Could Rory Stewart be the Brexit Messiah?

[onalongsabbatical]

I may be suffering from delusions, but so far I like him and he seems to be talking sense and cutting through soooooooo much Tory bullshit. Why is he a Tory anyway? What do people think of him? More to the point perhaps, has he got a snowflake in hell's chance of becoming our PM? Disclosure - I am not and have never been any kind of Tory, I'd rather rip off my own eyelids slowly than vote on the right. However, we are, as they say, where we are. I think he's looking like our best 'way through'.

Someone on twitter suggested he might have his sights set on Mayor of London instead.

I was going to say have a look at his voting record before being sucked in but see someone has already posted it.

He's very much a Tory boy in the usual form of cutting benefits, promoting bedroom tax, etc. Wants to boot any EU nationals out after Brexit even if they've been here ages, etc. Does not seem a nice person. Actions tell you more about a person than words and his actions here are how he's voted in the past.

Though apparantly he did a very nice speech about hedgehogs in Parliament once. Though I can't find details whether he is for or against hedgehogs!

1tisILeClerc
You do realise that the EP elections were to select MEPs to represent the UK if it remains in the UK, therefore bugger all to do with much else.

Of course - you missed the RemainVoter tactical voting thread then? And you're a bit behind with the UK news over in France?

If anyone voted for the Green Party I bet they didn't look too closely at their manifesto/policies - some radical ideas they might not be that happy with.

Or maybe you want some very hard right extremists to be on the 'peoples assembly'?

Oh stop it with your hard right extremists nonsense - I'm a centrist Boris Johnson supporter, although I did vote for the Brexit Party in the EU elections.

What’s with your random italics, Clav? That’s new.

And bloody hell, I’m not sure I’d consider a vote for racist Boris ‘centrist’.

Not a Tory here but I'd rather him than any of the others. For a Tory he seems a decent man. Lots of people support the kinds of things he does (re his voting record), and they're not all ex-Etonians either. I'm sure his experiences in the middle east will influence some of his voting.

By his own admission, he more naturally identifies with Labour, and used to be a member! But then he is an old Estonian, so I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

I wonder how much he paid for this profile... He seems very unreliable and flighty from this piece. Gets bored VERY easily.

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/11/15/paths-of-glory-ian-parker

I am tired. I read the title as Rod Stewart.
As you were.

but 38% of Scottish voters voted Leave in 2016 - I refuse to believe that the vote has swung that much in favour of Remain in Scotland.

Of the few leave voters I know in Scotland, one sees it as a path to an independent Scotland preferably in the EU, 1 (my df) is dead, 2 (my MiL and dm) have changed their minds, mostly over NI and the other voted Green much to my surprise last week. Obviously it's a tiny sample but I'm seeing more and more Independence and/or remain things being shared across social media by friends, family and acquaintances, much more than say at the time of either referendum.

noblegiraffe
What’s with your random italics, Clav?

I was enjoying myself with the italics - they weren't meant to be random!

Amber Rudd is backing Boris.

Dinosauratemydaffodils
Sorry - still not believing that 85% of Scottish voters would now vote Remain.

{Of course - you missed the RemainVoter tactical voting thread then?}

Since I had already exercised my right to vote and there was nothing of great interest on that thread I left it alone.
My point that you missed about hard right extremists is that if you are deliberately selecting people for a peoples assembly is that by excluding opposing views you might be on the 'gentler' end of the scale and the majority may be Nazi sympathisers with very strong opinions that could put you in the spotlight. Would cutting welfare and reducing women's jobs to 'domestic duties' suit you?

the majority may be Nazi sympathisers

You've lost me...where are you getting all these Nazi sympathisers from?

Not unusual for a leaver to be unable to follow a train of thought or project forwards.