Rory Stewart for P.M.

[HappydaysArehere]

We would actually vote Tory if he was elected. We first noticed him when he made a fascinating programme on Laurence of Arabia but his experience and recognition abroad seems to be little recognised in this country. There is an interesting article in the Guardian today which I would love to have linked but stupidly I don’t know how to do it.
However, am interested in how many of you have noticed him and would support him if given the chance.

My instinct is he'd be the ideal opposition leader if/when Boris screws it all up and the Tories lose the next GE. Next time round will - I hope - be Rory's time

My concern is after Boris has had a good go there’ll not be a Conservative party left for him to be leader of ...

Yayyyy he’s through

Just saw an interview with Andrew Neil where he spoke about having a lot more support with the public and the party members than MPs

I hope we see more of him. Makes you proud to be British unlike Boris

Excellent. I agree with you snowy

Rory Stewart for P.M.?

Are you for real? Frankly, I've not met anyone as deluded as this wannabe for a long, long time. He's got to be insane to think that he can unite the country and the Tory party and deliver Brexit - following EXACTLY the policies that Teresa May had tried for 3 flinking years to do only to go out in tears!

Get real Rory!

Any alternatives then?

I think he is a socialist in Tory clothing and for that reason a lot of labour MPs really respect him. I think he is a leader who could unite all the remainer at heart MPs (who now fear Farage and realise Brexit needs to be done, but want the least bad Brexit), so that they don’t need to rely on the toxic DUP

From a BBC News Report

"He said the EU had made it clear they would not revisit the withdrawal agreement. Instead he proposed setting up a citizens' jury to break the Brexit impasse."

"Under his plan, a group of 50,000 people would be selected randomly from the electoral register. Those people would get a phone call in late July to check they were available to participate. A polling company would then whittle the number down, making sure the final group was representative of the country. That group would be given three weeks to make recommendations which Parliament would then be able to approve or reject."

. . . and they all live happily ever after.

More fantasies and fairy tales from said wannabe. I'm now seriously questioning his state of mind; one talking about selecting 50,000 people and then further whittle down to heaven knows how little (by presumably a private company) to be given three weeks as the absolute final Brexit conclusion!

Whilst 17.4 million had already given their conclusions 3 years ago in an official and legal national Referendum.

Dream on!

But that is not his plan. His plan is to get the WA through Parliament as is, because there are only three options

1. No deal
2. WA
3. Revoke

There are no other realistic options and WA is the best and least painful compromise

If he fails to do that (and fear of farage and his new mandate as PM would give him a fighting chance) then he would set up the citizens jury. But they would still only have the three options!

I think the idea is the only way forward.

RS is at least saying many things I want to hear. Unlike most things said by of the leadership candidates.

Wow what a load of middle class nonsense. Which bit of he voted for austerity, which bit of he has targeted disabled people, homelessness. I could go on and but you will stay in your middle class bubble.

RS is the only realist left standing. As stated above the choice is no deal, stay, leave on WA. The rest are deluded or liars, or both.

Seems we have a choice (only we don’t) between straight forward truth or flamboyant fabrications. Wonder what the Tory faithful will vote for.

hunkydory I went to the Lib leader hustings recently and met both candidates
Ed Davy impressed me more than Jo Swinson to be honest and depending on who ends up in charge of the Tory party I could see myself possibly voting for him

If he can scrape through to members he’s got a good chance

Rory Stewart has made an excellent job of reaching out to those who would not normally consider voting Conservative. So good, in fact, that most Conservatives, and certainly those who are paid-up grassroots Party members, do not consider him to be one of them at all. And they are the ones with the final say.

Still, it's been entertaining to watch.

"We would actually vote Tory if he was elected" why if you wouldn't before? He's as much a Tory as any other Tory MP from his voting record and stated opinions.

"My non-existent vote would also not go to labour any time soon. Fuckers. I voted for Blair in my first general election - that worked out fab" Blair was never true Labour, I'd recommend you look at Labour now especially the manifesto.

"No I haven’t seen his voting record. I will investigate." You started a thread supporting an MP without even looking at their voting record?!

"until Corbyn materialised from relative obscurity promoted by the hard left, I was a staunch Labour supporter." you think Corbyn is hard left? I'm guessing you voted for labour from 1997 on?

"Seriously people, come the chuff on. We have had a run of Eton educated, out of touch toff after toff and here we are looking to vote another one in. Its like turkeys voting for Christmas" yep!

"his books are an absolute joy to read. His life has been extraordinarily full" according to him! Ever heard of "self promotion"? Bias? Limited sources of information? Pretty sure if you were basing your voting choices on books written by the MP concerned Johnson could be just as "impressive".

"is it [eton] produces such a diverse range of personalities" aye right! They're churning out unselfish, not entitled at all, socialists by the lb...oh wait! 🤔

"I think he is a socialist in Tory clothing" based on what?!

