Westministenders: Hustings and Humilation

[RedToothBrush]

Round 1 has passed.
Boris is winning. But these are the Tories. Surprises might yet happen.

But the chances are the lying buffon is full speed ahead to be the next PM. As long as he manages to keep his mouth shut.

Unfortunately being Prime Minister involves talking. This might prove to be something that bursts the BorisMania rather rapidly.

A GE is still very much on the cards.

And we might face the Constitutional and undemocratic shutting down of parliament to satisfy the Tory Faithless.

Meanwhile the EU couldn't give less shits. They just think we are wasting the time we were granted in good faith.

31st October beckons with No Deal.

No wonder Boris didn't turn up:

It's in his NDA ?

Raab's too - iirc, is NDA was for bullying staff

Lots of tweets along these lines:

Rory Stewart is engaging in this contest in a completely different way. Whatever your politics, it’s massively refreshing. He’s got different instincts #C4Debate

imo, This debate is useful, not to discover hidden policies, but to reveal what these guys are like

Some of them, specially Raab, are obviously nasty shits

I agree about the Rory Stewart comments. I'd be very surprised if the Tory party go for him though!

Faisal Islam@faisalislam
Stewart aced that weakness question by saying he had lots of them... as you could see from the facial expressions in the cutaways of the other candidates #C4debate

Gove seens out of touch on issues of racial prejudice

Robert Peston@peston
.@RoryStewartUK again absolutely kills the others by actually sounding as though he is fallible. Whether it is sincere or a performance it is working. @sajidjavid also sounds human by talking about getting things wrong as a dad #c4debate

I see that Stewart on an LBC interview, thinks that the Tories need to "reach out" to Farage for his ideas on the how we deliver brexit, assuming this is correct (it looked genuine) then RS can go forth and multiply

Rory Stewart coming across better than the others. I’d love to see how Boris comes across in comparison.

I think RS is overplaying the 'doing it together' thing. I'm not sure he's showing leadership

Another big clap for Rory. Bit smug refering to his place at the bookies though

No clap at all for Sajid

30 sec sum up:

Goves summary: yawn what did he say?
Hunt: Venezuela Brexit otherwise.
Stewart: talks of anger, and being an outsider and telling truth as sees it
Javid: we love Britain. I love Britain. My background.
Raab: leaving on 31st Oct whatever.

I can understand Rory on getting input from all sides - which has to include Farage after his EP vote level

Doesn't mean doing what Farage wants, just listening to him - Barnier met him a couple of times for that

But the country is divided and needs to be brought back together. Reaching out to Farage doesn't mean doing what Farage says.

I'm not necessarily against that as an idea Jasjas - I wouldn't mind that approach if it involved someone sitting Nigel Farage down and saying - imagine you are an exporter of X in Northern Ireland, how would /you/ solve y problem, and waiting for the actual answer. He would fall apart entirely if asked to produce actual real world policy. And we should see that.

Some tweets:

So #C4debate verdict. Gove, insufferable, insincere career politician. Raab, Johnson's stooge. Hunt, bumbling fuckwomble. Javed, not as nice as he'd like to be. Stewart, least awful but wrong man, wrong time, maybe wrong party. Possibly best man to clean up the others mess...

So #C4debate verdict. Gove, insufferable, insincere career politician. Raab, Johnson's stooge. Hunt, bumbling fuckwomble. Javed, not as nice as he'd like to be. Stewart, least awful but wrong man, wrong time, maybe wrong party. Possibly best man to clean up the others mess...

Gove wasted his 30 second shot there. Hunt much better, except his repetitive 'entrepreneur' comment. Little applause though. Generous applause for Rory Stewart, albeit for a wishy washy speech. 'Saj' wins with the embracing of diversity. No applause from audience. #C4Debate

'Why are you best to be PM?'

