May v Leadsom, so a female PM

[Workingman]

Kaz, you could be right about Leadsom, but at least she has signed up to people in Ria's situation being allowed to stay. May, on the other hand, has, and is, being ambiguous in the extreme, some even saying that she is using them as 'bargaining chips' in her attempt to become PM.

This is not the way to treat people and the situation needs addressing PDQ. Leaving them in Limbo at a time when A50 is not invoked, or during the period of negotiations, is not acceptable. This was a foreseen situation and it needs sorting out: Now.

[Kaz]

I just can't 'like' Leadsom, but then we don't get a vote do we? Mick's friend, from both school and his rugby playing days, is a prominent Tory councillor here in the city, he's met May and was impressed by her. Not sure if that is an accolade or not however, he is a lovely man but his politics aren't those of either Mick or myself

Ria, I think your best way forward might well be the citizenship option you mentioned when we were in Brum. I hope that can come about. At least then not only could you stay without worry, but you would be able to vote, and have some say, in the country that you've made your home (((((((((x)))))))

[Osc]

Well Leadsome has gone, having been caught out in a lie. What she said was pretty unpleasant, but then to deny saying it, only for the audio to be released, proving she did say it. Now she is talking about "intense pressure" - crikey, if that's pressure, how did she ever think she could be PM

[Workingman]

Now I do not know what to think.

Cameron loses the referendum and announces that he will quit, sometime. The Tories take him on his word and organise a leadership election.

Boris is stabbed in the back by his former ally, Gove, and refuses to stand. The names in the hat are May, Leadsom, Gove, Crabb and Fox. Crabb and Fox are the first two voted out. Gove gets his just deserts and is next to be voted out, leaving May and Leadsom. Leadsom makes a statement about motherhood. Dark forces rise up against Leadsom forcing her to make a public but personal apology to May. Following that she pulls out of the race leaving May to stand uncontested.

The 1922 Committee of Tory backbench MPs will now decide whether May should be anointed leader and PM. We all know that is a rubber stamp job, but how convenient it is for the Tories.

Had it gone the other way, with May stepping down and Leadsom the only candidate, I am sure the 1922 Committee would have found a way for Cameron to stay on until something else could be arranged; "arranged" being the key word.

If it looks like a fix it probably is a fix.

[Kaz]

Maybe so, but she is the best of a bad job, IMHO

Normally I would like to see another GE now - May was not elected PM after all - but at the moment the opposition is in chaos and in no position to take power. So I am just hoping for some stability for a while, and for us to be steered through the difficult times to come

Bloody Cameron, he has bought all of this down on our heads No wonder he got booed at Wimbledon yesterday!

[Suff]

In the end it's stabilising markets and calming things down. It also leaves the gate open for Carney to keep rates on hold which will further bolster the £ and the markets. By September we could and I do mean "could", be in a reasonable place to negotiate an exit.

If that means sacrificing a clean leadership competition to the benefit of the country? I'd go for it.

Contrast the absolute clusterfuck going on in the Labour party right now. Imagine if they were actually running the country???

To be honest, thinking about it laterally, I don't want anyone too strong or too popular in the Tory leadership right now. We don't have a viable opposition and we've proven that too powerful a government on either side does nobody any good in the long term.

Let's give it a month and see where we've got to. The Tories are running scared internally. There is no way that they will not go with the will of the people, they'd be totally decimated in the polls. Just look at the voting spread of the people who voted out. It was overwhelmingly Tory with enough Labour voters to make it stick once and for all...

What interests me more is that the EU And the US still seem to believe that there is some way the Tories can avoid Brexit and survive politically. None of them seem to realise that if we do renage on the Brexit vote, come 2020 there will be political carnage the likes of which this country has never seen before. Nobody in power wants that because none of them would be able to determine whether or not they could keep their seat. Even rock solid safe seats would become wild cards.

I'm listening to all this posturing about "we won't" and "you will" and "you will not", from all these people who still believe they have influence over the British political establishment. Hopefully May will squash all that talk firmly. Note the UK has just proposed a new commissioner for the EU who is a fluent French speaker, has worked with the EU before and was the Ambassador to France.

Britain has "formidable" negotiating and political skills on the world stage. The only place we've never been able to deploy them is within the arena of the EU, where extremely jealous nations have used our expertise to their own benefit and then squashed any attempt for us to negotiate anything within the EU.

It was May, remember, who stated that she would not guarantee the rights of EU citizens in the UK until the EU first guaranteed the rights of UK citizens in the other EU countries.... That is the kind of negotiating stance we need. Not the political mimble mimble of the Labour party.

September is now less than two months away. After that it will take the better part of 2 years to get out. We have time to let the dust settle. As has already been proven, the markets cannot respond as fast as the mechanisms of government (admittedly with their gonads leveraged with red hot tongs), can move. So we get chaos. Carney moved very fast and the markets responded the only way they can to that kind of move... Down. Now we need calm, time and firm words with simple messages so the market mentality (of a 5 year old), can take it in.

I think May winning now is probably the only way to achieve that.

[Kaz]

So it would seem....

[molly]

It has just been announced she will be PM by Wednesday evening.

[Suff]

Pity, we could have done with a month. The markets will go overboard all over again unless she reigns them in.

Hopefully she'll have a few strong words with Carney as well.

All we'll hear about now, until it actually happens, is when she'll implement A50 and start the ball rolling. I'm just reading about RR Aerospace buying out their Spanish partner to strengthen their market profits.

Everywhere I look there are deals going on which have been suspended for the last 3-4 months and are now going ahead. All of them suppressed before the referendum, all of them positive evidence that our economy is growing and thriving.

If we can add to that some judicious and careful control, we can get out of this situation without a calamity.

Sad to say, but in my mind also mischief reigns, but Trump may be our best bet to get out of the EU with the least damage. He's quite EU hostile and very UK friendly. Clinton not so much so.

[Workingman]

I am going to at least be consistent.

When Brown was made PM on a simple hand over I said that it was wrong and that he did not have a mandate from the electorate.

When Brown was made PM on a simple hand over Mrs May said: "Gordon Brown doesn't have the mandate, he wasn't elected as prime minister, and he should go to the country,"

Now that May has been made PM on a simple hand over without a mandate or being elected as PM she should go to the country.

I couldn't care less what the bankers, stockmarketeers or businessmen think, it is not for them to decide. This is a matter for the country - OMOV. If things in the wider world go all wibbly-wobbly we all know to lay the blame at spineless Cameron's door.