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political musings 01 July 2016 08:57 It must be a strange life as a political commentator. You spend most of your career trying to explain the political scene, knowing that few people will read your work, and even fewer care. Then all hell breaks loose and you’ve got stories coming out of your ears. So David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party (and Prime Minister) has announced his resignation – despite the fact that there were no public calls for him to do so. Everyone expected Boris Johnson to take over, but yesterday BoJo announced that he will not stand. Methinks that there may have been some manoeuvring behind the scenes, and it was pointed out to BoJo that almost half the country dislike him because he was so much associated with the Leave campaign, and that many people see him as a lying and cheating (I use those adjectives advisedly) buffoon (my opinion). All in all, a Conservative Party with Boris at the helm would be unlikely to win a general election. Also, Boris may have realised that he wasn’t going to be able to spend that extra £350m per week on the NHS because a) the money never existed and b) there are lots of other calls on government finances. Other contenders for the Conservative leadership include Jeremy Hunt and Michal Gove – two people who have single-handedly alienated just about every teacher and parent, and health care worker and patient respectively. So that looks like fun. Meanwhile, on the other side of the House, Jeremy Corbyn has lost the support of something like 80% of the Parliamentary Labour Party, but refuses to stand down. The reason given for the dissatisfaction is his lack-lustre performance in the EU debate (and they do have a point). The real reason is that, like BoJo and the Conservatives, they don’t see that they could win a general election if he were in charge. The public just don’t want to see either Johnson or Corbyn in Downing Street. Although technically we vote for the local MP, the person who is leader of the party (and therefore would become PM) is an important factor. Corbyn was never going to make it to the next scheduled general election – he would have been dumped before 2020. But now there is a real possibility of an election in the autumn. Both parties need to get a leader in place whom the public like and trust – or at least trust a bit more than the others. And finally, an open message to the people who are now coming forward saying that they didn’t understand what they were voting for, or didn’t think the vote was binding, or generally didn’t understand the difference between “stay” and “leave”. Would these people please make themselves known to the local returning officer, so that their names can be permanently removed from the electoral roll? They are obviously too stupid to be allowed to vote.
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