Rory Stewart

[TheSteveMilliband]

Given Sadiq Khans sloganeering and repeating of the TWAW mantra what about Rory Stewart as a mayoral candidate? I've only seen a couple of comments - one question from a TW at the Tory leadership hustings in which he avoided the question instead talking about how we improve lives with "love and respect" then when he was briefly quizzed on GMB where he said pretty unequivocally that he thought TW in women's sport seemed unfair. I've been impressed by his inclusive (by which I mean listening to everyone, not demonising parts of the electorate as evil right wing fascists / lefty liberal snowflakes etc) and compassionate style. Would be nice to have someone to get behind - I find it hard to support BJ but the Tories are the only party taking any notice of women at the moment.

I like him.

My family - London-based - is 100% behind Rory. They find him inclusive (he’s currently sleeping in London’s various boroughs, talking to people) and measured.

I like him as well. I suspect he's desperately trying to avoid the issue (like 99.999999% of politicians) but would be surprised to find he's a TWAW believer.

I'm not British and don't in the UK and am not up to date on your politicians. But a few months ago I visited a French friend who lives in London, whose opinion I respect, and he was all for Rory (it was back when they were looking for a new Tory leader, and he had been hoping it'd be Rory. He said Rory was the only one he respected.).

He showed me a Youtube in which Rory spoke about hedgehogs. He (Rory) was so articulate, so knowledgeable, so warm, somehow, I was totally hooked. I fell in love! ;) Someone who knows so much about the lives and loves of hedgehogs surely won't be deluded about women?

^^ "don't live in the UK"

I have long thought he was a very genuine person. I can’t believe I’m writing in praise of a Tory MP though. Strange times.

I like him

He seems like a reasonable person to me. I like him.

I like him.

What strikes me is he has a track record of bringing experts on board, working with them, and actually finding solutions.

Eg when he was in charge of prisons he wanted to get prison violence down - so instead of just talking about it/throwing money at it/announcing a task force to kick the issue into the long grass like most politicians seem to, he got some experts To visit prisons with him, they reviewed when the violence was happening, discovered a lot of it was in the lunch queue (prisoners were hungry, fights flared up) so put more guards on duty there. Violence went down 30 percent!

He seems really thoughtful, and good at listening to a range of people.

I’d bet he’s not a TWAW person, but is too savvy to say anything too controversial right now.

I like him too.

In the comments: Was this a bet? Talk on the subject of hedgehog for 10 minutes whithout hestiation, deviation, or repetition.

Imagine if he were to talk about female biology for ten minutes!

I believe he delivered his own baby as a emergency!

We have his books, I can thoroughly recommend them. Decent, thoughtful, compassionate man.

An emergency, not a.

It is a pleasure to listen to someone measured, thoughtful, educated. It makes a nice change from all the raucous, squawking, self indulgent ranting that is so prevalent now.
I am listening to some of his other talks atm.

If the stories about delivering his own baby are true then I think it's fair to assume he understands biology.

I remember the podcast with James O'Brien last summer(?) and thinking he (Stewart) came out of it well (and also how how different O'Brien is when he takes someone seriously instead of trying to make them look foolish).

I also like how he (Stewart) dresses but hey, that's me.

But that said, he's also ambitious so I'm afraid I won't hold my breath.

I quite like him and the main Tory guy whose name I forget. I wonder if he'll end up being a bit wishy washy and not accomplish much by trying to please everyone and offend no-one though.

I'll reserve judgement until I hear him and Shaun Bailey state their views on self ID and women's rights.

The Mayoral vote is supplementary so you can vote for more than one non-Khan candidate if it ends up going down to a final two.

The polling for Khan is interesting - he's both well ahead but only popular in Muslim communities. As a result he might not make it above the 50% for first preference vote - and if he doesn't he could lose as there's a strong anti Khan vote, which gets stronger with every tweet he posts about women, people of all genders and trans rights

Just before the piers Morgan interview with India Willoughby and the Olympic committee consultant about transwomen in sport, Morgan asked Rory about the upcoming topic.

Rory said he thought the inclusion of transwomen in women’s sport was unfair. I’d be surprised if he believed Tw Aw.

Just a pity he thinks all black people are ‘gangstas’.

And that he’s Tory.

Other than that, yeah ... Crack on.

Rory is an excellent person. He has an actual brain and is the last one just to accept a thing on the surface without asking about what it actually means.

But if he was prisons minister, was he not responsible for policy on placing transwomen in the female prison estate? Karen White's assaults on women didn't happen on his watch (it was just before he was appointed), but what was his response? The policy is still in place as far as I understand.

Even if he doesn't believe TWAW then he's not prepared to actually stick his neck out for it, is he?

Agree, I went off him after he stereotyped 3 young black men
as 'gangster types'.

It shouldn't need saying but they were actually musicians I believe.

If only he saw the same mystery and majesty in the community of London as he did in the people he met further afield in his travels ...

But then, tis always the way - exoticization of the ‘distant, noble savage’; prison for da local yoof.

Yeah the “gangstas” thing was terrible. None of the candidates are perfect by a long shot. I still like Rory the best. To be fair I think he’s genuinely trying to challenge his stereotypes and learn more about a range of people with all this “kip with a Londoner stuff”.