Conservative leadership election

[Epaminondas]

Boris is a shoe-in.

Oh fun...

A reminder of the system: MPs have a series of votes, in each of which the bottom candidate is eliminated.  

Essentially Ranked Ballot Voting in several rounds, right?

The very voting system the Cons demonized for the 2011 referendum, when it might have threatened their grip on the country.
As long as it lets them hang on to power, they can be pretty smart people.

[Epaminondas]

So he was kind of like the British John Kasich?

The analogies only go so far.
Every last Republican would be considered a frothing madman in the UK.

The Tories are right of center and closer to the Dem party than Labour. GOP is Brexit party, but that doesn't make for convenient comparisons.

[Epaminondas]

Does no one at the Tory party understand all this could have been done in one day, without shenanigans, with ranked ballot voting? Rank candidates in order. Machine tells you who wins while maximising voter satisfaction.
They're wasting so much time for nothing with this baby version of it.

Or do they fear looking like hypocrites for bedeviling this superior voting method at the 2011 referendum?

Jim Messina certainly agrees that the Tories and the Democrats are similar.

You may be joking, but that point stands. He advised the party closest to his heart.
Barring certain social views, the Democratic party is closer to the Tories than to Labour. This is a fairly obvious observation, not a criticism. The US-UK political spectra barely overlap.

[Epaminondas]

How about the Republicans being like the DUP?

Well, they have certain tendencies which you find in the Republicans but not so much in other UK parties, mainly those associated with the Christian Right, but overall Northern Ireland politics is sufficiently weird that comparisons don't work that well.

As far as religion and gun ownership goes, the similarities are striking. The DUP's radical bigoted evangelicalism would have its place in Alabama today, excoriating Catholics instead of agnostics. Ian Paisley remarked after the Pope's death that "this Romish man of sin is now in Hell", and described Catholics as those who “breed like rabbits and multiply like vermin”.

But the DUP are the definition of a single-issue party:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ME45v08fQ0&pbjreload=10

And in that sense it doesn't quite fit with the Republicans, who have multiple wings as well as the frothing Religious: the progressives (Baker, Scott, Sununu, Hogan...), the reasonable (people like Amash, Collins, the former Walter Jones...), the libertarians (Rand), and the authoritarians (Trump' manservants)

IMO most British Conservatives would be Republicans if they'd launched a US political career, and most US Democrats would either be Labour or Lib Dem in the UK.  I'm sure there are exceptions but in general I think Democrats aren't motivated by the same sorts of things as Tories and vice versa, except of course where they're mainly motivated by whatever suits their own careers best.

I agree with you. I'd argue it would be far easier for a British politician to gain mild success in America than vice versa. The sort of US politicians who could climb their way the British ladder are the low-key but relatively high-quality moderates - .e.g. Greg Walden for the Republicans, and quite a few Democrats - someone like Denny Heck or Mike Quigley would fit in well as an average Labour MP.

I vehemently agree. That a Labourite MP would join the Democratic party makes no doubt, but it doesn't follow that a Democrat would join the Labour party.

In fact, as far as taxes, business and interventionism goes, I think the vast majority of the house Dems would part ways with Corbyn and feel closer to a Cameron or a May.

Does no one at the Tory party understand all this could have been done in one day, without shenanigans, with ranked ballot voting? Rank candidates in order. Machine tells you who wins while maximising voter satisfaction.
They're wasting so much time for nothing with this baby version of it.

That said, I think Tories would presumably say that they want the inter-ballot jockeying, that they'd like to see how candidates respond to changes in the dynamics and that they are open to the idea of lesser-ranked candidates endorsing better-ranked ones. I'm not saying this is correct, but I think this would be the argument.

But that would be balderdash. The only case RBV doesn't cover is if MPs actually shift their vote on who is to become prime minister in a month. That some could change their mind on such a momentous matter in a few hours reveals a appalling lack of conviction.
They're not all weathervanes, are they?

[Epaminondas]

What time does the final round begin?

PM Boris Johnson, well I never. This is going to be such a flaming disaster.
Nobody can stand an erratic jester as their boss.

The problem with comparing political parties in different countries is what exactly are you comparing?
(...)
Or are you comparing (and this would probably be the most accurate, honestly) the position their members occupy within the context of their country's class system?

The word "context" makes this obscure. What does it mean?

A cryptic way of saying the most educated?

[Epaminondas]

The neighbour said they recorded the altercation from inside their flat out of concern for Symonds. On the recording, heard by the Guardian, Johnson can be heard refusing to leave the flat and telling Symonds to “get off my ing laptop” before there is a loud crashing noise.

Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”

The neighbour said: “There was a smashing sound of what sounded like plates. There was a couple of very loud screams that I’m certain were Carrie and she was shouting to ‘get out’ a lot. She was saying ‘get out of my flat’ and he was saying no. And then there was silence after the screaming. My partner, who was in bed half asleep, had heard a loud bang and the house shook.”

Deeply disturbing on two levels - violent tendencies and a spoilt behaviour in every aspect of his life - but I'm sure that won't count for much in Parliament when he promises to deliver the Holy Brexit.

[Epaminondas]

However, there is a much simpler way to get no deal if a PM wanted. Why not just run out the clock?

The reason the "no deal" plan has stalled is not because the law can't be passed. It's because it's currently undesirable at some many levels of UK society. The remainer MPs know that and don't want to follow the path of Cameron into political oblivion.

This sort of devious machinations could push some Tory MPs into Corbyn's cold arms for a VONC.

[Epaminondas]

As much as I hate it, the fundamentals point to Boris winning the next election, perhaps by a good amount.

That's very possible, but if the Brexit party splinters the Conservative vote like in Peterborough at the next general, it could all come crashing down.
Why would single-issue voters choose the substitude (Cons) over the real deal (Brexit party)?

Boris is british Trump in his showmanship, his lack of control and his fickleness.
That isn't a recipe for political success in the UK.