Rory Stewart for Prime Minister

[Beneficentbovine88]

I know he's recently left politics to teach at Yale but I heard him speak about the Russia - Ukraine conflict on BBC international news this morning and he spoke with such intelligence and integrity that it reminded me what it would be like to have an intelligent, competent, responsible, honest, realistic person in charge rather than the current shambles. I know everyone is waiting to see whether BJ will have his Churchill moment given the current crisis but surely one of the hallmarks of a good leader is trustworthiness?

Just to be clear, I have no political affiliations at all any more. Just generally disillusioned.

Yes, absolutely

I Think he is too much of a wild card for the U.K. electorate. There is something about him they can’t quite pin down (his integrity, perhaps!). Plus he is vocally Catholic which people distrust, sadly.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/25/irish-musicians-hare-squead-anger-minor-gangsters-rory-stewart?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Nice lyrics

m.youtube.com/watch?v=c0E1mCM930Y

@samsalmon

Wasn’t Rory Stewart in the Labour Party when he was young? He has some very interesting ideas about what constitutes a middle ground, he says it’s not a fudge note that tries to balance or reconcile conflicting ideas but a true point of harmony and that it is not easily found. I really like the guy, I’m a never Tory voter too but I’d make an exception for him. It doesn’t look like he’s headed back into Westminster though, and I can’t blame him for that. As a bonus, he clearly can’t stand BJ.

Your question about him being a Labour Party supporter () led me to read his Wiki entry and crikey, he has certainly packed a lot in! .

And here:

And according to the Westmoreland Gazette (I have been down a Google rabbit hole tonight!) :

"CONSERVATIVE leadership contender Rory Stewart says he stopped supporting the Labour Party over Tony Blair’s government’s policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Penrith and the Border MP was a Labour voter aged 18, but switched to the Conservative Party after working in Afghanistan, the International Development Secretary said.

There was a “surreal gap between rhetoric and reality,” he told a crowd of around 100 people at Speakers’ Corner in London yesterday."

Interesting what made him switch

‘ The Penrith and the Border MP was a Labour voter aged 18, but switched to the Conservative Party after working in Afghanistan, the International Development Secretary said.’

Must have seen some things out there

@Bellalastrasse

I Think he is too much of a wild card for the U.K. electorate. There is something about him they can’t quite pin down (his integrity, perhaps!). Plus he is vocally Catholic which people distrust, sadly.

Oh I didn't know he was Catholic Bellalastrasse; I have heard him talk about his Christianity on the radio though and how it frames his life or some such.

I can’t see him being an obedient, unquestioning Catholic though. I can see him enjoying a debate on doctrine, logic, fundamentals but almost from an academic perspective- he is a thinker and very grounded in reality (in his awareness of life outside of his world). I can see him as practising but not quite accepting of it all (abortion, etc).

[quote TottersBlankly]www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/oct/25/irish-musicians-hare-squead-anger-minor-gangsters-rory-stewart?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other[/quote]
Yes this is where his Eaton & Balliol College background does not do him any favours! And there was another incident in Cumbria when, in a bid to make a point about hidden poverty, he made a clumsy comment about some of his constituents holding their trousers up with baler twine. He can't really claim to be a "man of the people".

Wasn't he one of Tory MP's who received donation from Russia? 10K I believe. He should be able to explain reasons behind it.

I'm not massively into Twitter, but whenever something's afoot, I tend to check what he's got to say about it.
I was disappointed when the Tory leadership election didn't go his way although I've never voted Conservative. But party leadership sets the tone and like Belle suggests, his integrity and presumably insistence on accountability was always going to be a problem.
He's everything Boris is not, including rather sexy.

Although I did laugh some to hear him snidely referred to as Florence of Belgravia with reference to his travel memoirs. Jealous meanies.

Another non Tory here who would be happy with Rory. But it won't happen will it?
I know people who worked with him when he was an an MP and before that, and say he is a good and talented man.

