The spectre of a no confidence vote...

[Workingman]

Cromwell, Jen looks to be correct, see here: Age UK.

There is a help line your mate might want to ring. Best wishes to him.

[Kaz]

Oh that's great news Jen, thanks for posting that

Crommers, hopefully that means your friend can stay in his home - I do hope so xx

[cromwell]

Thanks all!

[Suff]

Whilst I'm fully in agreement with your sentiment over the GE, WM, I don't find any of the alternatives attractive either.

Neither of the candidates for the Conservative leader election were my first choice either. We have to vote within what we have been given as a choice.

Hunt is May Lite and that will destroy the Conservative party, trash the balance in Westminster and Give Farage a very large say in how the country is run.

Bojo is fairly unknown, but I did read an article in the FT about how his macro management style, whilst Mayor of London, made him exceptionally effective as a leader. All the micro management of others has done is to make a lot of noise.

We shall see. I see it this way. Hunt, the party is screwed, politics is screwed and Farage is left laughing himself silly. Bojo the party may be screwed, may not.

I note that the noise of hate around Bojo has drowned the poll which showed that he would probably manage a 40 seat majority if he called a GE on July 23rd....

I also note that the press is wittering on about how the GE Vote for the Brexit Party is vanishing. I mean, he only polls 23%, one point behind the Tories if Boris were to win and in second place ahead of the Lib Dems.

I mean, if I had set up a political party in March, from scratch and it was polling second with 23% I'd be devastated...… Just devastated at how badly I was doing.

God help us all if this is the best we have to work with!

[Workingman]

Ah the wonderful phenomenon of polls (or parts of) being brilliant when they fit a particular narrative - so we get BoJo with a 40 seat majority.

But the same ComRes poll shows 58% think Hunt would make the best PM, with 63% saying he's the best manager of the economy. That is conveniently ignored.

Yet, at the same time, we get Farage on 23%, just one point behind the Tories, and he only gets 23 seats or none. There's a huge mis match going on in favour of the ace micromanager, but it's the Torygraph so eminently predictable.

Hands up anyone who has worked under a bullying, obsessive, controlling, untrusting boss with a superiority complex. That's the profile of a micromanager and it is why micromanaging is seen as among the most damaging traits for an executive. It's BoJo to a 't'.

Johnson or Hunt - what a choice for the country.

[Suff]

Johnson or Hunt - what a choice for the country.

But, until we have a GE, it is the choice before us.

At the next GE, there is going to be an even bigger choice. BoJo with Farage with his hand up his back wiggling his voice? Or Corbyn run by Sturgeon and the Lib Dems with a green and PC fringe influence......

Excellent choice. Just what we need.

I didn't watch the last hustings, but I do have one piece of information which is not general news. Before the hustings all Tory members received a questionnaire containing two things. One was a free form text box to allow us to share our concerns, the other was a checkbox list for the main concern we had.

If any Tory member checked anything other than Brexit as the #1 concern facing the party I'll be extremely surprised. As for the freeform text? If it was less than 50% "Get it DONE, NOW, NO MORE DELAYS" I'll be very surprised.

Did you notice the radical change in attitude at the last hustings?

Who says polls don't work!

[Workingman]

I have not been interested in the hustings because I cannot take part in the selection process, like millions of us, and I am not really that interested in who the next short-term PM who can achieve nothing will be.

Who says polls don't work? We all do, to some extent when they don't fit the narrative, and that includes me.

Interesting take on the poll regarding the GE. That ComRes poll from the other day put the Conservatives on 345 MPs, Labour 207 and the Brexit party at none with Johnson as PM. Yet it was an "everyone" poll, just like the "everyone" poll you trashed the other day - the one that put Hunt 12 points ahead of Johnson. The two cannot be right, and as Brexiteer logic goes nobody can change their mind.

And if the ComRes poll is the one and only true poll how is it going to produce a Johnson / Farage pact with Farage's hand up Johnson's back when it predicts the BP getting no seats, none?

[Suff]

Yes polling is a bit whacked right now. Especially with YouGov hiding the Brexit party in the "others" section. The miracle is that Brexit got any hits on the YouGov poll.

I guess the litmus test will be the next by election in August.

[Workingman]

Hmmm, I am not sure that a by-election in the rural Brecon and Radnorshire constituency meets the requirements of a "litmus test", tbh.

The candidates are:
The Conservative Party - Chris Davies (deselected, expenses fiddler, standing again)
The Welsh Liberal Democrats - Jane Dodds (2nd last time, new candidate)
Welsh Labour - Tomos Davies (3rd last time, new candidate)
The Brexit Party - Des Parkinson (no history)
Ukip - Liz Phillips (no hope, same as last time, new candidate)
The Official Monster Raving Loony Party - Lady Lily The Pink (did not stand)

Plaid are not standing in order to give the LDs a free run. No Greens.

The real litmus test will be the next GE following the no confidence vote in the new part-time Tory PM before he tries to prorogue parliament.

[Suff]

I'm thinking the test of whether May going will kill the Tory vote and send it to the Brexit party or not. Although standing the expense fiddler again is not the cleverest move.

It will be interesting to watch.