After four days at Conservative Party Conference, I reflect on the leadership candidates' speeches and look at how James Cleverly rejected presentational gimmickry to stand out from the crowd.
A good post, Lee. I watched some of the QA sessions with the prospective candidates online, though I wasn't able to see all of them. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of the leadership contest pans out! James.
Thanks for your kind comment, James. I agree - an interesting month ahead! Whilst there is much (justifiable) hype about Cleverly at the moment, he was of course in third place among MPs before the conference. So the contest is wide open, in my view.
I have several concerns about Cleverly, particularly that of the four candidates he is the one most associated with the last government. For example, it's a bit rich that he's now condemning Labour over Chagos Islands when he encouraged negotiations himself. He is also too firmly wedded to Net Zero, which to me is the most damaging policy for our country partly through putting energy costs up for ordinary citizens, let alone all sorts of would-be businesses and also by further damaging national food security (and the landscape) by building solar farms and on-shore turbine factories. Nuclear, gas and fracking should be a major part of any sensible long-term energy security plan.
Also, he's just a bit too nice and clubbable (George Osborne supporting him is hardly a recommendation in my eyes). However bad Starmer and his crew are, and I'm sure there is much worse to come than we've already had, his majority is so big that we're likely in for a full term of it. So I feel the main opposition should have a leader that can hold him to account and prick his bubble of sanctimonious certainty. For that, I think of the four candidates Kemi Badenoch is the best suited.
You mentioned Davis v Cameron - I'd rather recall your recent post about Thatcher taking on Heath/Whitelaw.
Pretty much agree with all of that. If we look at those performances alone, I thought Cleverly was comfortable the best, most natural and communicative. Some commentators were saying this or that candidate was too light on policies: having concrete proposals now is a complete waste of time. You need principles and a vibe, but who knows what the circumstances will be in 2028/29?
A good post, Lee. I watched some of the QA sessions with the prospective candidates online, though I wasn't able to see all of them. It will be interesting to see how the remainder of the leadership contest pans out! James.
Thanks for your kind comment, James. I agree - an interesting month ahead! Whilst there is much (justifiable) hype about Cleverly at the moment, he was of course in third place among MPs before the conference. So the contest is wide open, in my view.
I have several concerns about Cleverly, particularly that of the four candidates he is the one most associated with the last government. For example, it's a bit rich that he's now condemning Labour over Chagos Islands when he encouraged negotiations himself. He is also too firmly wedded to Net Zero, which to me is the most damaging policy for our country partly through putting energy costs up for ordinary citizens, let alone all sorts of would-be businesses and also by further damaging national food security (and the landscape) by building solar farms and on-shore turbine factories. Nuclear, gas and fracking should be a major part of any sensible long-term energy security plan.
Also, he's just a bit too nice and clubbable (George Osborne supporting him is hardly a recommendation in my eyes). However bad Starmer and his crew are, and I'm sure there is much worse to come than we've already had, his majority is so big that we're likely in for a full term of it. So I feel the main opposition should have a leader that can hold him to account and prick his bubble of sanctimonious certainty. For that, I think of the four candidates Kemi Badenoch is the best suited.
You mentioned Davis v Cameron - I'd rather recall your recent post about Thatcher taking on Heath/Whitelaw.
Very interesting to read your thoughts! Thanks for sharing. Going to be an interesting few days ahead in the leadership race.
Pretty much agree with all of that. If we look at those performances alone, I thought Cleverly was comfortable the best, most natural and communicative. Some commentators were saying this or that candidate was too light on policies: having concrete proposals now is a complete waste of time. You need principles and a vibe, but who knows what the circumstances will be in 2028/29?
Agreed. In fact, in one case in particular I was rather worried that too many policies were being announced!
I have many worries in that particular case.