Posted on 06/30/2016 4:46:31 AM PDT by monkapotamus
Ex-London mayor Boris Johnson has ruled himself out of the race to be the next Conservative leader and prime minister.
In a speech in London - billed as his campaign launch - Mr Johnson said he did not believe he could provide the leadership or unity needed...
Addressing reporters in a new conference just moments before the deadline for nominations passed, Mr Johnson said the next Conservative leader would have to unify his party and ensure that Britain stood tall in the world.
"Having consulted colleagues and in view of the circumstances in Parliament, I have concluded that person cannot be me," he said.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said it was an "astonishing turn of events".
Mr Gove - who has pitched himself as a candidate that can offer "unity and change" and deliver the Brexit result- had been expected to back Mr Johnson for the leadership.
But he said he had concluded that "Boris cannot provide the leadership or build the team for the task ahead".
Justice minister and Leave campaigner Dominic Raab, who switched sides from supporting Mr Johnson to Mr Gove, said the former London mayor's "cavalier" attitude had scuppered the plan...
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
I think the Tory plan was to get the Conservative Party on both sides of Brexit. Expecting of course Remain would win. So later they could say “see we tried” to their base voters. We recognize the dirty trick because it’s the old beltway GOP two step dance fail that the GOP has perfected “opposing” the Obama agenda.
I agree with whoever said that. Despite being pro-Brexit (which was very surprising, he was thought to be pro-EU before), Johnson is to the left of Cameron, he took it upon himself to endorse Obama for President in 2008. His is popular though and may have made the strongest candidate for the next election.
Sounds like there was major behind the scenes intrigue that lead to him not running. Gove and other Johnson supporters are said to have “stabbed him in the back”.
So, there are 5 candidates, I’m no expert but here’s my analysis
Michael Gove, probably a frontrunner now, pro-brexit, I think he’s to the right of Cameron, he’s seems to get that Islam sucks, social liberal but that’s to be expected.
Theresa May, “Cameroon”, remainer, probably chief rival to Gove. Seems to have the most MP support.
Liam Fox, the most conservative choice, pro-brexit, longtime euro-skeptic, probably the only one we’d welcome into the Republican party, social conservative. I doubt he has a chance but he’d probably be my choice.
Stephen Crabb, remainer, Cameroon, I listened to his speech on my Sky News ap, seems like a real namby-pamby compassionate conservative type.
Andrea Leadsom, not someone I was previously familiar with, pro-Brexit, don’t know much about her.
MPs will whittle it down to 2 of them, probably Gove and May, and then all Conservative party members get a vote in a mail-in ballot.
The Labour Party is in disarray, Labour MPs overwhelmingly voted for a motion of no-confidence in their leader, Jeremy Corybn.
Yeah so did Trump. People make mistakes.
Gove is. He really shined in the leave campaign, even some of the remain people were impressed. Personally, I think he’s too identified with Brexit to be the leader to draw the Conservative party together, but they know their own mind best.
I’m more optimistic about the future of the UK, but I will concede that the referendum has shown up some very deep divisions in British society - it hasn’t caused them, I think they’ve been there a long time - but its kind of crystalised them. Remain vs leave; Northern Ireland and Scotland vs England and Wales; Young vs Old; Small Towns vs Inner Cities; Publicaly employed vs privately employed; north vs south; native vs recent immigrant...its going to be an interesting few months.
Thanks Impy!
Mickey Kaus and others were saying that EU/Spain will reject Scotland because Catalonia because they want the same deal.
They yanked people’s chains with Boris Johnson and his passionate speaking to Leave, now Johnson is undercut by Michael Gove and its said that the former Mayor of London is not suited to be PM.
The Corporatists who control most of the elected officials and are “Remainers” intend to call the shots and likely thwart the referendum result.
“Boris Johnson is no Margaret Thatcher. ;-)”
You can say that again. He is an idiot, Unlike Thatcher.
