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

[AssortedLabels]

Some stark contrasts in how various politicians have conducted themselves when they lose.

George Galloway not even there. Liz Truss no reaction.

Jeremy Hunt almost loses but does so describing Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves as “decent people” and sending his best wishes.

Penny Mourdant takes it on the chin and does a nice speech.

I just think you can tell a lot about how people react.

I agree. Penny Mordaunt was very gracious.

Absolutely. See also: Donald Trump.

100% agree. I found the human angle just as interesting as the politics when I was watching the results come in. Fascinating how differently people conduct themselves. Penny M was very dignified.

I think it's a reflection of their personality too. The ability to recognise the good points of others even if they don't agree on politics. Good manners. Good humour. The ability to respect others.

Liz Truss's reaction said everything about her.

The Nazi leaders were charming and I've read accounts of camp survivors, they were very polite during interrogations. Did you watch Mourdant lying during the debates? Are you holding up Truss as someone who knows how to conduct herself and someone with integrity? 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.

Absolutely agree. Tbf horrible as he is Rees Mogg was also a gracious loser. By contrast, Gillian Keegan walked off stage when the winning candidate started their speech.

This shouldn't need saying but it is also relieving / important that no one questioned the validity of the vote and power changed hands without dispute.

I agree. Liz Truss sulking in the toilets before the count and flouncing off at the end said it all.

Jacob Rees-Mogg managed to be interviewed by Alistair Campbell before his count announcement already knowing he had lost, and conducted himself with great composure. I don’t like his word view, but that shows strength of character.

@Ponoka7 we aren't talking about the Nazis. Yes of course people who do horrific things can be charming and polite. . I'd say the current thread chat is quite a long way away from war criminals being interrogated about genocide.

being able to lose well and respect the democratic process is important - especially given current events in North America, for example

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.

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.

Oops wrong thread!

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.....

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.

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

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 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.

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 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)

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 .

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!?.

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.

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.

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.

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.