Yet another Tory leadership contest!

[Michael Z]

David Davis's speech was the worst of the conference so far, which suits me fine given my loathing of the man. I hope Clarke wins, picks Cameron as his deputy (kind of a leader-in-waiting), and then hopefully we should have a decent opposition at last.

[Michael Z]

Lol. I'm tempted to agree, but to be honest it was bad enough dealing with Howard on my TV screen for two years; I could not bear four more years of someone like Davis or Fox driving me up the wall.

[Michael Z]

Fox wants to create a mainstream evangelical right in this country, not dissimilar to the religious right in the states. And just as Dem Hawk and Al said, he's an absolute hypocrite. He basically represents everything people have come to dislike about the Tories.

[Michael Z]

Fox's father, a teacher taught my mother French at school and my aunt was at univeristy with him when he trained as a GP. Hence we have a family dislike for him!

Well, at last we agree on something.

[Michael Z]

The whole drugs issue shows how desperate Cameron's opponents are. I wonder if the Hate Mail and other Tories realise that, by ousting Cameron, they would simply be shooting themselves in the foot since Labour and Lib Dem would absolutely love to see Davis as Tory leader.

I personally think this is a storm in a teacup and could backfire badly on Cameron's opponents. The fact that Davis has called on his supporters to no longer mention the drugs issue suggests they've started to notice as much. In any case, I recall mentioning Cameron as the best possible candidate as early as May, so I'll start taking my accolades now, thankyouverymuch.

[Michael Z]

I doubt Cameron could beat Brown in a 2009/10 election, given the massive swing required for a Conservative majority, but he should be able to consolidate enough votes to win in 2013/14/15.

[Michael Z]

I wouldn't be surprised to see some tactical voting from Clarke's supporters, ie. switching over to Fox in order to force a Fox vs Cameron final... though it could backfire, of course, and the Tories then end up with Liam Fox as their leader, which would make them about as electable as the bubonic plague. In any case, the next few days and weeks are going to be interesting, even though I'm sad to see Ken bow out.

[Michael Z]

Watched the debate yesterday. Davis was quite impressive, actually. He showed the kind of hubris he definitely lacked at the Tory conference.

[Michael Z]

The real beauty of the TV debate was Cameron and Davis hailing Ireland as their economic model. Oh the irony of it, they praise a country, which from what I can gather, has bought into the European idea hook, line and sinker

I'm glad I'm not the only one who spotted that irony.