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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 13:33:40 GMT -5
Clarke ousted from Tory race Reuters Tuesday October 18, 07:23 PM
Clarke ousted from Tory race
LONDON (Reuters) - The Conservatives on Tuesday ejected former Chancellor Ken Clarke from the race to lead their party and remould it as an election-winning force.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party has dealt three successive defeats to the Conservatives since 1997, and the centre-right party which dominated 20th century politics is seeking its fifth leader in eight years.
Right-winger David Davis was backed by 62 of the party's 198 parliamentarians and the youthful David Cameron polled 56 in the first round of voting. Liam Fox, another hardliner, edged out the veteran Clarke by 42 votes to 38.
A second vote by MPs on Thursday will eliminate one contender, leaving two for the party's wider membership to choose between by early December.
Whoever takes the helm will not face Blair at the next election. He has announced he will not stand for a fourth term.
Opinion polls showed the public's favourite was Clarke, the best-known figure in the party, who could have proved a formidable opponent for Blair's likely successor, Gordon Brown.
Brown succeeded Clarke, 65, as Chancellor in 1997.
Clarke's age probably counted against him, as did his pro-European views in an overwhelmingly eurosceptic party.
Insiders said Clarke's early exit could be good news for his fellow centrist David Cameron, 39, whose campaign cry that the party must change to appeal to modern Britain has gathered momentum although he has been in parliament for only four years.
Bookmakers William Hill quickly installed Cameron as a short odds favourite to become the new leader.
Davis, the front-runner, had claimed the backing of at least 66 Conservative colleagues, and the fact that he scored 62 votes showed early slippage in his support. The presence in the second round of Fox, a fellow right-winger, may split that vote.
Analysts say that after more than eight years of Labour government, the Conservatives' choice of leader is crucial and the party must find a leader who can deliver victory in one of the next two elections.
They face an uphill struggle after winning just 33 percent of the vote in the general election in May this year.
"DELIGHTED", MINISTER SAYS
Government leaders were in no doubt about who they least wanted to face in parliament -- Clarke, who has now failed three times to win his party's leadership.
Speaking to reporters before the result was announced, Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he would be "absolutely delighted" if his namesake was ousted from the leadership race.
"It would remove the biggest challenge to us on the centre ground of British politics," he said.
If Davis or Fox eventually wins, analysts say it will show that the Conservatives have little appetite to modernise and move to the centre ground -- a process Blair took the Labour party through during an 18-year stretch in opposition.
But both Ken Clarke and Cameron preached a moderate message, and most insiders expect the bulk of the beaten man's votes to transfer to Cameron on Thursday.
"We can expect most of Clarke's people to go to Cameron. I think we're looking at a Cameron-Davis run-off," former minister Alan Duncan told Reuters.
Conservative Party members -- who have opted since 1997 for little-known leaders who appealed to them but not to the wider electorate -- may now be receptive to Cameron's message that the party must update its policies and its image to return to power.
But Charles Clarke said the Labour party did not fear him.
"He hasn't done anything as far as I can see," he said.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 13:47:56 GMT -5
Damn you Caro! Thread mover.
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Post by DixonHill on Oct 18, 2005 15:38:40 GMT -5
he was too old to be PM, anyway.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 16:38:17 GMT -5
I reckon he's the only one who could have challenged Gordon Brown. Cameron ain't gonna win.
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Post by globe on Oct 18, 2005 16:52:34 GMT -5
clark may have been a bit old dix, but he is the only decent person outta the 4 of them. the other 3 are complete tossers. i hope cameron wins, brown will pick him and his ideas apart at the dispatch box.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 16:56:12 GMT -5
Clarke would have been in if the public decided but the tories don't have a great recent tracks record of choosing people. Major, Hague, Smith, Howard and as Globe said Brown will walk the election is 2009, and i'm gonna help him
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Post by daysleeper on Oct 18, 2005 17:01:01 GMT -5
clark may have been a bit old dix, but he is the only decent person outta the 4 of them. the other 3 are complete tossers. i hope cameron wins, brown will pick him and his ideas apart at the dispatch box. How much do you know about Cameron and Fox to call them complete tossers? especially Cameron - no one knows enough about him to say that Personally i would of picked Clarke (no way too old) but id have Cameron too. Brown is over-rated.
