All male PM ballot

[Smotheroffive]

Just disappointing..no women in the final selection not to mention the B word

And yes, our local, Marky Mark! Hapless!

Well given who the 2 female candidates were, in pleased that they’ve both gone. Not that the male candidates are any less loathsome.

I'm very surprised about Esther Mcvey.

When May first stepped down I had Mcvey tipped as a very strong replacement.

Kind of sad she's gone so early.

I also have to say I'm very surprised at the support I see for Rory Stewart on here. He's a complete nothing. I've yet to hear a definitive or complete answer he'd given to any question, ever.
It'd be like another Corbyn shivers down my spine
I'm glad he only just got through this round. He'll be gone the next.

I'm not disappointed.

Andrea Leadsome and Esther McVey?

They geniuely the weakest two candidates in a field of candidates where competence is measured merely in how teflon you are and how much you are prepared to lie your head off. And a poor understanding of geography is essential.

It’s only a week or so since someone started a thread here claiming that Teresa May had been given the premiership since no man wanted it.

Whatever. Whoever wins will get a moment in the spotlight but Brexit will destroy their long term career. It’s the political equivalent of shifting carbon from the roof of Chernobyl. Somebody has to do it but thank fuck it isn’t me.

21% of Tory MPs are female.
It's quite obvious women won't make the shortlist.

I can't be the only person who thinks the Tories know it's in their best interests to have the worst possible candidate chosen? They're desperate to lose a general election so that Brexit will become Labour's problem, and they can blame Labour forever.

Unfortunately, even at their worst, they'll still defeat Corbyn.

Out of the 7 remaining candidates, 6 went to Oxford, of whom 5 went to independent schools (mostly big public schools) & 1 grammar school. Sajid Javid is the only one left who is state educated, non-white, non-Oxford. It was fairly obvious, IMO, that McVey and Leadsom, who are not only women but also both non-Oxford, 1 state educated, the other fostered, do not fit the mould desired by Tory MPs. I bet Dominic Raab and Sajid Javid, the two remaining slight outsider characters, don't make the final cut.

I don't like any of the candidates (but then, I don't like many Tory politicians), but I can see what Tory MPs like.

I'm not criticising people who studied at Oxford, or independent schools, or white people, or men. I am a member of 2 of those groups myself. It's just depressing when nearly everyone on the shortlist can tick the checklist on nearly every point. One or two people from a different background wouldn't hurt.

McVey voted against equal marriage and both her and Leadsome support no deal. The men are all awful also, except perhaps Rory Stewart, but these women are no great loss.

I'm not remotely sorry to see Leadsom and McVey go as individuals, but to have a list of seven candidates for the most important job in the country with no women on it is so dispiriting.

I'd prefer that to a woman being on just because she is female. I'm not a fan of either of the women

Feminism is all well and good but it's time we stopped wanting to see women on shortlists or in professions simply just because they are women. If the women on offer aren't good enough, they aren't, no ifs or buts about it. Women need to be up to the task or out of the door, in the same way as we wouldn't want a man who has less to offer than a woman get the job.

PS I agree wholeheartedly with Fink. It's a sorry bunch to have to choose from but entirely predictable.

I think the point is, really, that yes McVey and Leadsom are dreadful, but they're no worse than the men who are still there. It's not about wanting to force there to be women on a shortlist if the women are not as good as the male candidates, in this case those two particular women weren't any more awful than the men who remain.

I couldn't care less whether there was a woman on it. I hope Gove wins. Johnston is a gift to the SNP. Gove isn't.

It's more disappointing that the only 2 female candidates were such loathsome bigots.

CIasslc glass cliff scenario. Let a female have a go at an impossible and intracactable task. Push her over the glass cliff. Then put the mediocre middle class white man back in charge having surmised that females are not up to the task. Misogyny 101.

CIasslc glass cliff scenario. Let a female have a go at an impossible and intracactable task. Push her over the glass cliff. Then put the mediocre middle class white man back in charge having surmised that females are not up to the task. Misogyny 101.

What? If there are no viable female candidates that's hardly what's happening.

I can't be the only person who thinks the Tories know it's in their best interests to have the worst possible candidate chosen? They're desperate to lose a general election so that Brexit will become Labour's problem, and they can blame Labour forever

That really isn't a plausible scenario.

Part of me is expecting that Boris (or whoever) ends up putting May's withdrawal deal back to parliament (rebranded as being something completely different even though it's exactly the same), getting it passed, and rolling in the glory as "The Man Who Got The EU Too Give Us What We Wanted".

Like a grand scale version of that boardroom cartoon: "great idea, could a man please rephrase that so we can all agree with him?"

Would be bloody typical.

Neither Leadsom nor McVey was a viable candidate. Leadsom's best chance was last time out but she blew it, and Esther - well! No point in saying what I think as it'll get me deleted, but suffice it to say she's Philip Davies' girlfriend .
I don't have a vote in this particular election (Labour party member), but the only sensible human in the group is Stewart. He won't survive the next round of course.

I really don’t like McVey, so am very pleased she’s gone.

I was disappointed Amber Rudd didn’t stand, it seeems the sensible ones are too sensible to get involved.

I was disappointed Amber Rudd didn’t stand

Amber Rudd would be a fairly decent candidate. I think she has a really slim majority. So she’s too risky to have as PM.

I’m not mourning the loss of McVey or Leadsom.

Nine votes for McVile. That would be McVile, her fancy man Phillip Davies, and seven others who also want shooting.

(to quote Jo Brand.)