He would bring in the youth vote which is something Cameron doesn't do. Boris is loved by teenagers etc and they would probably vote for him in vast numbers

 

Theresa May is a decent person, a competent politician, but as a woman she would be constantly judged against Maggie, If Boris was not the next leader i would like to see William Hague given another go, he took on the job 10 years early, grown up a lot since then plus he is respected across the world

Johnson the clown is popular. However, if people were given a list of some of his statements (without any mention of who said them), most of them would have a majority disagreeing with them.

He would have to step down as mayor of London, he has very able deputies who could easily take over from him till the next mayor contest, someone in the commons could step aside (blame ill health or something) and Boris stand for election to the house of commons

 

He would then be in a position to challenge Cameron and would almost certainly win any leadership contest hands down, there would be no credibility lost because he will have won a leadership election under fair means not a union block vote

 

Cameron is a liability, Boris is a massive vote winner

 

So you've repeated what I said about what he would need to do to become leader. Well done. However, the Tories could hardly attack Miliband for standing against his brother if they were led by someone who had won the leadership in that way. He has a job as Mayor of London and the people who were daft enough to vote for him are entitled to expect him to do the job for the full term.

 

 

Boris spoke pretty much what i think, he is a cheerleader for enterprise and people getting off their asses and being a success in life

 

His speech on that subject didn't even make sense. He came up with some rubbish about how, if you shake a packet of corn flakes, some of them will make it to the top of the packet. Does that make them better corn flakes somehow?

 

He praised greed. However, I suspect he would not praise somebody on £15,000 per year who hasn't had a pay rise for three years who dared to ask for an increase. He would probably dismiss them as greedy and not in a polite way.

 

It would be very easy to list his three priorities - Boris, Boris and Boris.

Johnson the clown is popular. However, if people were given a list of some of his statements (without any mention of who said them), most of them would have a majority disagreeing with them.

 

His piccaninny joke was a bit unnecessary plus he rightly apologised for his comments on Liverpool but i think his speech the other night really tapped into the public mood

 

His points about grammar schools - grammar schools are hugely agreed with by voters

 

Greed/envy - Again spot on, it is a great spur to growth and aspiration, if someone sees a Bugatti Veyron in the street they automatically think 'i want one' and this desire to own a Bugatti Veyron inspires people to work hard and set up a business so they can one day have that Bugatti they aspire to

 

He made valid points about taxation too and rightly said the richest should do more charitable deeds to help those that cant help themselves

Edited November 30, 201311 yr by Sandro Raniere

So you've repeated what I said about what he would need to do to become leader. Well done. However, the Tories could hardly attack Miliband for standing against his brother if they were led by someone who had won the leadership in that way. He has a job as Mayor of London and the people who were daft enough to vote for him are entitled to expect him to do the job for the full term.

 

David Miliband was by far the top choice among labour members and also labour mp's, the unions went for Ed, the tory voting system is completely different, its a mixture of MP's and party members, no unions no hedge funds, pure democracy

 

 

He praised greed. However, I suspect he would not praise somebody on £15,000 per year

 

He would probably say what i would say

 

Instead of the 15k a year with no increase and being at the mercy of the boss BECOME a boss, set up a business and work hard at building it up

 

Too many people in life sit back and accept their lot and their place in life

He would probably say what i would say

 

Instead of the 15k a year with no increase and being at the mercy of the boss BECOME a boss, set up a business and work hard at building it up

 

Too many people in life sit back and accept their lot and their place in life

When will it penetrate your thick skull that there are plenty of people who have no desire to set up a business and who realise they wouldn't be very good at it. I assume you accept that most people are not capable of running a marathon in under 2 1/2 hours and never will be. Why do you not accept that the same applies to running a successful business?

