Conservative Home website has published its latest popularity ranking for Tory Cabinet members:
The implicit messages are twofold.
First, Sunak io not liked by anyone. No wonder he had to talk to Musk, and that they got on.
Second, in the land of the mad those who are bonkers, or dangerous, or both, rank very highly.
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It’s dispiriting, but given that the Tory (I refuse to call them Conservative, they are a long way from that) party members voted for Liz Truss to be PM, gives me hope that they represent a very small part of the population. Having said that, I would love to hear their reasoning especially for the likes of Braverman, if only for entertainment value!
I wonder if James Cleverly’s popularity has something to do with being photographed at a Holocaust memorial recently? Or is it just because he’s a snappy dresser? Maybe it’s the second name that gives them hope!!!
Kemi Badenoch?
Penny Mordaunt?
Braverman?
Will they save the Tories?
Not sure I care about who tops the list… but what a list!!
A shocking lack of….. well, anything.
Hopefully, whoever leads the Tories after the next election will lead a party so decimated to the extent that recovery (if it comes for them – hopefully not) will be several general elections into the future.
(Presumably they are publishing this list for the purposes of leadership polling.)
They richly deserve a defeat of monumental proportions.
A ruling class motivated entirely by greed, class-hatred and maintaining their own very comfortable lives.
Energetic immigrants holding out the hope of keeping the whole rotten bread and circuses fantasy going for a few more years.
I have often wondered how the Anglo-Saxons were able to take over post-Roman Britain so easily.
Small comfort that it’s a poll of conservative party members and not the general public, or voters.
There are only about 172,000 members, Bow Group estimates the average age is 72, and Full Fact has this:
“Conservative members do not look very different to the other major UK parties’-they tend to be older, whiter and wealthier than the average population.”
https://fullfact.org/news/how-old-average-conservative-party-member/
The Full Fact research was 8 years ago, when Corbyn was the leader of the labour party.
I bet labour figures have changed since that research as a lot of older members have left because of Starmer.
That Hunt who is the most mild mannered of them all (I know, I know…) languishes second from bottom just says how mad you have to be to appeal to today’s Tory members.
Hunt is not going to stand at the next election. It’s also telling that Coffey is the bottom, with both of them being in control of the two most important departments at the moment.
I wonder if Sunak will do a reshuffle soon.
It seems that none of them has an opinion on Andrew Bowie (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero), although that probably shouldn’t surprise anyone as his most frequent contribution appears to be smirking silently. At least Hunt has enough profile to make it onto the negative scale.
It’s not unfair to characterise the members of the Conservative Party, less than 200,000 of them, as statistically old, male, pale, stale. This seems ripe for a takeover from the groups well to the left of Starmer, who’d then get power by the well-known left methods and wouldn’t be subject to the problems of FPTP for a new party. But the rankings on the “Conservative Home” website say NOTHING about the views of the rest of the 48,000,000 electors.
That really is a rogues gallery of just how extreme the Tory party now is with Johnny Mercer forth! How deep does the cesspit go? However, there’s a name not on that list who could well beat them all.
Conservative Home had another poll recently on whether Nigel Farage should be allowed back in the party.
Seven in ten Party members believe Farage should be admitted to the Conservatives if he seeks membership.
https://conservativehome.com/2023/11/05/our-survey-seven-in-ten-party-members-believe-farage-should-be-admitted-to-the-conservatives-if-he-seeks-membership/
Given he has been a total failure at actually getting elected to Parliament, could the Tories find him a safe enough seat that even Tory voters would vote for him?
2014
Historically, the Tory membership wanted a pact with UKIP (although support for it dwindled over time).
https://conservativehome.com/2014/04/02/support-for-a-conservativeukip-pact-among-party-members-falls-to-its-lowest-yet/
2019
ALMOST half of Tory members would be happy to see Nigel Farage as the party’s leader.
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17714003.tory-members-think-nigel-farage/
After his performance at the recent Tory conference, Farage recently suggested he could be the next leader.
Mind you, for a grifter like Farage, I doubt it pays enough. Not when you can get a million plus for being on “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here”.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/30/nigel-farage-reportedly-in-talks-to-join-im-a-celebrity-
The bar for what a celebrity is these days seems to be set very low.
After the next election it will be both interesting and potentially dangerous to see the direction of travel in the Tory Party. It is clearly further to the right than ever before, regardless of majority public opinion clearly not liking the direction. The membership that voted for Truss, could do so again. It could also vote for Braverman, Bedenoch or Thatcher wanabee, Mordaunt, assuming they win their seats at the election. Then there is the ghost of Farage. Not a moderate or traditional old style Tory to be seen in sight. It’s dangerous because it is our undemocratic FPTP system, backed up by a mainly Tory media that keeps them going. They don’t have mass support at all, maybe 25% at most and I’m sure that many traditional voting Tories now vote more out of loyalty to the party than a belief in what it stands for.
Still, dangerous, as long as we have FPTP. I long for PR, because I really do believe it kills off these Tories once and for all (I would hope).
Telling that Cleverly, Tugendhat, Mercer and Mordaunt all talk about their military careers and are in the top ten of that list.
Waiting in the queue for the Post Office this morning I had a look at the Daily Mail on the news stand. Nadine Dorries claims that Iain Duncan Smith ( a wise and honourable man she says!) was forced out by the same people who forced out Johnson. She names Cummings, Gove, Dougie Smith and one she ‘codenames’ Dr. No.
The Cabal will oust Sunak and install Kemi Badenoch. She is second on the list, I note. I wonder why.
She supported Gove, who supports her now?
I’m not sure that there is any loyalty amongst this lot. It’s purely transactional and they’ll switch horses in a heart beat. For the promise of a ministerial car or a peerage!
I suppose if we end up with the whole of the front bench in the lords it will give Starmer reason to get rid of it. I presume if/when he gets in he doesn’t have to stick to Sunak’s king’s speech, even though he probably agrees with most of it.
Annoyed that the whole of the news today seems to have been taken up with the speech even though the covid inquiry is on.
Told today about Johnson saying that he wanted to be injected with covid to show it was safe.
The judge is interrupting a lot, saying the questions asked are for the prime minister, not his spokespeople.
“For the promise of a ministerial car or a peerage!”
That reminds me of a certain R Murphy who begged John McDonnell for a peerage (Johns words btw) for payment of his services to the Labour Party.
Looks like even the Tufton St mafia have given up on Sunak. For those that dont know CapX, a health warning. Its a home for full on neo lib thinking. But know your enemy and all that…
https://capx.co/pedicab-for-rishi-the-kings-speech-offered-little-of-substance-for-a-weary-electorate/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=07%2F11%2F23
I live in Scotland, and to say that I am shocked by Douglas Ross’s poll ratings, well, that would be an understatement. How D.Ross, as we refer to him up here, can get such poll results is a mystery. Did they canvas all of the Conservative party members up here? Or do people think he talks a good game? Either way, if they genuinely believe that he is one of their best performers then the Tory party are in a worse state than even they think.