Kemi Badenoch through to next round

[InTheCanteen]

If you have a Conservative MP and want to protect the rights of women and safeguard children please email them TONIGHT and ask them to support Kemi.

Penny Mordaunt still the bookies favourite (and they aren't often wrong) but we need to let everyone know how dangerous it will be for this woman to become PM; I don't believe she has changed her mind for one moment.

Oh that sucks.

Gutted, she's as bad as the rest.

I want an honest prime minister.

Agreed, net zero is a bad idea. But it is a better idea that continuing to pollute the world at the even more unsustainable rate we are doing now.

I should have thought that was obvious to everyone today?

Ah, no, just because it feels like doing something does not make it better than nothing.

Doing something ineffective is a poor use of resources, for one thing. WHich could be used elsewhere.

But it's also worth asking why people would continue to push a program that won't work - the answer in this case is that really it allows them to get away with avoiding hard, necessary things.

I mean, while I think it's better to have some other options on the table with this, it's not necessarily a bad thing for a leader to change her (or his) mind if it becomes clear that people don't support your policy idea. The party leader doesn't get to set the agenda all alone.

I want an honest prime minister.

That’s like wanting a unicorn.

I think Kemi is still young and inexperienced. Maybe switching sides on net zero was a bad move, or maybe it was bad advice. Or maybe it was smart to show that she has some flexibility? I'm disappointed she's rolled back from where she was, because I think net zero is a terrible idea. But I'm still hopeful that she could win and I think she'd be a good leader - her inexperience is a worry, though.

It is indeed a great shame that none of the candidates are bold enough to go beyond net zero towards what is desperately needed.

What's beyond net zero? Minus zero? We fine people every time they put the kettle on? Climate change lockdown? ffs

Meanwhile, China and India continue to use billions of fossil fuels...

For example. Rather than counting hugely polluting burning of trees in Drax that have been shipped around the world has good for the environment, actually accepting that it is hugely polluting and has to stop.

BootsAndRoots · Yesterday 17:51
Abandoning Net Zero?

Has someone finally woken up to the fact that Net Zero just means offloading all carbon emissions onto another country?

Last week, before changing her mind, Kemi Badenoch compared it to unilateral nuclear disarmament.

Too many policies, like net zero targets, set up with no thought to the effects on industries in the poorer parts of this country,” Ms Badenoch told her campaign launch

The consequence is simply to displace emissions to other countries – unilateral economic disarmament. That is why we need to change and that is why I’m running to be leader

I still think we must do it somehow, and try to make jobs and retrain people to bring it about in all sorts of ways. Wouldn’t other European countries be in the same position? America was burning last year, won’t they try?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine I find nuclear power stations worrying, as they could be a target, apart from other accidents.

MangyInseam · Today 17:42
“trentpercent · Today 16:46
Gutted, she's as bad as the rest.”

I want an honest prime minister.
I mean, while I think it's better to have some other options on the table with this, it's not necessarily a bad thing for a leader to change her (or his) mind if it becomes clear that people don't support your policy idea. The party leader doesn't get to set the agenda all alone.

Sometimes being able to change your mind is a good thing. Some people may remember, in particular,
Mrs Thatcher famously saying, “You [U] turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning!”

This was all very well and ‘strong’ until the disaster of the poll tax which was absolutely terrible for so many people. All of a sudden people were getting enormous bills over night which they could not pay and threatened with prison for not paying. She absolutely would not listen, and that luckily at that point was the end of her.

Is she though? If you compare her government experience to David Cameron when he was elected PM she has more. Even Blair only had shadow cabinet experience. Age wise she's the youngest of the candidates but not by much.

There are a few good policy reasons to not be keen on her winning but I don't feel saying she is inexperienced is wholly fair.

That's interesting, Ovahere. Although David Cameron did make a pig's... ear of his term in power!

But yes, maybe she's not as inexperienced as all that. I really would love to see her win the leadership.

Sorry I haven't been following this much, but if Kemi is knocked out after tomorrow's voting, which candidate are her supporters likely to back? If most of Kemi's backers go to Liz Truss, then I think there is a chance that Penny Mordaunt may be knocked out on Wednesday, which is what I hope for.

It is true she hasn't held a major cabinet position before so compared to the other 3 saying she is inexperienced is fair comment I think. It's just in the grand scheme Cameron was so much more inexperienced and that wasn't a barrier to him being leader then PM.

That Cameron made a mess is also a good point and perhaps we shouldn't go with less experience again. However Boris, on paper, is very experienced and look how that ended up. I don't think there is an easy answer to this! 😅

TT's votes from today I think will get split between Sunak and to a lesser extent Mordaunt. However if Kemi goes I absolutely think most of her votes will go to Truss perhaps with a few going to Mordaunt.

Because this is a game of accumulating numbers and Mordaunt is now running out of avenues despite a strong start it's entirely possible Sunak and Truss will end up being the final two.

Not a given of course because a few days is a long time in politics but it strikes me that this is the direction it's going in.

When does Boris enter the race?
At least he knows what a woman is.

Boris has nothing to do with my post. You shoe-horning in this sentence everywhere to troll is just tedious now.

I quite agree it is very tedious, a bit like before that Keir's beer and but Jeremy Corbyn were.

I don't believe I've ever mentioned Keir and beer. I'm not the greatest fan of JC but I did vote for him once. Would have been twice if Labour had refrained from insulting women.

I have a huge amount of respect for Corbyn. He’s never wavered from his values. It’s cost him dearly. There he stands.

But Mordaunt wobbled from her beliefs all too easily, didn’t she?

achilles

I was saying to ds2 yesterday that i felt Corbyn was a conviction politician

Yes

What about my protected belief that all women should be barefoot and pregnant?

it was against the law once- but that's all old hat now