His piccaninny joke was a bit unnecessary plus he rightly apologised for his comments on Liverpool but i think his speech the other night really tapped into the public mood

 

His points about grammar schools - grammar schools are hugely agreed with by voters

 

Greed/envy - Again spot on, it is a great spur to growth and aspiration, if someone sees a Bugatti Veyron in the street they automatically think 'i want one' and this desire to own a Bugatti Veyron inspires people to work hard and set up a business so they can one day have that Bugatti they aspire to

 

He made valid points about taxation too and rightly said the richest should do more charitable deeds to help those that cant help themselves

Those same voters are considerably less keen on the idea of seeing secondary modern schools return. Besides, your assertion that grammar schools are backed by a large majority of voters is incorrect. Even parents who back grammar schools do not want their children to go to a secondary modern school. However, as the proportion of parents who back grammar schools is greater than the proportion of children who would actually go to them, some of them would have to be prepared for a disappointment.

For the record: If I see a Bugatti Veyron in the street - I think about how much of a prick the person driving it is likely to be.

 

Just putting that OUT THERE.

David Miliband was by far the top choice among labour members and also labour mp's, the unions went for Ed, the tory voting system is completely different, its a mixture of MP's and party members, no unions no hedge funds, pure democracy

There's a difference between unions and unionists (and in any case, the affiliated section isn't entirely made up for unions). In terms of one member one vote, Ed won hands down - 175,000 voters to 145,000 voters for David. Pretty much the entirety of the affiliates section of the vote is normal Labour-supporting union members, it's not a block vote decided by the union chiefs. If anything Ed would've probably won under the Tory system as well, which uses MP votes to whittle down to two candidates who are then put to a vote. Affiliate members and party members combined would've given Ed a pretty solid landslide. Even if it had just been members, I'd imagine a lot of those union members would've joined the party in order to be able to vote, but aren't members currently as their political levy gives money to the party and gives them a vote in the leadership election, so there's currently little incentive for a union member to become a formal member of the party because they already have all the benefits of being one - hence even if it had just been members the gap between David and Ed in the members vote would've been far smaller, if not the reverse.

 

Additionally Craig, you really overestimate Boris's popularity. Whenever it's been polled how people would vote if Boris were head of the Tory Party, the best they've managed is a one point lead over Labour. That's polling at its most favourable to Boris - people can project all they like about how brilliant he'd be - and he'd still have just a one point lead. Once he had to deal with the practicalities of leading and the consequences of having to make serious decisions which piss people off rather than dodging them with jokes, he would definitely not be as popular.

Additionally Craig, you really overestimate Boris's popularity. Whenever it's been polled how people would vote if Boris were head of the Tory Party, the best they've managed is a one point lead over Labour. That's polling at its most favourable to Boris - people can project all they like about how brilliant he'd be - and he'd still have just a one point lead. Once he had to deal with the practicalities of leading and the consequences of having to make serious decisions which piss people off rather than dodging them with jokes, he would definitely not be as popular.

 

Plus, amid all the hype about how "unbeatable" Boris is, it seems to be forgotten that he didn't win the mayor of London contest last year by a particularly big margin at all - and even then you have to take into account that Boris's personality-popularity would've swung more votes in a contest like Mayor of London than it would in a general election. Admittedly, since his narrow re-election, he's been boosted a bit by the Olympics (though, again, I'd question if it really extended that far out of London), but still.

Edited November 30, 201311 yr by Danny

How many people who won't already be voting Tory in 2015 would be convinced by Boris? I'd imagine fairly few - what's keeping Cameron propped up is that a surprising number of people think the government is "getting things done", and having a bumbling fool as PM wouldn't exactly convince swinging voters. He'd also have very limited effectiveness in bringing in UKIP support given that the Tories still haven't cottoned onto how many people saying UKIP in opinion polls are working class and would run a mile from Boris.

When will it penetrate your thick skull that there are plenty of people who have no desire to set up a business and who realise they wouldn't be very good at it. I assume you accept that most people are not capable of running a marathon in under 2 1/2 hours and never will be. Why do you not accept that the same applies to running a successful business?

