# 2017 UK Conservative Party Conference **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 2, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815 "2017-10-02T17:23:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/1 "2017-10-02T17:23:52Z")
Regardless of what she says, I don’t think there is a chance at all that Theresa May leads the Conservative Party into the next general election, regardless of when it is held. This conference will be an audition for whomever is going to be the next Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is a fool to not have sacked Boris Johnson earlier. It shows exactly how weak and wounded she is after the debacle of the last election. Now, this party conference is going to be dominated by Boris coverage. Dump Boris ASAP, he’s not even particularly qualified to be Foreign Secretary and the UK needs someone who knows what they’re doing since the USA Secretary of State is incompetent and irrelevant. Here’s just one example: > **[Philip Hammond blasts Boris Johnson and warns: Nobody is unsackable](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/philip-hammond-blasts-boris-johnson-and-warns-nobody-is-unsackable)** > > Philip Hammond has hit out at Boris Johnson and warned he could face be fired after his repeated attempts to undermine Theresa May. I expect the Tories will be uncomfortably silent on Brexit during this party conference. It’s been over a year and they still have no idea of what type of relationship they want the UK to have with the EU. This leaves the door open to someone like Jacob Rees Mogg, who has an awful plan for Brexit, but at least he has a plan. The speeches from this party conference are all available on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PL8mtyr3hzBKuytucCnaeVJVnAlfNK5aA7&wmode=transparent&rel=0&autohide=1&showinfo=1&enablejsapi=1 ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2017, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/2 "2017-10-02T20:05:52Z")
I agree re: sacking Boris, but it’s a dangerous road either way - is he someone you want pissing out or pissing in? I struggle to see a Tory who could lead the Tories through Brexit and into another election, really. Any choice would alienate a wing of the party. ---
**Author:** ![Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/3 "2017-10-03T12:10:51Z")
Mrs May’s position isn’t good, but she probably remains the best person to play the weak hand which has been dealt, and sensible Tory MPs know that. Boris is in an even worse position. His relevance and prospects are fading. He’s angling to be sacked now so that he can return to grandstanding on the back benches and hopefully sneak a win at the next Tory leadership election. Mrs May will wait until he does much more damage to the Tory government from inside the Cabinet before she let’s him take that course. She doesn’t come out worse if a leading Brexiteer sabotages the government. Boris’s window of opportunity to become Prime Minister would have been to leverage his popularity in London and media profile nationally to win over non-committed working class voters in the North. Unfortunately, his increasingly extreme anti-Europe stance will have damaged his support in London, and his long history of gaffes about working class Northerners means that this was always a long shot. He can return to his career as a pundit and television personality. My guess is that when Boris does leave the Foreign Office, Mrs May will replace him with another prominent Brexiteer. Priti Patel would be a good choice - credible enough, and neatly keeping the Tory right on the hook for all the problems arising from Brexit, while getting a bonus advantage when it comes to arguing about the delivery of equality in practice with the old white men who have always run Labour. And what other alternative leaders have the Tories actually got? Rudd, Hammond and Davis are all credible, but hardly any more exciting than May. Jacob Rees-Mogg would give Labour their best chance of a landslide in a generation, even under Jeremy Corbyn. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/4 "2017-10-03T13:26:11Z")
> [@Sandwich](#): > > Mrs May’s position isn’t good, but she probably remains the best person to play the weak hand which has been dealt, and sensible Tory MPs know that. I’m not so sure. There don’t appear to be any right now, but it will only take one to stick their head above the parapet. > [@](#): > > Boris is in an even worse position… Spot on there. > [@](#): > > Jacob Rees-Mogg would give Labour their best chance of a landslide in a generation, even under Jeremy Corbyn. I’m not so sure. Mogg is the sort of person who grows on you. A person who you respect rather than like. Kind of like Corbyn, really, except that Mogg has far more brains. Anyone who’s watched him will have seen his calmness under fire. Mogg could give the Tories a landslide given time. But I don’t think the Tories will take the risk. Not now, anyway. Another summer of Mogg-mentum might put him over the top. ---