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Post by globe on Oct 18, 2005 17:08:09 GMT -5
clark may have been a bit old dix, but he is the only decent person outta the 4 of them. the other 3 are complete tossers. i hope cameron wins, brown will pick him and his ideas apart at the dispatch box. How much do you know about Cameron and Fox to call them complete tossers? especially Cameron - no one knows enough about him to say that Personally i would of picked Clarke (no way too old) but id have Cameron too. Brown is over-rated. lol, yeah fair enough. ;D well i know all about fox, hes quite well known up here. he's your typical - "lets give everyone who earns 25 grand a year a big tax cuts, and fuck everyone else" type of tory. total wanker. cameron just strikes me as one of these upper-middle class twits, who thinks hes really young and trendy and has his finger on the pulse og youth culture etc. pretty harmless sorta character, but a leader of a country? nah, dont think so.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 17:11:01 GMT -5
I agree with Globe.
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Post by daysleeper on Oct 18, 2005 17:28:54 GMT -5
cameron just strikes me as one of these upper-middle class twits, who thinks hes really young and trendy and has his finger on the pulse og youth culture etc. pretty harmless sorta character, but a leader of a country? nah, dont think so. Replace the name 'cameron' with 'blair' and you'd be describing exactly the same person.... (back in 97 anyway) anyone who thinks Blair is remotely working class is having a laugh i dont know enough about Fox to call him a tosser one way or the other! lol. but ive liked some of the stuff he's come out with lately. Im just not keen on Davis getting in and filling all his shadow cabinet with crony right-wingers
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 18, 2005 17:33:02 GMT -5
Brown will win easily in 2009 unless something crazy happens
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Post by globe on Oct 18, 2005 17:33:51 GMT -5
cameron just strikes me as one of these upper-middle class twits, who thinks hes really young and trendy and has his finger on the pulse og youth culture etc. pretty harmless sorta character, but a leader of a country? nah, dont think so. Replace the name 'cameron' with 'blair' and you'd be describing exactly the same person.... (back in 97 anyway) anyone who thinks Blair is remotely working class is having a laugh i dont know enough about Fox to call him a tosser one way or the other! lol. but ive liked some of the stuff he's come out with lately. Im just not keen on Davis getting in and filling all his shadow cabinet with crony right-wingers of course blair aint working class. he's very similar to cameron in many ways. im not a big fan of blair, not by a long shot. (im not a fan of 99% of MP's, regardless of what party they are in actually). its gonna be very interesting if cameron wins and leads them into the next election. although i do think brown might take him apart a bit in the commons, he doesnt seem to have much experience of that kinda debate and brown is very skillful at that kinda thing.
