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

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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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

There was that awful man (from the workers party) who Jess Phillips beat. When she went down the line of other candidates shaking their hands, he just stared straight past her and wouldn't shake her hand.

That's the difference between Tory voters and some Labour voters ,every other election result in recent years have had angry Labour voters demanding to know why people voted differently to them and calling voters thick and stupid for not voting the way they think they should
I have not seen nearly aa much backlash from Tory voters although elections result isn't a huge surprise .

Totally agree. Our mp didn’t clap his opponent and refused a hand shake. Just about summed him up to be honest.

Truss sulks outside until a slow handclap forces her return then says not a word of thanks or congratulation. Still won’t accept an iota of responsibility for the damage she did.Writes a book about her own wonderfulness.
Johnson scuttles off before he can be sacked. Writes a book about his own wonderfulness.
Dorries throws a tantrum, takes money for months for zero work then resigns blaming everyone else. Writes a book about her beloved’s wonderfulness.
Trump lies and eggs on his supporters to violence. Psychopath with nobody else in his psychotic league except Putin and Kim Jong Un. Obviously Trump wins the not a statesman prize.
At least Sunak had good manners. I thought more of him in his acceptance of defeat than I have ever thought of him before.

That was a lovely clip.

I’m a Labour voter and don’t think this is entirely untrue. However, I do think that this is less about some inherent superiority of Tory voters and more about the fact that Labour have put forward a pretty bland, competent, moderate, unifying candidate. Sunak is also a pretty bland, middle of the road figure.

Boris Johnson was not any of those things and nor was Corbyn. An election between two populist, cult of personality types whips up that sort of response and you end up with winners who are not gracious in victory and losers who are not gracious in defeat. You also had campaigns in 2019 that were all about whipping up fear of the other side. They were very negative campaigns.

Thw different response this time is a product of a very different, much less personal and more respectful campaign,

That Nigel Evans clip is lovely! I’ve never voted Cons and probably never will but he came across really well.

Yes I think in general the right are much more generous in defeat than the left. That is because as many have said the left think the right are evil (and their supporters are racists and/or morons) whereas the right think the left are just misguided. This can be carried over to the Brexit referendum. I notice that the people who went on about how only a minority voted for brexit (36% of voting public??) have nothing to say on Labour winning with an even smaller minority (22%, of voting public).

Yes - I remember Corbyn refusing to talk to Johnson and just thought, FFS. If our politicians can't act with dignity in office, discuss and negotiate, we're fucked.

I've actually made a career of my ability to get people I disagree with to nudge their position - WHEN I TALK TO THEM.

I hope we're leaving partisan politics behind as much as possible.

Indeed and it y seems that the first past the post system we have was only problematic for some when ,Conservative kept winning ,I have not heard much about it since the results of this election. 🤔

Indeed and it y seems that the first past the post system we have was only problematic for some when ,Conservative kept winning ,I have not heard much about it since the results of this election.

You can't be serious? There have been multiple threads on here about the unfairness, not to mention elsewhere.

I can't remember hearing so much about PR as I have in the last few days.

I was also very impressed by both Sunak and Starmer and the way they spoke about their opponents. It really is a good example to the world how democracy can exist without violence. I was even impressed by Mogg and that’s saying something. I feel it should have been Boris standing there apologising.

I was very impressed by Penny Mordant and Rees Mogg even though I find their views pretty awful on most things.
Truss was an embarrassment and Galloway one could not expect any less.

Less people voted for tory or Labour than ever. I think as the vote fragments further and clearly unfair results are seen (this time Reform coming third but only getting 5 seats), there will be more voices calling for pr. Unfortunately as both tories and Labour benefit from the system there is unlikely to be change as ironically whoever wins each election benefits from fptp. Labour only got twice reforms votes but ended up with 360 odd seats.

I do think that one thing public school teaches people is the whole "three cheers for the losers!" rhetoric. It doesn't always translate into actual behaviour- but it serves them well at these 3 minutes every 5 year events. Worth every penny.....

This says very little about you.