**Author:** ![Sandwich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/22d042/32.png) [@Sandwich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sandwich)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/5 "2017-10-03T19:03:23Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m not so sure. Mogg is the sort of person who grows on you. A person who you respect rather than like. Kind of like Corbyn, really, except that Mogg has far more brains. Anyone who’s watched him will have seen his calmness under fire. Mogg could give the Tories a landslide given time. But I don’t think the Tories will take the risk. Not now, anyway. Another summer of Mogg-mentum might put him over the top. It would be entertaining anyway, though I’m not sure that’s a good basis for running an election campaign. I can see how someone who is informed and engaged and broadly of the right might find Rees-Mogg viable. I don’t think he would ever grow on _me_ though. I say this as someone who has spent a lot of time trying and failing to persuade friends that Cameron and Osborne were reasonable and decent men, and not caricatures of Dickensian hard-heartedness. I don’t think I would even bother to try for someone who relishes his pose as the living embodiment of nineteenth century Toryism. Pretending his name’s Mogg won’t persuade me he’s an authentic man of the people either. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/6 "2017-10-03T21:08:54Z")
> [@Sandwich](#): > > It would be entertaining anyway, though I’m not sure that’s a good basis for running an election campaign. It worked for Corbyn. > [@](#): > > I can see how someone who is informed and engaged and broadly of the right might find Rees-Mogg viable. I don’t think he would ever grow on _me_ though. I say this as someone who has spent a lot of time trying and failing to persuade friends that Cameron and Osborne were reasonable and decent men, and not caricatures of Dickensian hard-heartedness. Well Cameron was just a prat. > [@](#): > > I don’t think I would even bother to try for someone who relishes his pose as the living embodiment of nineteenth century Toryism. That might actually work. Height of Empire & all that… > [@](#): > > Pretending his name’s Mogg won’t persuade me he’s an authentic man of the people either. 😉 Why are you holding his birth against him? Surely it’s just as wrong to discriminate against the well-born as it is against the low-born? ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/7 "2017-10-03T21:33:08Z")
> [@Sandwich](#): > > Pretending his name’s Mogg won’t persuade me he’s an authentic man of the people either. 😉 Rees-Mogg fought his first parliamentary election in Central Fife, a constituency that once elected an actual Communist MP. He won over the common working folk\* by going canvassing around the doors with his nanny. In a Bentley. - Narrator: He didn’t win over the common working folk He appeals to a certain very old fashioned social climbing Tory type, but he’d be disastrous electorally on the national stage, I think. He also has social views - being a very strict Catholic - that’d do him no favours in places, and in age groups, that the Tories need gains in. On the plus side, he is by all accounts extraordinarily kind and helpful to brand new MPs - from all parties - who may be a bit overwhelmed by the arcane rituals and procedures of Parliament. He’d make a better Speaker than PM. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/8 "2017-10-03T21:55:35Z")
Boris steps in it again. Libya would be a great place, ‘once they clear the dead bodies away.’ Boris needs to quit taking speech lessons from Donald Trump. > **[Theresa May urged to sack Boris Johnson over 'dead Libyans' remark](https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/theresa-may-urged-to-sack-boris-johnson-over-dead-libyans-remark)** > > Theresa May has been urged to sack Boris Johnson after he said Libya has a bright future "once they clear the dead bodies away". Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/9 "2017-10-03T22:06:07Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > He appeals to a certain very old fashioned social climbing Tory type, but he’d be disastrous electorally on the national stage, I think. He could well be, but Corbyn was supposed to be an electoral disaster on the national stage too. > [@](#): > > He also has social views - being a very strict Catholic - that’d do him no favours in places, and in age groups, that the Tories need gains in. This is a question of respect. He hasn’t tried to force his views on others, and while the Protestant / Catholic division may be strong in Northern Ireland, I think most Britons don’t care. > [@](#): > > On the plus side, he is by all accounts extraordinarily kind and helpful to brand new MPs - from all parties - who may be a bit overwhelmed by the arcane rituals and procedures of Parliament. IIRC Mhairi Black (SNP MP) is a big fan of his > [@](#): > > He’d make a better Speaker than PM. Yes, I think he’d do well there. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2017, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/10 "2017-10-03T22:23:42Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > This is a question of respect. He hasn’t tried to force his views on others, and while the Protestant / Catholic division may be strong in Northern Ireland, I think most Britons don’t care. Well, he does have a voting record. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/11 "2017-10-04T14:15:05Z")
