You may have seen over the weekend that John Rentoul manned up and made a stout-hearted attempt to resuscitate the decomposing corpse of the 'Ruth Davidson for PM' campaign, with an article entitled 'I'm convinced Ruth Davidson could be the next Prime Minister'. Now, obviously most people reading this blog will share my view that Ruth is All Tank And No Ammunition, and will be aware that under her leadership the Scottish Tories have slipped back to a dismal third place in the majority of recent polls. However, let's humour Rentoul just for a moment and pretend that the idea of Ruth as a world leader isn't quite as batty as it actually is. What's missing from the article is an explanation of how it's even practically feasible for her to stand in a Conservative leadership election.
To stand as a leadership candidate, you need to be a Westminster MP. Ruth is not a Westminster MP. It is of course theoretically possible to become an MP without a general election taking place by engineering a by-election, but that takes time. Vacancies for the Tory leadership generally occur rather suddenly (I can't think of even a single exception to that rule in my lifetime), so we're effectively being asked to believe that other potential candidates and the entire Hard Brexit wing of the Tory parliamentary party would be absolutely fine with the start of the contest being delayed for several weeks just so that the darling of Remainers can attempt to stand. The only alternative would be for her to preempt the issue by persuading a Westminster chum to stand down before a leadership vacancy arises, but that would be seen as an obvious attempt to prepare the ground for a leadership challenge, and thus as a gross act of disloyalty - not just against Theresa May, but against the whole Tory party. Any needless by-election can backfire, and the Tories know they can't risk losing even a single seat given the current state of the parliamentary arithmetic.
It just ain't going to happen. She may well want it to happen, but by now she'll have worked out the permutations in her head and realised a plausible route to Downing Street just isn't there in anything like the foreseeable future.
* * *
What do you call a man who has already completely and utterly lost the plot and then doubles down? If I didn't know the guy so well, I'd be rubbing my eyes in disbelief right now. Round 3 in less than a week from Stormfront Lite's Mike Smithson -
"Remember the ONLY way an election can be triggered before 2022 is by going through the processes set down in the Fixed-Term Parliament Act. This requires two thirds of all 650 MPs to back one, as last April, or else the government losing two votes of no confidence within a specific time table. In the current context the latter requires both the DUP and the SNP to join with LAB, PC and the LD MPs. The DUP has been bought off for its 10 votes and LAB should be under no illusions about the SNP’s 35 MPs. Nicola’s party got smashed on June 8th and isn’t going to put its remaining 35 MPs at risk by doing anything that would facilitate an early election."
I've already explained five hundred and eighty-three billion times why Smithson's repeated claim that the SNP would prevent an early election taking place is the polar opposite of the truth, so let's just take a moment to marvel at his startling new assertion that the SNP "got smashed on June 8th". This, ladies and gentlemen, is the election result he is referring to...
SNP: 35 seats
Conservatives: 13 seats
Labour: 7 seats
Liberal Democrats: 4 seats
SNP: 35 seats
All other parties combined: 24 seats
SNP: 59.3% of seats
All other parties combined: 40.7% of seats
That's what the SNP "getting smashed" looks like, apparently. I hope for the sake of the unionist parties that the SNP never actually win an election.
By the way, on a point of pedantry it's not even true that "the ONLY way" an early election can be triggered is via the processes of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act. The other way of doing it is to repeal that Act.
Do they think if they say it often enough it will happen? Get your Red shoes on Ruthie...'There's no place like No 10, There's no place like No 10' Sorry Hen Dorothy already used that up! lol
ReplyDeleteWhats to stop them ennobling her, she could theoretically become PM from the Lords
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't feasible for Douglas-Home to be Prime Minister from the Lords in 1963. It sure as hell isn't feasible now.
DeleteThat's what I thought. It would, however, make the Tories tawdry brand even more difficult to sell.......? Would be a complete sell out and push more people to Yes.
