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.

(And Tory members, but then that’s open to anyone.)

True indeed. She is no more of a feminist than Margaret Thatcher ever was.

I don't particularly like any of the candidates if I am honest, but if it were to come to a choice between her and Rishi Sunak then I would have to (somewhat reluctantly) choose Rishi.

KB wants to roll back the state drastically and this is emphatically not what this country needs now.

Unfortunately all of the female candidates are extremely right wing .

It's going to have to be Rishi (would like Tom T but I don't think he's got a chance )

Apparently: art, music, sports, languages, trips, at primary level. All the things that private schools offer over and above the national curriculum, basically.

Private schools will give you a rounded education to make you fit for university and a professional career, state schools will teach basic literacy and numeracy to fit you for stacking shelves.

@stillherenow

That’s a fair opinion. Now let’s see what everyone else thinks.

‘Apparently: art, music, sports, languages, trips, at primary level. All the things that private schools offer over and above the national curriculum, basically.’

I don’t think she means that. I think she means the culture of one-to-one TAs for children with significant learning challenges in order to promote ‘inclusion’ - which, when you look at the results on a population level, doesn’t work. I’m not being ‘small state’ about this, I just question how much money you can put into something to protect a principle.

Not that I get a vote, but this would be my position too. I like Tom Tugendhat best but I don’t think he’ll make the final two.

I can't stand the Tories so to some extent I'd like anyone who might lose them the election. Eg SB. I think Rishi could beat Labour so that worries me !

I love this

I don’t think she means that. I think she means the culture of one-to-one TAs for children with significant learning challenges in order to promote ‘inclusion’ - which, when you look at the results on a population level, doesn’t work. I’m not being ‘small state’ about this, I just question how much money you can put into something to protect a principle.

Where do you think those children will be educated? It won’t be cheaper to send them to special schools.

@PurpleDaisies

That’s a good question but it is a different one. If providing one-to-one support doesn’t tend to work (and I appreciate it will work with some children) there’s a reasonable case to say do something else.

There are women who call themselves feminists these days who believe biological men should be recognised as women, and given unfettered access to limited female resources, so forgive me if I have no regards for the word these days.

Kemi starts off from a principle of living in a democracy, governed by rationality and empirical evidence, and that's good enough for me. She also has economic experience both from working in finance before she became an MP, and from working in the Treasury as a junior minister, she's also been a Minister in the Johnson Levelling Up Department, so I don't think she's quite the ogre you are painting her to be.

I will vote as I see fit. Feel free to do otherwise.

The only children that have 1:1 TAs left are those with EHCPs. If you have cleared that hurdle, you absolutely need that support. There is an issue of some unskilled people being given too much responsibility for 1:1 work but that’s because the positions are so poorly paid in relation to what you often end up doing. What exactly do you mean by 1:1 support doesn’t tend to work?

This will all be moot if it boils down to a simple Sunak v Truss shoot out. Which I suspect it will.

My hope is those who voted for Kemi and Suella back Liz Truss and Tom's supporters back Rushi and squeeze Penny out. And then Rushi gets the job in the final vote. Kemi's voice is going to hold weight in the future and I'm grateful that she's had the backbone to stand up for freedom of speech and women's rights.

Private schools will give you a rounded education to make you fit for university and a professional career, state schools will teach basic literacy and numeracy to fit you for stacking shelves.

That doesn't sound like what she's after. I watched a very old Ted Talk with her the other day in which she talked about the racism of low expectations - schools teaching children to avoid 'elitist' universities and 'difficult' professions, as had happened to her, whereas she thought all children should aim as high as possible.

It’ll be interesting to see where people settle as they fall out of process

I’m glad Hunt is out, but I don’t think he had much of a chance

@PurpleDaisies

What I mean is what I said. In my experience 1:1 often isn’t effective. That’s for loads of reasons, and it needs fresh eyes. Whether or not the pupil needs support is a separate issue from whether that support does anything effective.

If the special schools have room/are willing to accept them.

it’s a mess.

Hopefully Penny Morduant will win as she’s the only major politician from either major party not afraid to show her support for trans men and women.

"If the special schools have room/are willing to accept them."

There's a 2 year wait for a place at a SN school in my county.

Are they going to fund more schools? Are they going to withdraw funding those "superfluous" staff in the meantime?

@BurnDownTheDiscoHangTheDJ - given that you don't seem to understand how this process works - no one on here has any influence on whether Badenoch is chosen or not. Tory MPs choose. This is not an election. The person who they choose will lead until there is a general election. That may not be until 2025 but is likely to be much sooner.

In the shoes of the new PM/Education Secretary I’d review the whole of SEND provision. It’s not just about what’s cheaper (though cost is a consideration). It’s about what works.

I really thought I was a one issue voter, but what Kemi plans for schools is terrifying.

In fact they all are, I think policy wise we will miss Boris.

Penny has seem to have moved away from TWAW, tbh I doubt she believes it but was going with the prevailing wind not ideal I know

@Babdoc
This will all be moot if it boils down to a simple Sunak v Truss shoot out. Which I suspect it will.

Seems unlikely, Tory MPs are many things but most of them aren’t stupid. There seems little point in putting Sunak through to the deciding membership vote knowing he has zero chance of winning it AND is pretty unpopular with the public at large. I’d be pretty shocked if Morduant doesn’t become PM at this stage. The bookies have her as strong favourite now.