Boris well and truly put his foot in it yesterday. And May’s speech was a disaster. Even [the Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/04/anatomy-farce-things-went-bad-worse-downright-painful-poor/) joined in. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/12 "2017-10-04T17:25:33Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > And May’s speech was a disaster. Even [the Telegraph](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/04/anatomy-farce-things-went-bad-worse-downright-painful-poor/) joined in. I had to stop watching, was getting anxiety dream flashbacks. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/13 "2017-10-04T19:07:31Z")
[Strong and Strepsil](https://twitter.com/theresa_may/status/915567812831318016/photo/1)? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/14 "2017-10-04T20:07:27Z")
CNN’s coverage of the May speech debacle: [http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/04/europe/theresa-may-speech-disaster-conservative-party-conference/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/04/europe/theresa-may-speech-disaster-conservative-party-conference/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/15 "2017-10-04T20:53:32Z")
Marina Hyde in the Guardian is always worth a read, and this is no exception > **[From Boris the Lion King to Theresa May’s P45 – my malarial week at the Tory...](https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/oct/04/boris-lion-king-to-theresa-may-p45-malarial-week-tory-conference)** > > A bogglingly unsuccessful few days in Manchester showed that the Conservatives are less the natural party of government than cowboy builders who really ought to stop trying to ‘fix’ things > [@](#): > > Almost entirely because of Boris, the Tories now resemble a franchise of the reality-TV show Real Housewives: a cast of behaviourally incontinent people with zero idea of how to act when people are looking at them, with the most ambitious star seemingly having decided that conflict is winsome. Boris’s May-undermining Sun interview on the eve of conference was the intellectual equivalent of pouring a whisky sour over the head of someone called Cristee, yet was analysed as though it were one of Talleyrand’s more complex gambits. According to what one cabinet minister told the FT: “Boris’s own psychology is a matter of infinite fascination.” Only to Boris, surely. For the rest of us, a one-word diagnosis always suffices. Having said that, two-word analyses were not in short supply. According to various ministerial briefings, these ran the full gamut from “vain tit” to “fat fucker”. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2017, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/16 "2017-10-05T10:19:01Z")
Malcolm Tucker would have had a field day. _It wasn’t the cough That carried her off: Twas the coffin They carried her off in_ ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/17 "2017-10-11T20:31:23Z")
There seems to an embarrassing lack of talent in the Conservative party, the candidates for next PM seem to a blonde comedian and a motley crew of plotters and schemers. The UK is going to go through a difficult patch dealing with the Brexit mess and it needs some decent political leadership. I really don’t see where it going to come from in the Tory party. It is too divided. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/18 "2017-10-11T22:46:33Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > I really don’t see where it going to come from in the Tory party. It is too divided. The Tories have a knack of solidifying. They solidified behind May, for instance, until she proved herself an idiot and incompetent. Even Boris, to the extent of his abilities. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/19 "2017-10-12T00:43:46Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > The Tories have a knack of solidifying. They solidified behind May, for instance, until she proved herself an idiot and incompetent. Even Boris, to the extent of his abilities. Mmm. Their knack for solidifying behind a leader is counterbalanced by their talent for tearing themselves apart over Europe. Eventually, the latter always wins out. The last three Tory Prime Ministers - Cameron, Major, Thatcher - all eventually came to grief over Europe-related issues, and May seems set to confirm that pattern. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815/20 "2017-10-12T03:02:32Z")
vain tit to fat fucker… wow … … I wonder what would she say if she analyzed trump … [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2017-uk-conservative-party-conference/797815.md?page=2)