 

If someone trains hours a day and applies themselves then they probably could run a marathon at that speed, an enthusiast couldn't but someone who takes work and training seriously could if they dedicated their life to it, same with business

For the record: If I see a Bugatti Veyron in the street - I think about how much of a prick the person driving it is likely to be.

 

Just putting that OUT THERE.

 

So Jenson Button, Rowan Atkinson, Eric Clapton, Michael Fassbender and Colin Firth are pricks then :o

There's a difference between unions and unionists (and in any case, the affiliated section isn't entirely made up for unions). In terms of one member one vote, Ed won hands down - 175,000 voters to 145,000 voters for David. Pretty much the entirety of the affiliates section of the vote is normal Labour-supporting union members, it's not a block vote decided by the union chiefs. If anything Ed would've probably won under the Tory system as well, which uses MP votes to whittle down to two candidates who are then put to a vote. Affiliate members and party members combined would've given Ed a pretty solid landslide. Even if it had just been members, I'd imagine a lot of those union members would've joined the party in order to be able to vote, but aren't members currently as their political levy gives money to the party and gives them a vote in the leadership election, so there's currently little incentive for a union member to become a formal member of the party because they already have all the benefits of being one - hence even if it had just been members the gap between David and Ed in the members vote would've been far smaller, if not the reverse.

 

Additionally Craig, you really overestimate Boris's popularity. Whenever it's been polled how people would vote if Boris were head of the Tory Party, the best they've managed is a one point lead over Labour. That's polling at its most favourable to Boris - people can project all they like about how brilliant he'd be - and he'd still have just a one point lead. Once he had to deal with the practicalities of leading and the consequences of having to make serious decisions which piss people off rather than dodging them with jokes, he would definitely not be as popular.

 

That 1% lead is 9% more than is the situation currently where Cameron is polling 8% behind Ed

 

We are in danger of a John Major situation where the economy is doing great but we still dont win the election like happened in 97

 

I still think we will win but the majority of even tories dont

 

Plus, amid all the hype about how "unbeatable" Boris is, it seems to be forgotten that he didn't win the mayor of London contest last year by a particularly big margin at all - and even then you have to take into account that Boris's personality-popularity would've swung more votes in a contest like Mayor of London than it would in a general election. Admittedly, since his narrow re-election, he's been boosted a bit by the Olympics (though, again, I'd question if it really extended that far out of London), but still.

 

Last part is the most significant, the olympics massively boosted Boris' popularity

How many people who won't already be voting Tory in 2015 would be convinced by Boris? I'd imagine fairly few - what's keeping Cameron propped up is that a surprising number of people think the government is "getting things done", and having a bumbling fool as PM wouldn't exactly convince swinging voters. He'd also have very limited effectiveness in bringing in UKIP support given that the Tories still haven't cottoned onto how many people saying UKIP in opinion polls are working class and would run a mile from Boris.

 

Boris' views on Europe and financial matters pretty much mirror UKIP, difference being Boris is not a racist

 

I think Boris would attract a number of UKIP supporters

If someone trains hours a day and applies themselves then they probably could run a marathon at that speed, an enthusiast couldn't but someone who takes work and training seriously could if they dedicated their life to it, same with business

Well done. I do believe that is probably the stupidest thing you have said on this site and there's been a lot of nonsense to choose from.

So Jenson Button, Rowan Atkinson, Eric Clapton, Michael Fassbender and Colin Firth are pricks then :o

You have this weird idea that everybody thinks the way you do. Thankfully you are very wrong. I don't drive but, if I did, i would be perfectly happy with a normal car. If I had the money for something much more expensive, I'd spend it on something else.

Forget the whole Veyron thing - short of thinking "what a prick" or "I must start a business so I can afford that car" surely the natural reaction is to see if the prick's left the keys lying around?

Boris' views on Europe and financial matters pretty much mirror UKIP, difference being Boris is not a racist

 

I think Boris would attract a number of UKIP supporters

Not in the slightest, he doesn't favour withdrawing from the EU (which is really where any UKIP comparison should stop because that's basically the only reason they exist) and wouldn't ever put in a flat income tax rate.