'Anglosphere' conservative leader

[afleitch]

If you were forced to choose between them, who would you plump for? I threw in Dubya too

[Colin]

I'm gonna go with baldy with the black eyebrows, John Howard.

[Joel the Attention Whore]

I'm gonna go with baldy with the black eyebrows, John Howard.

[Joe Republic]

Yep, John Howard seems to be the most competent of them all.  (I don't know the NZ guy.)

[Democratic Hawk]

Probably, Howard

Dave

[Platypus]

Well, Don Brash is insane; Stephan Harper is too idealogical; Bush is Bush; which leaves Cameron and Howard.

Cameron has no experience, which Howard has plenty of; but other then that there is no reason why I would support Howard over Cameron except that he's Australian, but with Howard that just doesn't make enough difference.

Cameron.

[Frodo]

David Cameron

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Don't like any of them. I do dislike some more than I dislike others though.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Cameron

[Boris]

Stephen Harper. He has a minority government and is thus forced to suck up to the Liberals, NDP, and BQ.

[merseysider]

I'm not sure I would describe Cameron as a conservative (he gives the impression of a bien-pensant establishment/BBC liberal with a bit of free market economics thrown in).

Equally I don't think Bush is really a conservative either; surely conservatism is about small government and holding tight to the purse strings? Equally conservatives are often just that when it comes to foreign policy; cautious to the point of appeasement, like Neville Chamberlain in 1938, or simply indifferent and inactive, like John Major's Tory government over Bosnia in the early 90s. Whatever you think of Bush's foreign policy (and I believe it to be right in principle, if not always well executed) it has certainly not been cautious.

I'm not a conservative so I haven't voted although I am probably one of the few people this side of the Atlantic who thinks Bush is actually quite likeable so I suppose that is where my vote would go, although Stephen Harper comes across as quite thoughtful and intelligent.

[Verily]

I don't trust Cameron. He basically parrots the Liberal Democrats' positions, which makes me wonder why he wasn't in the Liberal Democrats to begin with. The only reason I can see for that is that he's just faking it--as the chaffeured shoes showed. OTOH, I do agree with his purported positions more than I do with any of the others. John Howard would be my second choice, though.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Don Brash is no longer the leader of the National party.

[Richard]

Howard

[© tweed]

Cameron is least bad

[Platypus]

Don Brash is no longer the leader of the National party.

Still a nutter though.

[Bono]

Stephan Harper

Not really, the bastard raised taxes.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

No NOTA? Seriously, Howard is an ass, Cameron is a useless of ex-etonian pseudo-populist 'common man' Clinton\Blair-clone slime for the Diana generation (please go away!), Harper seems to continue Conservative policies towards a great US-Canada love in (aswell as being a tool), Bush is well, Bush and I have no idea who Brash is.

Therefore Brash is the best choice. Then Harper.

[The Man From G.O.P.]

I picked Cameron though I've changed my mind to Howard

[Serenity Now]

Cameron, urgh.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Just for the record, according to a recent poll Cameron's approval rating is now lower than Blair's.

O/c it was a Mori poll, so you might as well should ignore it, but it amused me anyway.