DeleteBut what about Ruthie as an extra-Westminster Deputy Leader? Would be interesting if she were on a "dream ticket" with Amber Rudd (Maj. 326) and then...
ReplyDeleteThe idea of Ruth Davidson as PM just shows how desperate the Tories have become. She is capable of being fluent and confident in front of a TV camera, but has demonstrated no capacity at all for wise judgement and courage under pressure.
ReplyDeleteWhat pressure! We are not at war and the economy is stable. You live in your own imagination!
DeleteYou're right, being PM is a piece of piss
DeleteI realise it's probably politically unviable, but I thought the Prime Minister was appointed by the monarch and that by convention alone, she appoints whichever person commands the confidence of the Commons.
ReplyDeleteTherefore, it must be legally conceivable that the Commons could choose someone who is not a MP or a Lord to be the Prime Minister. Certainly, it would be unprecedented in modern times, but I've seen nothing legally barring this from happening. All it would require is 325+ MPs to back someone who is not a MP.
If a party went into an election on that basis and won a sufficient majority of seats...
The leader of the party with an overall majority or the leader with a majority who requires a coalition goes to the Palace for tea and scones pats the Corgi oan the heid and leaves PM.
DeleteI love wooly socks
DeleteA baby sock will be your willie warmer.
DeleteFirst, though, Alan, the person invited to tea and scones has to have been elected by their own political party to be their party's leader.
DeleteI went over to PB and told him, but he replied with tosh about the 2015 election result and thin majorities and so on.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Ruth Davidson a remotely interesting subject? She lives like the rest of the Tories in her own reality far removed from the real reality where facts rules.
ReplyDeleteRajoy is in no way a fascist. Locking up people for their political views is perfectly normal. Sacking entire governments and forcing elections isn't fascist either. Nor is taking over television channels that might say things you don't like. The symbol of Spain's Guardia Civil is not the Roman 'fasces', it is merely a bundle of rods around an axe. Mariano's ruling party was not set up by one of Franco's ministers. The king is only getting involved because he wants the best for his Catalan people, and fears they may be confused as to what that might be. His family were in no way people who worked with the Generalissimo, in fact they spent most of the time during his regime trying to escape towards the democratic world. Thugs on the street making the Nazi salute is not a sign that said thugs support a fascist view of the world in any way at all. Up is down, black is white.
ReplyDelete"No, the real fascism is a guy deleting comments on his own blog"
ReplyDeleteReally?
As far as I can see, EVERY blog-site/newspaper on-line site and on-line forum, has EXACTLY that facility - normally through real/auto moderation.
So, by your idiotic definition, ALL are "fascist".
Get real.
REAL Fascism is attempting/threatening to close down a Democratically Elected Parliament without the consent of those who elected it, stating that you will take over/shut down media outlets you don't like and sending in jackbooted Police Thugs to intimidate and unlawfully assault women and pensioners who are merely queuing up peacefully to cast a ballot.
I think you need to go back to school, pal - because your "education" is severely wanting.
Either that, or you are just another anonymous fud.
I was being sarcastic.
DeleteHerr Francis the referendum was illegal and the majority of the Spanish boycotted it. The Catalan bourgeoisie right wingers had their bluff called.
DeleteYou Jock Nat sis will never accept the democratic wish of the Scots to stay in the Union. You are fascists and anti English rascists. Up yer kilt. Now go and buy yer funeral bond and save the State money.
State of this Tory toady.
DeleteI expect the Fixed Term Parliament act,along with the EVEL one to be overturned by an Alfred the Great Act or the discovery of a word such as "normally" in the legislation.
ReplyDeleteThe great benefits to Tories of not having a written constitution.
It's a semantic point, but there IS a constitution, the problem is it's not codified, instead it relies on extremely old treaties and Acts of Parliament, (any of which can be amended) together with the guiding principles of 'precedence'.
DeleteThis latter point is the one that the UK Supreme Court clearly illustrated when expressing their opinion (which is now a precedence) that the so-called Sewell convention is merely a political whim and is in no way an enforceable constitutional position.
