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Our next unelected PM?

Shankly said:
I never thought I'd see the day when I was sorry to see Jeremy Hunt lose a vote!

For two years, I've wondered how the US could elect a man like Trump to lead them, and now we've gone and done the same thing.
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We haven't voted for him. 92K members of the 160K strong Conservative Party voted for him

His majority might be even less than Theresa May's shortly. No government can rule without a proper majority to get its Bills through so a General Election is a near dead cert even though Boris claims this won't happen until 2022.
 
JoeMorgue said:
Like functionally equivalent to if Trump were to resigned right now only registered Republicans would be able to vote on the next President?

That's... weird.
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If Trump resigned right now, no-one would get a vote on the next President. It would be Mike Pence. If he stood down, again, no-one. More interestingly, if Pence stood down now, Trump could appoint a new VP, then if he stood down they would be President.

I'm not saying there's anything good about racist liar and serial adulterer Johnson getting the keys to #10, there isn't. But we're not the only country where things get odd in unusual circumstances.
 
The Don said:
I'm sure that Jeremy Corbyn is considering it right now.

Then again I'd say that the government would likely survive it. If it's right now, anti no deal Tories could justifiably claim that Boris has said he would work on a deal. If it's before 31 October, they could claim that switching just before a national crisis isn't a good idea.

Even if the no confidence vote was successful, I think there's a good chance that Boris could get the Tories a healthy majority. :( The remain vote would be split and Brexit Party supporters would be drawn to Boris like flies to **** (or maybe like ***** to more **** :mad:).
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He has 100 days to get the Brexit deal. Might be difficult as the EU has finished negotiating and anyway won't be back in full swing now until 1 November, after the extension deadline.

That would be a good time to call a VONC.
 
ceptimus said:
It's still a lot more votes than the EU leaders get. EU leaders are appointed by a committee - even the MEPs only get a vote to rubber stamp the chosen leader - they don't get a choice between even two candidates.
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New MEP's are hardly going to have sufficient knowledge to know who to vote for.

Not a good analogy at all.
 
GlennB said:
"Upstairs, the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre was hosting the world’s largest gathering of psychoanalysts for their biennial congress. None of them are going to be short of work in the weeks and months ahead. Indeed, there were several hundred potential patients downstairs for what was more a jobs fair than a Tory party leadership announcement.

Here in the hall every pathology was on view. The smug, the needy, the desperate, the amoral and the deluded. And that was just Boris Johnson. "

The ever brilliant John Crace writing in The Guardian today.
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I liked the guy on the panel who likened the no-deal brexiteers as being like people who wanted to jump off a cliff to feel the wind in their hair. A powerful simile.
 
Donald Trump has referred to Johnsons as the UK's 'Trump', in itself reflective of what many in the UK have said. The hilarious part is that he's convinced himself we mean it as a compliment!
 
P.J. Denyer said:
If Trump resigned right now, no-one would get a vote on the next President. It would be Mike Pence. If he stood down, again, no-one. More interestingly, if Pence stood down now, Trump could appoint a new VP, then if he stood down they would be President.

I'm not saying there's anything good about racist liar and serial adulterer Johnson getting the keys to #10, there isn't. But we're not the only country where things get odd in unusual circumstances.
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It isn't even odd. How could you allow the entire country elect the leader of the party in power? How would you limit the candidates? It turns out that "Miss Whiplash" is a paid-up Con member, stands, and 60% of the population think that it would be hugely funny to have her as leader.

Hmmm ... maybe not such a bad idea.
 
Vixen said:
There aren't 160K MEP's.
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Which brings us back to my comment on The Don's post:


The Don said:
Yes, 120,000 votes were cast in total, under 0.2% of the UK population - damn that EU democratic deficit :rolleyes:
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Which was that if Boris's election has a democratic deficit, he at least had about 90,000 more people voting for him than von der Leyon did.
 
GlennB said:
It isn't even odd. How could you allow the entire country elect the leader of the party in power? How would you limit the candidates? It turns out that "Miss Whiplash" is a paid-up Con member, stands, and 60% of the population think that it would be hugely funny to have her as leader.

Hmmm ... maybe not such a bad idea.
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Well yes, But JoeMorgue and I weren't talking about party leaders, he was referring to the President. To be honest limiting the candidates doesn't seem too difficult, MPs who are members of the party is the current pool, I don't see why that would need to change.
 
JoeMorgue said:
So wait in the UK if a Prime Minister steps down only people from his party get to vote on the next one?

Like functionally equivalent to if Trump were to resigned right now only registered Republicans would be able to vote on the next President?

That's... weird.
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No, not registered republicans, only republican donors, the people voting are not just people who choose to identify as Torry they have to be paid up members.
 
ceptimus said:
Which brings us back to my comment on The Don's post:





Which was that if Boris's election has a democratic deficit, he at least had about 90,000 more people voting for him than von der Leyon did.
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I didn't agree with the way von der Leyon was appointed. At least Juncker submitted to a spitzcandidacy - a one-off transparentt competition between him and other named candidates. Von der Leyon was behind closed doors and only selected because nobody could agree on the bona fide candidates.

So yes, by that criteria Boris' selection was more democratic within a strictly limited electoral population and more transparent, together with genuine competition from other candidates than the appointment of von der Leyon as head of the EU Commission.

Likewise Christine Legarde as chief banker.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
Well yes, But JoeMorgue and I weren't talking about party leaders, he was referring to the President. To be honest limiting the candidates doesn't seem too difficult, MPs who are members of the party is the current pool, I don't see why that would need to change.
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A UK PM and a POTUS are nothing like the same thing and have little or nothing like the same job.

Who would be eligible to vote? Who establishes the shortlist? I'm a Labour leftie and would have voted for Hunt even though I despise him.
 
GlennB said:
A UK PM and a POTUS are nothing like the same thing and have little or nothing like the same job.

Who would be eligible to vote? Who establishes the shortlist? I'm a Labour leftie and would have voted for Hunt even though I despise him.
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JoeMorgue suggested that the situation was like only Republicans getting to vote on the replacement POTUS if Trump stood down, I pointed out that the Vice President assumes the role with no vote from anyone. That was it.

Everything else is a completely separate discussion you've started which doesn't have anything to do with the POTUS, but fine, you could allow parties to have their own elections by MPs to draw up a short list from their own ranks (what happens now in all parties except BXP), possibly add a minimum number to prevent or reduce gaming the system as Boris allegedly did this time. Then let the electorate vote. It isn't something I'm advocating although it would have certain benefits, but it's hardly the hardest thing in the world to sort out sensible rules for if parties wanted to go down that route.
 
It begins:

"A Sky [TV] executive who lent a townhouse to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign and an academic who accused politicians of exaggerating racial prejudice were among Downing Street’s controversial first appointments on Tuesday."
 
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GlennB said:
It begins:

"A Sky [TV] executive who lent a townhouse to Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign and an academic who accused politicians of exaggerating racial prejudice were among Downing Street’s controversial first appointments on Tuesday."
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Yup, enjoy having a Trump clone in charge, guys.
 
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