New PM

[waterbabys]

So sounds like BoJo is finally about to be dragged out and I'm wondering who would be best to replace him in terms of being sympathetic to a GC's point of view?

I was thinking Savid Javid potentially? Any thoughts from anyone else?

Interesting how it's the Tories who had the UK's first female PM, and could potentially have our first non-white one. I'd like to see Javid bring some stability to this shit show. Being dull but competent is seriously underrated in politics.

I would like Javid for this reason too, with Rishi in the chancellor post again. Labour can bleat about diversity as much as they like, but they have never had a woman leader (Tories 2, Labour 0) and Javid would give the Tories the first non-white leader and non-white PM as well.

In politics more than anything, actions speak louder than words.

Interesting how it's the Tories who had the UK's first female PM, and could potentially have our first non-white one.

Yes, it's interesting isn't it? So many top Tories are BAME.

Maybe it's the difference between actually being inclusive and simply identifying as such. Doing rather than saying (and then forcefully making everyone agree that you're inclusive / pro women's rights even when actual evidence suggests otherwise).

Cross post with SamVimes - great minds, etc 😉

Yes, I know a GC woman who lives in his constituency who told me he has been very supportive.

I've always liked spoons.

Agreed.
Javid 4 PM. Sunak 4 Chancellor.
I'd vVastly Prefer Starmer if it wasn't for the 'self ID' nonsense (its even worse here in Scotland England mustn't follow ...) & supporting Brexit.
A plague on all their houses tbh ...

Tom Tugendhat would be good I reckon.

I thank you (doffs cap) however the works of Mr T Pratchett are vastly preferable even to spoons.

I quite identify as Granny Weatherwax and wish I'd thought of that when I name changed. Maybe next time.

I've got to admit I've mostly in my long life voted Labour, but even if I didn't care about women's rights at all I think I'd have a significant distrust of any political party that has spouting an anti-science line as a key policy and one people aren't allowed to disagree with.

It's totalitarianism.

I'd also be opposed to a political party saying the earth is flat and saying anyone who disagreed with that was a bigot.

Even though I think man-made climate change is real, I don't think climate change deniers should be silenced and labelled as bigots. I think their arguments should be discussed and proven to be wrong. And climate change is a much more complex situation where there is a range of complicated evidence. Much less straightforward than the sex binary.

Of course silencing us is all they've got because the argument that TWAW doesn't stand up to scrutiny (what the hell are they transing to or away from if they're LITERALLY W?)

Sunak. I think his heart is in the right place. I also think that he’d do a good job.
I don’t like Javid, don’t trust him.

Javid, then Truss

Suella Braverman on Peston last night...

twitter.com/itvpeston/status/1544806262520647684

Hopeful.

Have I Got News For You damaged Truss’s image some time ago when they kept playing the excerpt from a speech where she was talking about cheese and sounding excited. It wasn’t just one week, they played it and made fun of her quite a few times.

If ‘got too excited about cheese’ is the worst they’ve got to say about Truss then it truly is just misogynistic balls isn’t it?

Truss destroyed her own reputation when she was in charge of post Brexit trade deals. She went around telling everyone how great they were.

Consider the Australian deal . She told her staff the Aussie negotiator was a bit green and should be easy meat basically.

Her brilliant stratagem was to make him sit in an uncomfortable chair. Turned out he had struck a previous deal with the Bush government. The Aussies got all they wanted. Britain got stuffed. Next!

I heard that cheese thing echoed on here I never really understood the issue with what she did

Although I don’t think she’s a great communicator interviews, just in terms of knowing the brief but that might just be her style

according to sky news, Ben Wallace is the favourite by far

I can’t agree Javid has been good for health. That may not be because of him personally but the brief he’s been handed down but many of us in the NHS haven’t been impressed.

I’m hoping the party as a whole have seen what a shitshow Labour and Lib Dems have made with ‘What is a woman?’ that they won’t vote for a new leader who either can’t give an answer or says ‘a person who identifies as a woman.’
Surely that would be shooting themselves in the foot?

Yes, it's interesting isn't it? So many top Tories are BAME.
It is true that the Tories have had the first and second female prime ministers and they've had a good record at ethnic diversity in the Cabinet in recent years.
But OTOH I don't think the following is true -

Maybe it's the difference between actually being inclusive and simply identifying as such

52% of Labour MPs are women, compared with 25% of Tory MPs. And 63% of ethnic minority MPs are Labour.
Labour in government also had the first female Foreign Secretary and first female Home Secretary, first female Cabinet minister, first black Cabinet minister, and first openly gay Cabinet minister.

Hopefully, there will be a televised debate between candidates, and where they stand on WR and TR might well come up as a question.
It was interesting that when Mike Freer resigned from the government yesterday, he didn't cite the usual reasons of leadership and ethics and so on that are the reasons why everyone else resigned from the government, but instead made it all about LGBT+ ( www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/mike-freer-resigns-9125774 ), saying that he was resigning in protest at the government's hostility to LGBT+ people.
I don't think Mike Freer will stand for the leadership, fortunately.

If anyone is so inclined, it would be interesting to see if Labour became more or less diverse since Corbyn came in, and since his departure.

Never getting away from white male leaders ever doesn't look good as a headline, but maybe the reality is more complex. It certainly feels as though the Tories are doing a better job - perhaps that's just due to more visibility as the government, as opposed to the opposition, or maybe it's due to Labour having the greater numbers overall on the backbenches, but not in cabinet / shadow cabinet / leadership positions?

I am starting to wonder if the individualist aspect of conservatism is a boon for minorities, because it's less about what your background is and more about individual traits/skills/abilities/will.

Labour/leftism built far more on collective idealism, on a moralist framework, on hierarchy of moral goodness - paternalistic, with a male always needed at the helm. I just cannot imagine a female Labour leader. I don't think the party are capable of allowing it, I don't think all the 'firebrand' males would allow a female leader or listen to a female. It's more a narrative, a story. And that requires a hero, apparently a manly male hero.

This could be complete bobbins, it's just some thoughts I've been exploring. I'd be happy to hear how I'm wrong!

I agree with this when you look at the front bench it leaves an impression of diversity which is a good thing

Maybe it is individualism as in pp or maybe it is Labour being for unions who are heavily white and male - I think they only just had a female leader?

I think whoever takes over will not appeal to everyone,

Twas ever thus.