Iain Duncan Smith won

[ciphergoth]

On the good side, the Tory party is dead forever now, they've written their own epitaph and it reads "Too old and too mad to live". And on the good side, this might in the long term mean that the Lib Dems become the opposition, causing a leftward shift in UK politics.

On the bad side, all sorts of far-right nonsense will be lent media legitimacy through coming out of the mouth of the leader of the Official Opposition.

Overall this was the result I hoped for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1542000/1542554.stm

Comments

[dr-d.livejournal.com]

I was hoping for a Ken Clarke win. Mostly cos of the effect it would have on the Labour party. Tony Blair is such a fucking coward that if a right-wing bigot mouths off he feels he has to follow where they lead or the National Front won't vote for him. I expect to see Labour follow the Tory lead on things like asylumn, and wouldn't be surprised to hear them talking a lot about "voluntary repatriation" sooner rather than later. At least Ken Clarke wasn't a raving loony. Either way, the Tories were fucked, but I suspect we may be fucked right along with them.

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I worry about that too, though I don't think even Blair will swing *quite* that far right. But on the other hand, I think Ken Clarke is a relatively smart guy, and I worried that he might have been able to salvage the Tory party. Even before this year's General Election, he was the first (and indeed the only) person I could think of who might be able to lead the Tory party into some semblance of credibility.

We need not worry that they'll gain any credibility with IDS as leader.

BTW do you like my cow?

[babysimon]

Lovely cow. Think it works better as an occasional sweetener than used frequently.

Like my chinese people?

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

Cool. Did you Photoshop it yourself?

[babysimon]

It's a closeup of a picture I saw in the Pompidou centre and quite liked. Unretouched by me.

Oh, and you misspelt "gimp". Hope this helps.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

"Tony Blair is such a fucking coward that if a right-wing bigot mouths off he feels he has to follow where they lead or the National Front won't vote for him."

An exaggeration, but an otherwise perceptive insight. (Though we should expect such things from you, I grudgingly suppose).

And interestingly, seems to tie in pretty well with Paddy Ashdown's view - the view of an honest, intelligent man, who knows Blair personally quite well.

There was a very interesting intierview with him in one of the weekend papers, I forget which one. Either the Times or the Guardian. Much of it was about Mr. Tony Blair.

To coincide with volume two of his memoirs/autobiog coming out.


J