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/esa-wrag-disability-benefit-cut-disabled-mps-vote-tories-iain-duncan-smith-a6918556.html%3famp

He thinks austerity measures were the right thing for the country.

He's consistently voted against the poorest and most disadvantaged in society.

He is a Tory, if you think otherwise you are deluded.

He may be marginally a better choice than Johnson but he is not kind, he is not compassionate he is not fair.

Graphista, that's an interesting point about 1997. A little while ago, I read a fascinating political analysis (sadly, didn't keep it and can't remember now where I saw it) in which the author had fed key pledges from the various party manifestos over the last fifty years or so into a software programme. The software graded the various promises individually as either in keeping with left wing philosophy or right wing philosophy (or centrist) and assigned an overall place on the left/right spectrum to each party leader, regardless of whether they were PM or not at the time.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest difference was between Neil Kinnock and Margaret Thatcher. What did knock me sideways, though, was the fact that both John Major and Theresa May were to left of Tony Blair. In fact, if you had drawn a vertical line through the spectrum, Tony Blair was right of centre by a comfortable margin.

Explains a lot, both in 1997 and today.

However, as I don't wish to derail this thread, it would be hard to place where Rory Stewart would be as from what I've read, his words are only on nodding acquaintance with his actual actions 🙂

SingingLily if you ever remember/find a link to that analysis I for one would be very interested.

It doesn't surprise me that Blair was/is more right wing than certain Tory pm's

In 1997 I was recently married to my ex who prior to our meeting had been ignorant of politics. As the 97 elections loomed he was still in the early stages of learning about uk politics but knew I was a socialist and that usually this meant labour supporting.

We had an interesting conversation when he was surprised to learn I hadn't voted labour, he asked me why? My answer was basically that Tony Blair was no socialist, that I considered him untrustworthy and that he would not serve the interests of ordinary working class people.

At the time the msm were trying to make out Blair was a working class "lad" who'd "worked hard" to get where he did. Ex had fallen for this rhetoric.

He was surprised even shocked when I informed him he was the son of a barrister, had been privately educated and had graduated from Oxford.

I never believed in Blair as a socialist, I think he simply read the political landscape and saw that people were tiring of "grey" right wing politics, had an excellent PR machine behind him, wasn't butt ugly, was a good, confident public speaker with a certain amount of charisma.

Virtually the first thing he did upon becoming leader of the Labour Party following John smiths tragic loss was to basically bastardise the labour party's ethos from one of socialist to what he described "democratic socialist"

While in power he passed policies that superficially looked like socialist policies while actually being those preferred by traditional conservative sponsors therefore "winning" them over to funding the Labour Party - not socialist but not stupid either!

I've been kicking myself recently for not saving it, Graphista, but will definitely send it to you if I track it down again. In the meantime, I not only agree with your assessment of Tony Blair but see clear parallels in Rory Stewart (who is definitely not a Conservative, even if he does sport a blue rosette). Both are, in my view, lightly tethered to any political principles they may have and are simply adept at reading the political landscape.

I was of the view that TB was sincere in the sense that he absolutely believed what he was saying but only at the exact moment he was saying it. Then the moment would pass. Expediency should have been his middle name. However, I think Rory Stewart demonstrates the same type of surface sincerity. He has made so many directly contradictory statements in the last few weeks that I just can't take him seriously.

I much prefer conviction politicians. I might not agree with everything they say. I might not be able to abide some of them. However, at least you know where you stand with them and can use your vote accordingly.

I much prefer conviction politicians. I might not agree with everything they say. I might not be able to abide some of them. However, at least you know where you stand with them and can use your vote accordingly.

Exactly! Thatcher was many things but insincere was not one of them, we knew exactly what she stood for and that didn't change.

I can't think of the last time we had a PM that was true of?

Gordon Brown possibly. However, he was also master of the law of unintended consequences and over-complicated everything he touched so that his original objectives, however well-meant, were defeated in the end by their own processes.

I can't think of one existing party leader, or in the case of the Conservatives, potential party leader from the current pool, who could be described as a conviction politician. However, there are a handful on the backbenches on both sides of the HoC who would. We'll have to wait a bit longer then.

I would never vote Tory and have never heard of him.

"his books are an absolute joy to read. His life has been extraordinarily full" according to him! Ever heard of "self promotion"? Bias? Limited sources of information? Pretty sure if you were basing your voting choices on books written by the MP concerned Johnson could be just as "impressive".

That was my comment. Yes his life has been extraordinary so far. How many other MPs do you know that have done half the things he has? Yes it's according to him but one presumes he hasn't just made up his walk across Afghanistan, or his time in Iraq

Jesus wept! Look at his voting record. He's yet another clown-faced, hypocritical, smug, snake in the grass creeping Judas Tory twat. They've fucked over the entire society because people keep falling for their crap, and in that case, well they deserve the shit country they're going to get (and possibly losing Scotland to independence) for continually voting for this shower of wank.