Conservative Party of the UK Leadership Election, 2022

[Joe Republic]

There is now a Wiki page.

[Joe Republic]

Tom Tugatwat (sp?) is in. 

[Joe Republic]

Shapps is in:
https://twitter.com/Gabriel_Pogrund/status/1545800504810373122

"Johnsonism"

[Joe Republic]

Interested to get other peoples’ take on Hunt announcing he wants Esther McVey as Deputy PM. I get that he’s trying to broaden his appeal, but I think there’s a natural limit to how far you can plausibly stretch your ideology, before you lose credibility and alienate your own base.

I’m reminded of John Redwood endorsing Ken Clark over William Hague in 1997, in return for being named Shadow Chancellor, and tanking Clark’s credibility in the process.

She seems like such a low profile and politically weak person that this supposed unity pick just shows how Hunt doesn't have anyone better supporting him.

Reminds me of Ted Cruz announcing Carly Fiorina as his running mate, before crashing out of the primaries six days later.

[Joe Republic]

That pretty much confirms what everybody already suspected - that Hunt was lent a few MPs to qualify for the ballot, and then apparently repaid them when the voting started.  The question is what was the point?

[Joe Republic]

🤷🏻‍♂️

[Joe Republic]

During the debate, pundits gave Truss points on calling out Rishi on his privileged grade schooling and she said the reason she became a Conservative was seeing kids at her public school not achieve their potential due to a poor education. 

While nobody at the debate called her on this, twitter stampeded to note that Liz's entire public schooling took place under the Tories--mostly Thatcher with a couple of Major years at the end.

Pity no one made her cognitively process that during the debate

I don't think any Conservative would want to draw attention to that inconvenient point, surely?

[Joe Republic]

Moot point now, but hypothetically what would have happened if Mordaunt and Truss had tied?

Also:

I wonder if Mordaunt's gaffe on Twitter this morning might have harmed her chances at all.

What was this?

[Joe Republic]

Liz Truss Holds Commanding Lead Over Rishi Sunak In Race To Be Prime Minister
YouGov poll gives foreign secretary a 24-point advantage among Tory party members, who will choose their next leader.

Truss is going into the members' vote with less than a third of MPs backing her.  Slightly less support than Iain Duncan Smith did in 2003, who had to constantly watch his back until the bitter end.

[Joe Republic]

Things are going well.

https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1550380121370025985

[Joe Republic]

I forget if I made this point already, but if Truss wins this, she'll have the dubious honor of winning despite going into the final membership vote with the lowest ever share of MPs' votes.  Even IDS won a slightly bigger share (but still less than a third) of MPs before managing to pull off a decisive win from the membership.  His trouble after that was having to constantly watch his own back throughout his brief leadership, until it was finally stabbed.  So my piping hot take here is that Liz will be constantly watching hers too for the next two or so years.

[Joe Republic]

My understanding of the Department for Levelling Up is that it was the new name for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship?

[Joe Republic]

My understanding of the Department for Levelling Up is that it was the new name for the Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship?

There’s an excellent comedy just waiting to be written about a Department for Levelling Up, that’s for sure.

Now I think of it, the show would be better handled by the Twenty Twelve / W1A people.  The real life name of the Department sounds like it was created by Jessica Hynes' character.

[Joe Republic]

Are there any kind of demographic statistics on the makeup of the Tory membership?  Old and white, I'm sure, but numbers are always nice to look at.