Tory tantrums over James Cleverly's leadership fail should teach party one lesson

At last! Finally, some sign of life. The Tory leadership race ignited and we’re getting a bit of spice. Apparently, some members are seriously peeved that their preferred candidate, James Cleverly, lost out on the latest ballot of the membership to be the new leader.

It seems the voting process in the latest round that saw Mr Cleverly unexpectedly exit the contest didn’t go down well either. It appears there is a belief that Grant Shapps, who is known to have been tracking Mr Cleverly’s support base on a spreadsheet, might have made a booboo too.

And there is speculation that some MPs went “freelance” engaging in “tactical voting" to ensure one of the remaining candidates got knocked off his or her perch. Oh, the intrigue of it all, Possums.

Whatever the true facts of the matter might be don’t detract from the fact that an unseemly squabble has broken out. One Cleverly supporter told The Telegraph: “There is a huge amount of disappointment in the membership at the result of the final ballot. This morning, I have already had a dozen members telling me they will throw their ballot papers in the bin because they are being denied their say.”

My God in heaven, how enormously arrogant to make a statement like this. Throwing a hissy and all your toys coz nanny wouldn’t take you to Burger King for a milkshake is mind blowingly crass. You just had your vote, or your say, as you put it! You lost. Get over it, you moron. And by the way, you and your colleagues number only 121 in total, which means that up to this point the choice as to who might be our next PM rested in the hands of just 121 people.

Fortunately, the final decision on which of the two remaining candidates will lead the party rests with 172,437 members and NOT, thank God, solely with you lot!

This is what got the Tories booted out of power in the first place. You clowns want to play politics? Well, how’s this for a thought? Why not go about your business as quietly and discreetly as possible and let the Labour Party be the ones to break off into numerous factions at loggerheads with one another? Even united (supposedly) Two-Tier is leading a motley crew of Labour ordinariness, of typical tax and spend, and most recently soaking up largesse from Lord Alli and other Labour grandees.

Those with their snouts deepest in the trough are suddenly Swifties, quaffing gallons of bubbly accompanied by sinfully enticing canapes courtesy of some premier league football clubs and the FA amongst others.

Why on earth do we now see the likes of the Tory Reform Group (TRG), which represents the centrist “one nation” wing of the party, refuse to endorse either of the final two candidates? The TRG president, Lord Clarke (the former chancellor) said “it could not support either remaining candidate as they had both used rhetoric, which is far and away from the party at its best”.

The TRG describes itself as “the home of One Nation Conservatism since 1975”, that also include Sir John Major and Damian Green, the former de facto deputy prime minister as senior members. A group statement read:

“TRG members were consulted throughout the process, and the results clearly show that neither candidate has secured widespread support from the majority of our [TRG] membership. Both have used rhetoric and focused on issues, which are far and away from the party at its best, let alone the One Nation values we cherish and uphold. Therefore, the board of the TRG has unanimously concluded that we are unable to endorse either candidate.”

Oh for Heaven's sake, Ken and co, give it a rest. Some of the TRG serving MPs have declared their support for one of the remaining candidates, which is as it should be. Centre ground politics is a dead and buried issue for the Tories which fourteen years infighting to maintain the status quo with underwhelming performance demonstrates quite clearly. Why do some of these dinosaurs insist on trying to out-Blair Tony Blair by repeating the same “wet” ideology or barely modified versions of it?

Insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result. The political fault lines are beginning to resemble those of the 1970’s. Labour rhetoric loaded advocacy of “service to working people” is paving the way for the unions to place the economy in a stranglehold. The latest introduction of an effective worker’s rights charter offering flexible working for all in practice completely undermines the principle of competitiveness so crucial to the sustainable development of economic growth.

The creation of wealth which is the bedrock of any nations ultimate ability to sustain quality public services just cannot flourish in an autocratically controlled environment like this.

Just as Maggie stood out in stark contrast to Jim Callaghan, so too must the future leader of the Tory party be the standard bearer for what the broad church ought to represent in stark contrast to Two-Tier. The Tories need their mojo back pronto!

Reform is essentially a one issue party, which are presently a haven for disgruntled Tory voters, making their long-term survival in British party politics far from certain. Unless Nigel Farage can expand the party’s political footprint then all his unique skillsets will be wasted.

Never mind the political parties occupying the right of centre political ground, it is their respective support base that needs to be united to demonstrate a coherent identity and genuine alternative to the shambles we are witnessing at present.

A good starting place might be to focus on areas of agreement as opposed to arguing over relatively insignificant differences. The list of policy agreement will be much bigger than that of disagreement. It will take someone who recognizes this reality to unite and lead the Tories forward, rapidly recapturing lost ground, and most importantly stamping some sort of discipline on elected representatives.

Labour didn’t win on a widespread popular mandate. I’d hardly call barely thirty percent of the popular vote a runaway success. Had the Tories not descended into factional mayhem and general incompetence since 2019, then Two-Tier could quite possibly still be in opposition.

So, party political Tory Possums, get a grip, direct your anger at Labour and not yourselves. Let the Labour Party be the ones to tear themselves apart, not you along with the rest of us.