David Davis just said we should scrap the human rights act

[framheim]

what a scary man he is. i much prefer david cameron. he'd be a more effective opposition leader i think.

[Guest tv tanned]

alternatively, let's just watch the Tory Party select another crap leader and head for oblivion...

[TR!ΔNGL€ T€€TH]

I vote for Dr. Liam Fox, as he'll do bugger all as Tory leader.

[Guest MerryChristmas]

Vote Labour

[Guest tv tanned]

Vote Labour

Get Tory...

[Hugh_Jazz]

I vote for Dr. Liam Fox' date=' as he'll do bugger all as Tory leader.[/quote']

....because another parliamentary term with a useless opposition is EXACTLY what this country needs.

[framheim]

....because another parliamentary term with a useless opposition is EXACTLY what this country needs.

exactly, while it is good fun watching the tories scrap amongst themselves and be completely inadequate at just about everything it really doesn't acheive anything for anyone. a competent and organised opposition party is the only thing which can deliver some kind of effective democracy back to the british public. if there's no one to challenge the government they can do what they like(as they have been). plus it will force the lib dems to raise their game as well.

liam fox would be a disaster and i think davis would be the same. only problem is that davis appeals so much to the traditional tory voter. ken clark shouldn't have run this time but should have sided with cameron and then there'd be a real battle on here. as it stands maybe this might yet happen if cameron gets through and clark goes out. as for rifkind, i really have no idea why he's still in the race. don't see him having much of a chance at all.

[Hog]

Vote Labour

Haha....no

[framheim]

i really don't think rifkind is confident enough or has the confidence of enough of his party to make any impact as leader. i'm not doubting the mans intellect or credentials, i just don't think he'd be able to control the tories enough to bring about the reform and organisation the party so sorely needs. i mean michael howard failed and he had a lot of respect from his party.

[jimr]

[Swingin' Ryan]

Fantasy Tory front bench time;

Leader-Rifkind

Shadow Chancellor-Clarke

Shadow Home Secretary-Cameron

Shadow Foreign Secretary-Hague

Shadow Defence-Davis

Shadow Health-Fox

Shadow Education-Willets

Party Chairman-Ancram

'Fantasy Front Benches' certainly has brilliant thread potential.

[Dinosaur]

William Hague!

[Knight of Swords]

Slightly disagree Dave, I reckon Cameron is the stalking horse, although I can see why you're saying Fox. My disagreement comes from the fact that Fox is better known than Cameron. I would also have Oliver Letwin on the front bench, and would go for Clarke over Rifkind, but ideally, I would have Letwin as leader anyway. Watching him as Shadow Chancellor against Gordon Brown was brilliant. Letwin really knew his stuff, enough even to get Gerald Kaufmann to stand up one time and tell Brown to raise his game, because he was making the Labour Party look bad (although the way he put it was far funnier).

Boris Johnson should be back as a frontline Tory. Than man is exceptionally funny, when you get over his gin-soaked Tory appearance. I also liked Hague and think he should be back. Reckon people have more time for him now than they did when he was leader.

Anyway who thinks the Tories won't be back is seriously mistaken. Probably not at the next election, if they opt for Davis this time, but certainly at the one after.

[Chris]

Anyway who thinks the Tories won't be back is seriously mistaken.

maybe not mistaken, just optimistic.

[Knight of Swords]

LOL.

Tell you one thing though, I think the Labour Party get away with a lot more than the Tories because Labour pretend to be socialists whilst the Tories don't bother. People don't seem to feel as guilty backing Labour.

[Chris]

my personal thinking is labour get away with so much more because when someone calls them on it they just completely ignore them until the public forgets about it.

[Paranoid Android]

To what extent did Michael Howard "fail"' date=' though? He took over the leadership with less than two years to go until a general election, and managed to bring the party to within a whisker of beating Labour.[/quote']

I think you are being over generous is crediting Howard for Labour's reduced majority, the conservitive share of the vote remained pretty much the same, I would say Labour lost ground rather than the tories gaining. And although reduced I wouldn't say having an overall majority of 66 is within a whisker of defeat.

[framheim]

michael howards key reform was to change the way new leaders were elected, it failed.

[Hog]

William Hague!

John Major!

[Knight of Swords]

Dave.

Reckon you're right about the Cameron/ Fox thing. Also occured to me that Cameron might be using this as a dummy run for a future leadership bid.

With Letwin, I would say the main problem he had against Brown is that anytime he said anything, Brown stole it and claimed it was his idea. Let's face it, Brown's just started from where Ken Clarke left off. At any rate, I think the upper-class twit thing with Letwin is true, but I reckon he's far too good a politician to leave sitting on the back benches.

On Boris Johnson, I disagree quite a lot. Alan Clark, for all he could be very entertaining, was (to be blunt) a nasty wee shite. I don't think Boris Johnson is malicious. I'd also say Dave Davis would be more in line with the populism thing you were talking about (when he said we should bring back the death penatly etc). I think Johnson's a lot smarter than you're giving him credit for. Still, he's probably never going to make it seriously in frontline politics because he does always come across as a big diddy.

One thing I did like was when the story about his affair broke out and he was doing his "inverted pyramid of piffle" bit. He quoted Voltaire at one point, and all the journalists then had to point out to everyone that he was quoting Voltaire. It's that student thing "I understand this joke, I must tell everyone." To me, Boris Johnson made a bunch of political journalists look like undergraduates, which I think must take a bit of doing.

I still think the Tories will be back. Labour are going to lose grip at some point and let's face it, look what happened the last time they called in the Lib Dems to back them up (I'd actually really like to see a similar situation again, as long as we don't end up with another Thatcher).