Boris Johnson wrote two Telegraph columns, one for Leave and one for Remain. Michael Gove has stopped pretending to want Brexit, since we all know what "We could always delay it again" means. Dominic Raab is effectively a member of another party, whose "openness" to having Nigel Farage in an official position guarantees that he will never make the MPs' top two. No other Brexiteer is a serious candidate even by the standards of this circus.
Meanwhile, here comes Rory Stewart, MI6 royalty, on record that he would refuse to serve in a Hard Brexit Cabinet, former member of the pre-Corbyn Labour Party, and once nearly a Liberal Democrat. After all, the Lib Dems, and not the Brexit Party, are ahead in the polls.
Ever since the referendum, I have been saying that, although it was a slow burner, Blue Remainers, largely but not exclusively in the South, were going to switch to the Lib Dems, devastating the Conservatives. If the last Parliament had run its full course, then that would have happened next year. No one now doubts that that will happen at the next General Election.
To minimise that damage, here comes Rory Stewart. Keep saying it until it quite sinks in: even at Eton, his response to Thatcherism was to join the Labour Party. Not under Tony Blair. Under Neil Kinnock. And now, he is in pole position to become Leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister. Quite possibly without a contest.
By the way, that the self-selecting and subscription-paying membership of a political party might be about to pick the Prime Minister is something that one cannot help feeling would not be happening if the Queen were 53 rather than 93. But not for the first time, the question presents itself: from the point of view of its own supporters, what has the monarchy ever done?
Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party will be registered before the House of Commons rises for the summer recess, even if I have to pay for it myself, ongoing lawfare or no ongoing lawfare. And I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham even if I can raise only the deposit, which I could do by going pretty overdrawn, although that was not how I was brought up. I would still prefer to raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign, but I am no longer making my candidacy conditional on having done so. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Another hung Parliament is coming, however, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party will be registered before the House of Commons rises for the summer recess, even if I have to pay for it myself, ongoing lawfare or no ongoing lawfare. And I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham even if I can raise only the deposit, which I could do by going pretty overdrawn, although that was not how I was brought up. I would still prefer to raise the £10,000 necessary to mount a serious campaign, but I am no longer making my candidacy conditional on having done so. In any event, please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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