To think you can tell if someone is a Statesman/woman by how they conduct themselves when they lose (or nearly lose)

IMO the whole way the election was handled was a credit to the U.K. Calm, civilised polling stations, no police with guns outside, nobody trying to intimidate you, and with the odd exception like the Jess Phillips incident, plus of course Liz Truss, dignified behaviour at the results.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m really glad we are still sticking to the old method of booths, pencil and paper. I’m not sure I’d trust any form of electronic voting - hackers are clever enough to get into anything now.

I like to see gracious winners and losers. But may I draw your attention to Jacob Rees Mogg, who handled his defeat admirably, and who is not a statesman by any definition!

If you are in it for the money and you've not only made the money, but set yourself, your family and friends up well, it's easy to conceed defeat. They've all lied still during the recent question times and debates. These aren't people to admire, or declare those who don't behave exactly like them, as lacking.

YANBU. We have shown the world how to do it (with a few exceptions) calmly, graciously and WITHOUT VIOLENCE

Where were all the angry Tory voters protesting the result in London chanting "Not my PM"?
I remember disgruntled Labour voters doing just than in 2019!

Ponoka7
Did you watch Hunt leaving with his wife? He even had to be reminded to let her get into the car first, she trails behind him and he's happy to let her. I find them chilling tbh.

Chilling? I didn't see anyone reminding Hunt to let his wife into the car first. Surely, all he did was lean into the car to help his dog and kids and then step back. Perfectly normal parent/dog owner behaviour.

YABU. I don't think you can, no.

Sunak's concession speech was decent but his record as a statesman was poor - leaving the Dday service being a case in point, and he never won a contest on his own merits. Parachuted into a safe seat, then elected in unopposed to the leadership. You can't redeem a couple of poor years performance on the basis of one speech, which was probably written for him.

Hunt, I think, is generally recognised as being a savvy political operator. However, his speech concluded by essentially conceding that the Conservatives deliberately underfund the NHS. Which, as the man in charge of health for the Conservatives for six years, is a damning indictment of his morals. What was he saying there? 'Yes, I know that I was in charge of running down the NHS for 6 years, and morally I disagree with that, but I set aside my principles and did it for the good of the party?' That's not statesman like, that's craven!

And yes, they did better than Galloway and Truss. However, they are both terrible politicians. Bar is on the ground for those two. Being better than the two of the worst politicians of a generation does not make you a statesman.

I think there's no shame in being emotional or even in crying. The Belgian PM cried in front of the cameras recently because he lost the election.

A clip from one of the losing Tories was doing the rounds on Twitter yesterday. He'd been an MP since the 90s. Rather than slink away or disappear in a strop he chose to publicly send best wishes to the new MP and to Starmer's government. I doubt Nigel Evans and I would agree on anything politically (and definitely not on Brexit) but he clearly had great affection for the people/place he represented in Lancashire. Even though they've just booted him out after 30 years!

https://x.com/nigelmp/status/1809079126281552134

One thing to note is that sometimes in their speeches candidates thank the other candidates for a good campaign even when actually it was nasty and toxic. I wouldn't take the speeches as necessarily always being honest.

OTOH those who walk off or refuse to listen to the winning candidates are obviously very rude.

Yes, although he has probably known for a while that he may have lost so has had some time to come to terms with it.

I didn’t see Sunak’s speech yesterday but I did see Starmer and I was impressed with him starting his speech by talking respectfully about Sunak.

A complete contrast to the next speech I saw which was Farage.

To be fair on Gillian Keegan, she only moved to the other side of the platform, and made a gracious speech afterwards thanking people and wishing her Lib Dem successor well.

A decent man?
He lowered tax on champagne the same day he cut funding to fix our crumbling schools
I can't believe some of the comments on this thread!
Where have you been for the past 14 years!?.

I totally agree . Both Sunak and Starmer handled it very well and were gracious to each other . I think Starmer acknowledging the extra difficulty for Sunak as being the first Asian Prime Minister was good . Especially in light of the racism Sunak recently encountered via the Reform party .

Stark contrast to Trump .

I totally understand that the last six weeks have been exhausting and emotionally charged for all those politicians who were likely to be ousted . However they are fully aware that this is the very nature of politics and that we live in a democratic society .

I think it is also a great lesson for our children about how to handle losing and not to encourage trouncing off .

I have very little in common with Penny Mordaunt politically, but the other thing that really impressed me was her offer to her Labour successor to do a handover of constituent work. That shows she obviously cared about that aspect of the work, which many do (but sadly many don’t)

Yes I agree. Did you see Steve Bakers speech? About how being an MP was a dreadful job and he was delighted that his constituents "set him free". What an absolute baby. Should have stood aside years ago if he felt like that!

I felt the same way. I found Sunak and Starmer's speeches very dignified and my heart went out to Sunak. I think he's a decent man who had to deal with an utter mess and a party tearing itself apart.

To be fair to those who were less than gracious, they'd been awake for 24 hours on the back of weeks of non-stop campaigning and had just lost their jobs. Just one of those elements would have most people at less than their best.

I think the election and handover of power was a credit to the nation. Rishi Sunak highlighted the message of stability and I think many of the outgoing speeches reflected that.

I agree. Petty, small minded and churlish to not be gracious in defeat, but hardly a surprise from those mentioned

The outgoing Tory MP in my area just blamed reform, rather than the fact his own party have run the country into the ground and that he's a known adulterer. My feeling is, if your own wife can't trust you, why should I?

Edit: typo

I found it very heartening to see how gracious many of the concession and victory speeches were. I think is is good that Starmer and Sunak’s speeches were both really respectful of their opponent. I thought Starmer was gracious in victory and Sunak gracious in defeat.

That seemed to be the case in many of the constituency speeches. As you rightly point out, Hunt, Mourdant etc. spoke really well.

it does feel like grown ups are in charge again.

It IS the sort of thing you're supposed to learn at public school!

Joking apart- I thought Sunak was the most impressive I've ever seen him yesterday. As usual, Shakespeare had the words for it.....

Oops wrong thread!

Agreed. I was pleased to see commentators & politicians, talking about the peaceful transition of power, and Sunak & Starmer being decent. Both beaten Tories & new Labour MPs being gracious (Heidi Alexander/Robert Buckland was another nice one). People sometimes say its unconvincing that they tear strips off each other for the previous 4 years & are then charming - but the alternative is nastiness like Galloway, Farage, Trump & what Jrss Phillips had to put up with. Lets not go down that route. It was one of the ways that Corbyn was so unsuitable as a party leader, he always has this begrudging edge to him that is so childish. So glad to have the grownups back in the room.

To some extent, but I think equally that there are people who lost their seats last night because of government decisions they couldn’t control. They worked hard for their constituents. They are genuinely devastated and too overcome with emotion to cope with standing on a stage. It’s not rudeness. It’s self preservation.