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Post by daysleeper on Oct 18, 2005 17:47:49 GMT -5
its gonna be very interesting if cameron wins and leads them into the next election. although i do think brown might take him apart a bit in the commons, he doesnt seem to have much experience of that kinda debate and brown is very skillful at that kinda thing. true he doesnt have much commons experience but im sure he spent many a night at Eton in the debating club! hot political discussion followed by hard anal sex ;D and a line or two while its always good to see a politician performing well in the commons - its not the be all and end all. Everyone knows william hague used to have Blair's life every week during prime ministers questions but it was no good overall MPs tend to be arseholes but its the nature of the game - you have to win popularity contests, talk bollox and lie....hardly great for world leaders. Surely there are better things they can be doing For Brown to lose the 2009 election it wont take something crazy - it'll take the downturn of britain's economy that is predicted by just about every single independant economic organisation around.... What comes in wont equal what goes out. Doesnt take a genius to work out how they will fill that gap
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Post by globe on Oct 18, 2005 18:00:00 GMT -5
its gonna be very interesting if cameron wins and leads them into the next election. although i do think brown might take him apart a bit in the commons, he doesnt seem to have much experience of that kinda debate and brown is very skillful at that kinda thing. true he doesnt have much commons experience but im sure he spent many a night at Eton in the debating club! hot political discussion followed by hard anal sex ;D and a line or two while its always good to see a politician performing well in the commons - its not the be all and end all. Everyone knows william hague used to have Blair's life every week during prime ministers questions but it was no good overall MPs tend to be arseholes but its the nature of the game - you have to win popularity contests, talk bollox and lie....hardly great for world leaders. Surely there are better things they can be doing For Brown to lose the 2009 election it wont take something crazy - it'll take the downturn of britain's economy that is predicted by just about every single independant economic organisation around.... What comes in wont equal what goes out. Doesnt take a genius to work out how they will fill that gap LMAO ;D aye those eton boys know how to party! see thats the bit i dont understand. the economy i mean. see for the last 8 years, the tories and their supporters have been saying that blair and brown basically copied their economic policies and continued what majors mob had been doing for the last few years he was in power. now that there are some signs that the economy might be slowing down, they are saying that its the 'old labour' policies of tax and spend which are coming back to haunt them. never been quite able to get my head around that one.
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Post by Moorish on Oct 19, 2005 8:31:49 GMT -5
Tories.... the sad thing is, Blair and Brown may well be fucking up, but... I just don't think I could ever bring myself to vote Conservative.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 19, 2005 13:36:59 GMT -5
Anyone like Lib Dems
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Post by daysleeper on Oct 19, 2005 13:54:20 GMT -5
see thats the bit i dont understand. the economy i mean. see for the last 8 years, the tories and their supporters have been saying that blair and brown basically copied their economic policies and continued what majors mob had been doing for the last few years he was in power. now that there are some signs that the economy might be slowing down, they are saying that its the 'old labour' policies of tax and spend which are coming back to haunt them. never been quite able to get my head around that one. While i get your point - its a bit too simplistic to boil the economy down to those kinds of terms isnt it? The point about labour copying Tory economic policies is a broad statement - everyone knows labour abandoned a lot of its far-left policies and reinvented itself as 'new labour' and with that change, a lot of Tory policies were adopted by the Blair government. The economics used by todays labour government are far far different to those used by the 1970s pre-thatcher governments. And that occurred because those Thatcher/Major policies were, broadly speaking, very successful. Also an important point - the budgets and economic policies that labour inherited in 1997 were continued virtually unchanged untill 1999. From then on Brown really began to make his mark Since then he has stuck to some typical Tory policies but also went on a massive tax and spend rampage. Which in some cases was very necessary- however in my opinion he has gone way too far and is now just pissing money up the proverbial wall! Council tax rises are expected to be an average of 7% next year, unless Brown bails them out with a £1 billion saver as he did this year. Not likely he will be able to do that though as the national budget is likely to have a large deficit add to that the fact that civil service pensions have just been safe-guarded for the next 40-odd years with no raising of the retirement age.... someone has to pay for that too
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Post by daysleeper on Oct 19, 2005 13:55:05 GMT -5
Ack! almost made me vomit there
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2005 19:19:23 GMT -5
Ack! almost made me vomit there I voted lib dem at the last election as there was no Green Party in my constituancy. I cant stand Labour or Tory and the other party standing was UKIP. As for the Conservativs Boris Johnson should be made leader.
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Post by Moorish on Oct 20, 2005 4:10:09 GMT -5
I voted lib dem at the last election as there was no Green Party in my constituancy. I cant stand Labour or Tory and the other party standing was UKIP. I'm in the same boat as you, Dunc. I wouldn't vote Tory and Labour have blown it for me. UKIP can sod right off.
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Post by Bizzle on Oct 20, 2005 16:09:40 GMT -5
Fox is out now. Cameron will be the next leader.
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