The UK political elite and the Establishment they support, will never voluntarily draft a proper, modern binding Constitution.
What is it about Roofie which attracts London hacks? Today, we have John Rent-a-tool in the (Saud)Independent shilling for her.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ruth-davidson-scottish-conservative-prime-minister-theresa-may-brexit-westminster-a8012561.html
In the interests of fairness and impartiality, wouldn't it be better to delete "almost" from the title of this post?
ReplyDeletePS. Has anyone seen the advisory panel of the "These Islands" outfit? Brian Wilson FRUMP (Formerly Radical Upwardly Mobile Politician) is there, but I couldn't see Geert Wilders', Marine Le Pen's or Nigel Farage's photos anywhere. Surely some mistake.
Formerly radical is better than the Jocko Nat sis who are Tories with their hands in the pockets of the privateers who have stolen the public service and better known as SCUM.
DeleteJocko Tory Nat sis now prepaing to attack jobs in the Scottish Fire Service...The pretend lefties in the Nat si party remain quit. SCUM.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile - Under LABOUR in Wales -
ReplyDelete"The number of firefighters in Wales has dropped by nearly 20 per cent in Wales over the last decade"
Seems that Labour are almost as SCUMMY as their Better Together pals the Tories, in relation to cutting Firefighters.......
Well old muppet this is a Scottish issue so I assume you agree with the Jocko Nat si job cuts in Scotland. And also the over abundance of MSP'S in Holyrood collecting taxpayers money!
DeleteYou really don't like it when Labour are shown up for the garbage they really are.
DeleteThere is NO area of competence in which the devolved Labour administration in Wales, can match the SNP devolved administration in Scotland.
None.
Labour are as useless and incompetent in Cardiff, as the Tories in WM.
The Scottish Government is running rings round both those bunches of twats.
Hurts, doesn't it sonny.
You are hurting auld Nat si. Your fash mob will not sell Scotland oot tae the EU mobsters...You are probably an old public servant that had no concern for the working classes therefore you support your class that runs the EU.!! But it is all over now Mick!
DeleteFolks, it's probably best not to respond to comical Tory GWC2, just like it's best to try and ignore a drunk when they're on a bus or in the pub.
ReplyDeleteSo all the signs are that Anas is heading for a gubbing of epic proportions. That's got to be bad news for the SNP, right?
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. That's not to say I necessarily think Leonard will be a successful leader, but Anas Sarwar as Labour leader would have been dreamland for the SNP. So in a relative sense a Leonard win is bad news.
DeleteAny party leader that challenges right wing Tartan Tory policies should be welcome amongst socialists. However socialism is almost confined to the dustbin since the Nat sis got in on the capitalist act with Labour, Tories and the tree huggers. Holyrood should be shovelled into the dustbin.
DeleteThey would need to serve an eviction notice on you first, you Useless Unionist Pillock.
ReplyDeleteMr Angry David the real pillock speaks from the Talbot Centre while the useless unnecessary politicians rake in the dosh and the poor litter our streets in Glasgow. Enjoy yer buckie alt fool.
DeleteThe Catelonian so called independence movement are idiots like the Jocko Nat sis they want the unelected EU beaurocracy to run their regions... Brexit is imminent and the Nat sis are aboot tae be fooked permanently... Up yer kilts fascists.
ReplyDeleteBetter together. Scotland lead the union don't leave. Project fear. Too wee too poor and too stupid.
DeleteFor the few not the many. My children will be foreigners.
Aye impersonator coward and crawler, fearty tae use yer ain bookies name. Are you Irish? Up yer kilt go an go an bash yer tattie.
DeleteStrange but noted Herr Francis the impersonator appears after you have made your stupid ill informed comments!
ReplyDeleteTired of GWC2 comments? Save this script as a bookmark, load the comments then click the saved bookmark :)
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