Gove: sound bite
Hunt: LinkedIn jobs list. Corbyn will make us Cuba.
Stewart: You're all angry. I'll tell you the truth
Javid: I'M the ONE
Raab: I'm gonna show Britain's power by Brexiting on 31 Oct, a date chosen by the EU

Gove: I’m a vampire but I’ll be a really good daylight PM.
Hunt: I should get the gig cause I want it.
Stewart: give me the job cause I’m quirky.
Javid: I want it just as much as Hunt. Maybe even more.
Raab: if you don’t give it to me I’ll beat the shit out of you. #C4Debate

#C4Debate ranking:
Winner: Rory Stewart
Survived: Sajid Javid/Jeremy Hunt
Fucked it: Michael Gove /Dominic Raab

Performance relative to each other in #C4Debate:

1. Gove
2. Stewart
3. Javid
4. Hunt
5. Raab

So what we know so far.....
Gove....twat
Hunt....twat
Javid....more likely than not to be a twat
Raab....twat
Rory....ah, Rory, Rory, where art thou Rory
Johnson....twat
#C4Debate

Lewis Goodalll@lewis*_goodall

A sign of the absurdity of the internal Conservative debate at the moment:

in this, a debate for the leadership for the Conservative and Unionist party,
Venezuela has been mentioned more often than Scotland
#C4Debate.

Sam Coates - 10 lessons learned from the debate:

1	<strong>Everyone in British politics has learnt the wrong lessons from The Apprentice.</strong> < yep >
2	Boris Johnson's first cabinet will all hate one another. < yep >
3	Pushing through suspension of Parliament will never happen.
4	Other than the threat of no-deal, it's still not clear why EU would renegotiate deal.
5	We're never going to hear the end of Rory Stewart's bin. (An anecdote about machismo and attempting to pack too many plastic bags into a bin.)
6	Judging by this debate, fiscal conservatism is dead. Sorry Philip.
7	Give Rory an inch and he takes a mile.
8	There's nothing more painful than watching one candidate defend another.
9	Candidates agree education system in trouble but not which bit - primary school illiteracy? Tuition fees?
10	Hunt is an enigma. No deal is "potentially catastrophic" but must keep it on the table. Javid learnt his one liners.

Gove: I’m a vampire but I’ll be a really good daylight PM.
Hunt: I should get the gig cause I want it.
Stewart: give me the job cause I’m quirky.
Javid: I want it just as much as Hunt. Maybe even more.
Raab: if you don’t give it to me I’ll beat the shit out of you. #C4Debate

I'm for Rory. He came across as a pragmatist and I'm fed up of all the appealing to the populist position. Hard brexit renains on the table but we don't want hard brexit as it will be devastating

"Other than the threat of no-deal, it's still not clear why EU would renegotiate deal."

Even with that threat, they won't renegotiate the WA

But most candidates don't seem to realise this / daren't say so on TV

Odds on Stewart are shortening.

And the journo takes

Tom Newton Dunn@tnewtondunn
My take on #C4debate: more heat than light. No major gaffes or clear winner, but some good punches.

• Audience winner: Stewart, biggest applause for his ‘believe in the bin’ skit

• Best attack line: Hunt on Boris... if he’s scared of facing us, “how will he fare with EU27?” (1)

• Best personal appeal: Javid, “I’m not from central casting”

• Fruitiest dust up: Raab v Gove, “you buckled” by accepting May’s deal

• Strongest speech: Gove on knife crime, “not about law and order but love and hope”

• Clear loser: Boris, being empty podiumed looks dire (2)

Lewis Goodall @lewis_goodall
Gove/Stewart had the best night. Hunt/Javid forgettable. Raab seemed on edge.

But forget who won: we’re all in danger of losing. In 90 minutes I didn’t hear a single credible solution to the Brexit question. They don’t have one- neither does the man who wasn’t there. #c4debate

Beth Rigby@bethrigby
Gove/Stewart had the best night. Hunt/Javid forgettable. Raab seemed on edge.

But forget who won: we’re all in danger of losing. In 90 minutes I didn’t hear a single credible solution to the Brexit question. They don’t have one- neither does the man who wasn’t there. #c4debate

Iain Dale @iaindale
You could say that the winner of this debate so far is the candidate who isn't there. #C4Debate

MPs priority #1 is to keep their seats

Several with marginals might well switch to Rory

He's increased his chance of getting 33 votes and moving into the next round

MPs may think that the candidate who didn't even have the guts to show up, won't debate or shine in the GE either

• hiding away didn't go well for May