. Her parents were both doctors and her mother flew to London when she was pregnant, so that her daughter could be born in the UK. In 1980, this automatically conferred British nationality. She came to the UK when she was 16 and lived here for three years before applying for university. The three years residency gave her eligibility as a British student, so that she could claim "home" student fees, which are cheaper, and a British student loan. Badenoch personally probably had health provision next to none, especially as she also spent part of her childhood in the US, where her parents worked. Middle-class Nigerians don't have poor medical care.
Good job she wasn't born a bit later - she might have ended up in Rwanda!
Or bringing back austerity with cuts?
Sunak did well with his furlough exercise back in 2020, but middle England in the shires won’t vote for him
Why do you think that, Ladyleftfieldlover?
Is it because he believes in higher taxes?
Sunak is the best choice for the Tories at this moment in time.
I think he will work hard at being PM and is personable, although I fear for the sanity of his wife and children as they become of interest to our intrusive Press.
However, I feel a sea change in public opinion is on the way
which no well-meaning or personable Tory PM will stop.
Ladyleftfieldlover
At least they’ve cancelled tonight’s live debate as Truss and Sunak can’t be in the same room without fighting. They are all appalling. Tughenhat is marginally less appalling as he isn’t tainted by working under Johnson and admitted the PM was dishonest. Truss is awful - doesn’t she understand that the Tories have been in power for 12 years? This is why schools and hospitals are in such dire straits. Sunak did well with his furlough exercise back in 2020, but middle England in the shires won’t vote for him. Penny M is a bit of a lightweight really but the hard right seem terrified of her. Bandersnatch, I’m afraid is the worst of a feeble bunch. As soon as she said that Brexit was done at last night’s debate, I realised that this Government are living in a world of make believe.
Was "Bandersnatch" an auto-correct? If so, it made me smile.
Boz - as a middle-England Shires Tory voter, which do you think is your least-worst option.. I wasn't sure if you thought Sunak??
I'm not a Tory voter but can see it's a rubbish choice - and the Tory member will get to choose eventually.
All this confirms that politics does not attract the best people.
I can't be bothered with any of them and I'm a middle-England Shires Tory voter! I think the Tories will be out at the next election - the slide started with Johnson and Brexit and will end with Sunak.
Urmstongran Mon 18-Jul-22 11:54:36
Interesting post Urmstongran
You could be right about Liz Truss as some of her speech is slightly hesitant.
However, I can't agree about Badenoch - I think she tells whoppers.
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