Kemi Badenoch - pros and cons

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I was enjoying reading the thread about KB but it filled up. Quite a few calling her vile and her views abhorrent, but without much further explanation. For example, I’ve heard about her autism views however one poster said they were misrepresented. In what way? For those more politically tuned-in than me, what specifically do you like or dislike about her?

BBC political editor would disagree with you "punchy and confident"
Anyway beats robotic Starmer et al with their pre programmed 1 stock sentence answer to everything

I agree the delivery was confident but I said the content was poor. She accused the government of committing to the 2.5% defence spend (despite starmer confirming in the sentence before they were), and that there was no mention of defence in the budget when the 2.5% commitment and spending increase. Maybe she has taken lessons from the Johnson school of thought.

He can still answer a question without saying it's in the budget and jeering and all the carry on

It's up to him to answer not just defer

It was fairly a clear delivery. But the questions were not great and her briefing very shallow. Yes she is combative but I think the weakness is clear - without a strong briefing team and better questions, then it’s of little effect.

Starmer’s jibe about student politics landed. She also made an error in referring to the FTA with the US. That was something she failed to do herself.

i guess she needs to build her own support team and this will improve.

To be fair to her she hasn't had that long to prepare, and Rishi has just been asking questions like "what will be prime minister be having for tea?" so not a lot prep to step into.

Pros

Down to earth
Worked in private sector
Strong communicator
Believes in small state and low taxes
Promotes individual responsibility rather than identity politics
Positive attitude to wealth creation

Cons

Lack of experience

Yes. It takes any opposition leader a while to find their mark. But foreign affairs is a loser - people don’t vote on it. The economy is the thing

Is there a difference between strong communicator and clear communicator? Because she's not a clear communicator which I think is a weakness in communication.

I’m none too keen on small state, low taxes either. Particularly since we currently have the worst of both worlds - small state and high taxes.

If I were a Tory I would be a little worried about her communication style-having to issue clarifications is not ideal. Being robust is not enough. She was unnecessarily churlish about Reeves too. And the McDonalds thing was dumb. But it's early days. Excellent hair, though!