I was put off him for three reasons. I met him about 18 years ago and he is extremely pleased with himself.
Secondly, his fake tearing off of his tie in the leadership debates. The others had their mikes on their ties and he didn’t, and it was planned and cringeworthy. Lastly his performance in the debates, saying he wouldn’t negotiate Brexit with the EU because they had said they wouldn’t negotiate any more. That is their job! Macron, Merkel et al, as elected by their respective countries had a duty to say they weren’t bloody negotiating and that was that, take it or leave it UK. Our PM’s job as elected by the Uk, carrying out the result of a referendum, was to say yes you bloody will, I’ll make you, and they did. If RS were in charge, limply saying “but they said they don’t want to negotiate”, the UK would have had even worse terms. He’s too polite (on screen at least) to lead the country.

I really couldnt stomach the tie performance either. Ugh.

@Duntelchaig

I was put off him for three reasons. I met him about 18 years ago and he is extremely pleased with himself. Secondly, his fake tearing off of his tie in the leadership debates. The others had their mikes on their ties and he didn’t, and it was planned and cringeworthy. Lastly his performance in the debates, saying he wouldn’t negotiate Brexit with the EU because they had said they wouldn’t negotiate any more. That is their job! Macron, Merkel et al, as elected by their respective countries had a duty to say they weren’t bloody negotiating and that was that, take it or leave it UK. Our PM’s job as elected by the Uk, carrying out the result of a referendum, was to say yes you bloody will, I’ll make you, and they did. If RS were in charge, limply saying “but they said they don’t want to negotiate”, the UK would have had even worse terms. He’s too polite (on screen at least) to lead the country.

I really couldnt stomach the tie performance either. Ugh.

If the tie thing is your biggest beef given the performance of Johnson in office (any office) versus Stewart's and his excellent assessment of Afghanistan more than 10 years before other politicians, Ive got to be honest and laugh a bit.

I was hugely impressed by some of the speeches he gave.

Unfortunately if he did ever make it in the candidates list or indeed PM I fear he'd be the conservative equivalent of Corbyn.

Deeply loved by centrist and anti Brexit supporters ( of which I'm one) but hated and plotted against by the right of the party, who apparently don't find Boris Johnson right enough any more.

I think the best we can hope for next time round is someone efficient and less of a megalomaniac than Boris.

i have time for Rory Stewart, follow him on twitter

otoh being a prime minister is all about diplomacy, tactics, whatnot, putting on a show
he needs to be a special advisor perhaps

he may not have the correct charisma required

@Fere

Wasn't he one of Tory MP's who received donation from Russia? 10K I believe. He should be able to explain reasons behind it.

Yes but I seem to recall he gave it back? Not sure!

I hadn't heard that he was a bit too fond of himself but it has come up a few times here. I suppose achieving so much so young would put you in danger of that. But at least he's a grafter unlike some I could mention. He is proficient in eleven languages apparently and even managed to deliver one of his own babies which arrived unexpectedly Hopefully humility will come with middle age as he is approaching fifty now.

And no, it's not going to happen intwrferingma ... Westminster's loss I think!

@ 'Florence of Arabia'

He is certainly flawed- the Irish musicians incident is a good example of performance versus genuine connection with ordinary people but I think he is preferable to the current lot. I think he has enough of the old school credibility (Afghanistan) to appease some, including the military alongside the intellectual ability to counter arguments from the Lords and Commons groups. His clarity of thought appeals to a lot of people because he does try and explain things to people and doesn’t patronise or fluff it up but yes, he is an ole Etonian and Oxford boy. I think the problem there is that Cameron, Johnson and the press have made that a toxic brand rather than a place where there are some seriously intelligent players (as there are in other institutions).

In the face of a really intelligent man we are now excluding him on the basis that he is too intelligent.

That would make the third old Etonian in a row. People are getting a bit tired of over privileged people getting the top jobs.

Did Theresa May go to Eton then?

Yes, I find Rory Stewsrt impressive. He remind me that politicians once stood for something, Also Tom Tugendhat who gave a very moving speech about the abandoment of Afghanistan

I read the title as rod stewart and opened thread wondering if he was into politics these days !