“Michael Gove, probably a frontrunner now, pro-brexit”
Michael Gove has a list of achievements, so far. He is the only one so far with some tangible credentials to lead the Brexit and see it successfully through to fruition for the UK. Really want to see him do it, successfully.
Locking your keys in the car is a mistake, endorsing Obama is a sign of mental retardation, which has no cure.
Of the remaining candidates, I also agree that Liam Fox is the best choice. He's the only across-the-board (fiscal/economic/foreign policy) conservative of the bunch, and would probably be a Jeff Sessions type Republican if he was an American.
Peter Bone would be my ideal choice (he had the balls to say the NHS would be right at home in "Stalinist Russia") but there's zero chance he'll run for the job, let alone get elected by his "peers" in the House of Commons. (Most commentators say Bone is more UKIP than Conservative anyway, though he says he'll never switch parties) Most of the strongly conservative MPs seem to have solidified around Fox.
A valid point was made earlier in this thread that many of the MPs in the "Leave" camp didn't actually think it would pass and didn't intend on leaving the EU. They just wanted to "send a message" and figured a strong showing for the "Leave" vote would scare the EU into giving the UK more concessions. Only a handful of the Leave MPs were true believers in the cause.
>>>”A valid point was made earlier in this thread that many of the MPs in the “Leave” camp didn’t actually think it would pass and didn’t intend on leaving the EU.”<<<
Like Nigel Farage?
>>>”They just wanted to “send a message” and figured a strong showing for the “Leave” vote would scare the EU into giving the UK more concessions. Only a handful of the Leave MPs were true believers in the cause.”<<<
Why not have Nigel Farage be the new UK PM to take the lead for Brexit!
Just last week Nigel said he was blighted that credit due to him for Brexit wasn’t given to him! I say: go for it! Wonder in addition to partying with the in-crowd on the eve of the referendum, what else Nigel can you do.
Brexit was a vision, same as EU. Must have a concerted mission and effort too, thereafter.
Well the other choice was McCain, and there was good reason to reject McCain!!! Hell, the only reason a lot of people even voted for him was because he had picked Palin. He thought perhaps Obama might ease some of the racial tensions. Of course, that is not what Obama did, because that was no the change Obama was selling. I think we all knew Obama was going to be bad, but how many of us actually thought he could be as successful as he has been at destroying this country. By 2011 he was out there speaking against Obama thought, to his credit.
There are Brits who are now complaining that prices for many goods have increased dramatically. They really don’t understand why the crash of the British pound should cause prices to rise. It’s as if they levied a huge tax on themselves.
What about the woman.......i think her name is May?
Trump did not vote for Obama in 2008
The primary is over Glenn....or Mark
One more thing. I used to be a listener of both Beck & Levin's radio shows, but turned them off months ago, when they turned me off by dissing both Trump and his supporters.
Nigel Farage is not a member of Parliament, where his party has 1 seat.
The “Guardian” is a hateful stalinist rag in the tank for Labour, so grain of salt to anything they write, but they allege that Boris
a)Never genuinely wanted brexit, *only* backed it to endear himself to Conservative base voters and pro-leave MPs
b)Didn’t ever think it would pass and is dismayed that it did
After the result they claim his face was “ashen with the terror of victory” (and indeed to my eye he didn’t look happy during his speech).
They claim basically that he used the leave campaign for his own ambition and that genuine leave supporters like Gove used him (his popularity with the masses, which not being a personality cult guy, I don’t get) to help pass it. This may very well be true.
Anyway, people now expect Boris to support May for PM, anything to stop “Brutus” (Gove, the allusions to Caesar and his assassins is pretty ridiculous).
May is certain to get one of the 2 spots on the ballot.
Oddsmakers have her as the big favorite, Gove’s odds have nosedived as the media is in a fervor over his “backstabbing” of Boris, that was likely warranted and well deserved. They put the also pro-brexit Leadsom ahead of him now. Fox is a 50 to 1 longshot.
I would rank the choices
Fox
Gove?
Leadsom?
May
Crabb (who will now lead us all in a round of kumbaya)
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