Well, that’s one hell of a surprise.
Like I said, he’s perfectly well aware of how screwed Britain is by BREXIT.
Leave winning wasn’t part of his plan. There was supposed to be a narrow victory for remain and he would build his cult of personality higher with pledges ‘to fight for Britain etc’ and build a putsch amongst disappointed conservatives to force out Cameron.
Having helped piloted the ship of state into the Iceberg, he doesn’t want to be captain of the ship as it goes down taking him with it.
____ing coward. You made the mess, you clean it up.
The weird relationship between Tory leadership front-runners and the party at large continues. I hope the “unifying” candidate does not churn up John Major mark II.
I’m not so sure. Recently we’ve seen with Corbyn that a fractioned party with many candidates is something that no-one seems to come out of looking good. Ultimately a situation like this is going to mean a lot (more) of infighting. I doubt Boris is ruling out his standing altogether, he probably just doesn’t want to get involved in something like this.
Boris is perfectly willing to be the subject of mockery if it achieves his greater agenda; mockery is the one thing Donald cannot abide. Boris is also considerably more politically savvy than Donald; his career has been carefully plotted and planned, whereas Trump is very much a spur-of-the moment guy. Where they intersect is their willingness to say anything and hold any position (even if they previously said or believed the opposite) if they think it’s in their personal interest to do so. And also an utter lack of scruples.
Boris bailing out of the leadership race at this point is pure cowardice; whether this will put paid to his ambitiions remains to be seen but it will certainly be a setback.
Of the remaining candidates I’d prefer Theresa May to win (and I say that as someone who is not particularly well-disposed toward her). The Home Office isn’t an easy brief and she’s managed it about as well as anyone does, which suggests a certain level of competence. Conversely I wouldn’t trust Michael Gove to run a children’s birthday party.
Do you have any opinion on Leadsom?
I wouldn’t trust him to be an assistant at a children’s birthday party.
I must express considerable surprise at Boris not standing - he must have a large skeleton in his closet.
I will admit to knowing very little about Leadsom, so I have no opinion.
I haven’t been particularly impressed with Crabb over the course of his career and I’m surprised he’s throwing his hat into the ring, unless this is just a profile-raising exercise. I believe he’s pro-Remain but has committed to a negotiated Brexit.
Liam Fox, as the media are keenly pointing out right now, has a major scandal in his past that got him kicked off the Cabinet (and which, when you dig into the details, is really quite funny). Sorry, Liam, but no.
He’d basically be the scary traumatising clown. As indeed he is now.
Yes, that was a shock. He must have been told that his chances of winning were non-existent for him to not even try to chance it.
So it’s looking as if Tories will take a pro-Brexit stance?
Isn’t he the idiot who thinks that being gay can be cured?
Take a bow!
Theresa May 4/7 on
Michael Gove 7/2
Andrea Ledsom 4/1
Stephen Crabb 16/1
Liam Fox 40/1
- Here’s some selected background.
Theresa May:
At the Conservative Party Conference on 4 October 2011, while arguing that the Human Rights Act needed to be amended, May gave the example of a foreign national who the Courts ruled was allowed to remain in the UK, “because – and I am not making this up – he had a pet cat”.
In response, the Royal Courts of Justice issued a statement, denying that this was the reason for the tribunal’s decision in that case, and stating that the real reason was that he was in a genuine relationship with a British partner, and owning a pet cat was simply one of many pieces of evidence given to show that the relationship was “genuine”.
Michael Gove:
After the formation of the Coalition Government in 2010, Gove was appointed Secretary of State for Education. Gove sought to expand the academies programme introduced by the previous Labour Government. At its 2013 conference, Gove was criticised by the National Association of Head Teachers, whose members condemned the “climate of bullying, fear and intimidation” they said he had created during his time as Education Secretary, and passed a vote of no confidence in his policies. Votes of no confidence were also passed by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, National Union of Teachers and NASUWT at their conferences in 2013
Andrea Ledsom
never heard of her 
Stephen Crabb
never heard of him
Liam Fox
Fox stood unsuccessfully in the 2005 Conservative leadership election. In the expenses scandal, he was the Conservative Shadow Cabinet member with the largest over-claim on expenses, and as a result, he was forced to repay the most money. In 2010, he was appointed Secretary of State for Defence, a position from which he resigned on 14 October 2011 over allegations that he had given a close friend, lobbyist Adam Werritty, access to the Ministry of Defence and allowed him to join official trips overseas.
Oh crap, I’d forgotten about that. We’re really running out of credible options here.
My wife says she remembers Leadsom from the Leave campaign and described her as “really creepy”. So there’s that.
He’s let down too many people he needed to depend upon- he’s lazy, unfocussed, disorganised, thinks he can just wing most difficult questions and that being an affable joker will get him through any awkwardness, and if that doesn’t work he lies. No great skeletons in the closet, just a reality check among his erstwhile supporters: appearing in the aftermath of winning the referendum to be having second thoughts (insofar as he’d had any in the first place), and not a clue as to how to proceed with negotiations with the EU beyond the same windy and impracticable generalities he started with, was enough to expose his weaknesses as a potential PM.
Also Boris was massively double-crossed by Gove. Originally the two were a team (with Boris proposed as PM and Gove as a senior Minister - probably Chancellor.)
Then Gove’s wife leaked an e-mail, followed by Gove announcing he wanted to be PM.
Here’s what one Conservative MP thinks of Gove’s double-cross:
there is a very deep pit reserved in hell for Michael Gove
And here’s what one of his former colleagues said about Johnson at an earlier stage in the referendum campaign:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/barack-obama-wants-boris-johnson-prefer-gutter/
Lovely crew, ain’t they?
It’s all reminiscent of the tale of a new MP being shown round the House of Commons by an old hand. On seeing the opposing set of benches in the Chamber, the new boy says “So that’s where the enemy sits”
“Oh no, they’re your opponents - your enemies are on this side”.
Indeed he was. Most observers could see that Johnson was unfitted by character or talents to be PM, and it defies credibility to think that Gove didn’t notice this until last Thursday. Gove knew who he was dealing with all along.
What Gove’s move does, I think, is to demonstrate that both Johson and Gove are unfitted for the office. And, right enough, Gove seems to be dropping fast in the bookies’ odds. Somebody else is going to have to try and salvage something for Britain from shambles they have managed to create.
Didn’t Gove announce he was going to run for PM after Johnson said he didn’t want him in his Cabinet?
No. The media would not be saying Gove knifed Johnson in the back if Johnson had dumped him first.
Teresa May is currently the lead contender. But she got an article very critical of her pulled from the Daily Telegraph. Fortunately someone grabbed it and you can read it here.
Very bad form.
A sample:
I loathe her, but May is the only credible choice at this point.
Good luck, UK!