Sonia Sodha in today's Observer:
A new report last week from Conservative thinktank Onward sets out how difficult it would be for the Tories to win the next election, but contains some surprising insights about the defectors who voted for the party in 2019 but not in 2024. Defectors to Lib Dem and Reform – more likely to say they would consider switching back than those that defected to Labour – say the most important thing the party could do to win them back is reduce immigration. A hardline approach to immigration might not be election-winning territory but it might help the Tories attract back a broader range of voters than one might initially assume.
Badenoch is clearly on the right when it comes to deregulation. But some of her policy positions are more nuanced than it first appears, and may allow her to hurt Starmer in a way that Cleverly couldn’t. Often depicted as a fervent culture warrior, it is very much true she enjoys combatively participating in debates, such as on the role of empire. But on the fraught issue of sex and gender, her position is not, in the main, out of step with the public and she may be able to embarrass Starmer, who has in the past shown bewildering levels of prevarication on whether biological sex matters when it comes to single-sex services, sports and spaces.
The problem with writing off all her views on identity as culture war irrelevance is that the left might not anticipate those occasions when what she says might actually resonate. That Badenoch has become such a cartoon villain is not simply a product of her gaffes or her outspokenness; it is also to do with the fact that there are those on the left who suffer from cognitive dissonance when it comes to rightwing politicians of colour, particularly women.
To be brown or black and rightwing is seen as a betrayal. So Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman and Priti Patel are indistinguishably lumped together; they may all be on the right of the party, but there are important differences and the one-dimensional lens they are seen through feels linked to the fact none of them are white.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/13/kemi-badenoch-tory-leadership-contest-labour
These are just the middle section of a much longer article.
But it did make me think, as there has to be a new leader of the Tory Party, it would be great to have KB as leader of the opposition to really dig into whatever nonsense Labour comes up with about no need to clarify the meaning of the word sex in the EA.
But have to own up that on another thread today, it would be better if she didn't get the top job, then she could join the Women and Equalities Committee and try and stop them just wittering on about vulnerable trans people, and never ever acknowledging the negaitve impact trans rights are having on women's rights.