General election/politics

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

RE: General election/politics

christ · Futures qualifying

Bob in Spain wrote:
christ wrote:
If they can choose a leader in a week, why on earth didn't they do that last time, and then we would have had Mr Sunak and avoided all this nonsense.

Ask the little people who they want, and they will choose the person that offers the most cake, even if it is fantasy. The vast majority of the previous losers were unqualified overambitious fantasists, and they got rid of Mr Johnson for a reason, which reason still applies.

It was amusing tonight to see the interviews with Conservative party members who said that they obviously got it wrong with Ms Truss, but they should be involved in the choice of her replacement. What was it that Einstein said about doing the same thing again and expecting a different result being madness?
No doubt these Tory members who admit they got it wrong but demand to be involved in the new vote, are exactly the same ones who tell us people aren't allowed to change their mind over Brexit.

Lest we forget: the Brexit decision was made by a referendum of the whole country, not by Tory members (or even Tory voters) alone. At the risk of repeating myself, the average Joe "will choose the person that offers the most cake, even if it is fantasy", and that applies to referenda as well as anything else.

... and I think that the Brexit problem is what on earth do we do even if people have changed their minds.

Lambda · Futures qualifying

christ wrote:

If they can choose a leader in a week, why on earth didn't they do that last time, and then we would have had Mr Sunak and avoided all this nonsense.

We wouldn't. Sunak has never been favoured by the Party membership. Sunak started closing the gap towards the end of the campaign but by then most members had already voted.

I'm fundamentally opposed to Party members voting for the leader of any governing Party when that person would become PM. Members are unaccountable to the electorate. They tend to be on the extreme wings of a Party and unrepresentative of the people that voted for that Party at the General Election.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

I raised this at the last leadership ballot and will do so again.

Any foreign national can join as a Tory member and vote in the Leadership election. They don't have to live in the UK or be a British citizen. I get the 'three month' rule, but if anyone signed up last time so that they were ready for future elections, they are now eligible to vote.

fullfact.org/news/who-can-vote-in-Conservative-leadership-contest/

How can a system allow someone to choose a country's Prime Minister if that person is not even registered to vote in a GE. That is so open to corruption.

indiana · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
I raised this at the last leadership ballot and will do so again.

Any foreign national can join as a Tory member and vote in the Leadership election. They don't have to live in the UK or be a British citizen. I get the 'three month' rule, but if anyone signed up last time so that they were ready for future elections, they are now eligible to vote.

fullfact.org/news/who-can-vote-in-Conservative-leadership-contest/

How can a system allow someone to choose a country's Prime Minister if that person is not even registered to vote in a GE. That is so open to corruption.

Hello, this is Moscow calling. Our votes go to Mr Johnson.

Rich2310 · Club Coach

Please not Boris. He had his time and blew it.

Think they will go for Sunak but wish we had an election and got rid of the whole lot for a fresh change.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Rich2310 wrote:
Please not Boris. He had his time and blew it.

Think they will go for Sunak but wish we had an election and got rid of the whole lot for a fresh change.

Some bookies now have Johnson as favourite.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
Rich2310 wrote:
Please not Boris. He had his time and blew it.

Think they will go for Sunak but wish we had an election and got rid of the whole lot for a fresh change.
Some bookies now have Johnson as favourite.

My vote.....

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Bob in Spain wrote:
I raised this at the last leadership ballot and will do so again.

Any foreign national can join as a Tory member and vote in the Leadership election. They don't have to live in the UK or be a British citizen. I get the 'three month' rule, but if anyone signed up last time so that they were ready for future elections, they are now eligible to vote.

fullfact.org/news/who-can-vote-in-Conservative-leadership-contest/

How can a system allow someone to choose a country's Prime Minister if that person is not even registered to vote in a GE. That is so open to corruption.

And to be clear as to comparisons, the Labour Party website has this:

Am I eligible to join?

If youre 14 or over, not a member of another political party, and are a British citizen or have lived in the UK for a year or more, then absolutely; come on in. We need your passion, your experience and your voice in our movement.

christ · Futures qualifying

Lambda wrote:
christ wrote:
If they can choose a leader in a week, why on earth didn't they do that last time, and then we would have had Mr Sunak and avoided all this nonsense.
We wouldn't. Sunak has never been favoured by the Party membership.

My mistake. i had assumed the "get it done in a week" thing avoided asking the members.

-- Edited by christ on Friday 21st of October 2022 07:25:00 PM

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Bob in Spain wrote:
I raised this at the last leadership ballot and will do so again.

Any foreign national can join as a Tory member and vote in the Leadership election. They don't have to live in the UK or be a British citizen. I get the 'three month' rule, but if anyone signed up last time so that they were ready for future elections, they are now eligible to vote.

fullfact.org/news/who-can-vote-in-Conservative-leadership-contest/

How can a system allow someone to choose a country's Prime Minister if that person is not even registered to vote in a GE. That is so open to corruption.

Theres a company called Tortoise Media, and it has signed up as Conservative Party members a tortoise, an American, and a Ukrainian, and they pay 25 pounds each; reported on BBCs flagship weekly political debate program, Question Time.

eYZ43NKE9iXmm0OJeIk3GWEc5ijmQRFBFzagRspZhvt-d7Q5bmMqO1XrEux8EKZKEfAlM">https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fictitious-tortoise-trying-vote-britain-160518296.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnVrLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFevN57wQAbnvIK7r4rVTsnRpKp5IegyWAvgATdhrtzJn-tEFFJY0XRzr62Gv919QG1QxXTonij7k8sE555jwwV_Di1bO7emBRnOeYZ43NKE9iXmm0OJeIk3GWEc5ijmQRFBFzagRspZhvt-d7Q5bmMqO1XrEux8EKZKEfAlM

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Seemingly Boris has crashed and burned

Shhh · Challenger level

Coup Droit wrote:
Seemingly Boris has crashed and burned

Bit awkward for those MP's who stuck their necks out and backed him biggrin

indiana · Tennis legend

Shhh wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Seemingly Boris has crashed and burned
Bit awkward for those MP's who stuck their necks out and backed him

Yes, shame for them in more ways than one biggrin

The very idea of him being PM again was pretty preposterous But a very real possibility if he had got enough MPs' support to be put to the membership.

Phew !

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

The way we treat migrants is terrible - whether it be Manston, Rwanda (and now other countries) it doesnt feel like a country that represents my values.

Sad.