Whoever wins will, most likely, spend the coming years as leader of the opposition - one of the worst jobs in politics - in charge of a denuded, demoralised and mostly talentless party at a time when the public would rather not listen to them. It’s a tough gig, but somebody’s got to do it… and despite the torpor of political summer, there have been modest signs of life in the contest…
Are we talking about Dame Priti Patel?
Yes we are. “Launching” her leadership campaign, even though it has been running for some weeks now, Patel reinforced her fairly blatant appeal to Tory members to elect her in return for rather more say in the way the party is run.
She identifies as a grassroots activist, she says, and laid the flattery on with a trowel for those 170,000 members she calls “the heart and soul of our party”. She’d give them a directly-elected party chair, there’d be no more “parachuted in” metropolitan elite types standing as candidates, and much else besides.
Will that be enough to win it?
Probably not. If she made it to the final two candidates that go forward to the membership-wide vote, she might stand a chance with such a formidable charm offensive. However, many of her parliamentary colleagues think handing over more power to the Tory membership – so grotesquely unrepresentative of the wider population – would be electoral suicide.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 31, 2024-Ausgabe von The Independent.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der August 31, 2024-Ausgabe von The Independent.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
'Explaining a film takes the fun away for the audience'
Acclaimed director Andrea Arnold speaks to Louis Chilton about working with Barry Keoghan, plucking great actors off the street, and why working in US TV felt like a holiday’
Why you can't buy tickets on the UK's newest airline
Simon Calder hears about the benefits of wet lease’ capacity and white-tail’ aircraft from the boss of Ascend Airways
Fly me to the moon? Not tonight, thanks, I'm busy
Singer Olivia Rodrigo says men who want to go to space are weird’. It makes sense, writes Helen Coffey, who has her own list of signals that a first date is also likely to be the last
Penned in: family farms are facing an existential threat
Coming from a generation of farmers, Richard Benson has seen the battles those in agriculture face as he fears the tractor tax’ will irrevocably damage the British countryside
Barbados kid leading next generation in all formats
Jacob Bethell is starring for England in the West Indies with his flamboyant style and has a big future in the Test game
United have found a classy manager, in any language
Sporting CP’s Champions League match with Manchester City last night was full of intriguing sub-plots, as manager Ruben Amorim prepares to join Manchester United later this month and his sporting director and close friend, Hugo Viana, prepares to join City in the new year.
City thumped by Sporting in Amorim's home farewell
Ruben Amorim endeared himself to Manchester United fans before even arriving at Old Trafford by engineering a stunning 4-1 defeat of Manchester City with Sporting Lisbon.
Devastating second-half display sees Reds run riot
A vision of an alternative future turns into a brush with history.
North Korean troops will be cannon fodder' in Ukraine
The North Korean troops being used to bolster Russian forces in Ukraine face becoming cannon fodder” and their presence in the region will not alter the path of the war, said military experts.
McGregor 'took cocaine and raped woman' in hotel
Conor McGregor allegedly pinned down and raped a woman ina Dublin hotel while high on cocaine, the city’s High Court has been told.
