The result was clear. It’s Badenoch who will allow Tories to once again feel good about themselves
Kemi’s the one. The GB News debate brought clarity to the Tory leadership election: she has charisma, the members love her and, surprisingly, she might unite the party. Robert Jenrick, defined almost entirely by wanting to leave the ECHR, faded from view. This, despite winning the coin toss that allowed him to go first: a canny move as much of the elderly audience will have turned over halfway through to watch Vera on ITV3.
The Generic label is hard to shake. Forced to stand and grin as Christopher Hope explained the rules, he resembled an Austin Reed mannequin, ready to spring into life and shoot Dr Who in the belly. Asked questions by an audience of strange boys with unpleasant accents, he hit all the ideological high-notes: more prisons, more for defence, less immigration, the latter falling to the tens of thousands “or lower”.
Jenrick seems to have disagreed with almost everything the party did in office, which makes his rise as a minister a tribute either to his charms or his employers’ patience.
Today he is praised for his message discipline. Perhaps he pushes the self-control too far. When Jenrick insisted he’d never done drugs, he was the one politician I’ve ever believed. “I joined this party, aged 16, in Wolverhampton in 1997”, he declared – a sign of clan identity that in previous years might have impressed. But everyone knows that in 2024, the Tories need to be something more than Tories.
That something is Kemi. Consider that she actually didn’t tell the audience what it wanted to hear: she won’t commit to Right-wing policies and thus won’t necessarily leave the ECHR. Her argument is that you need to think before you commit; that, as an engineer, she prefers to fix broken systems rather than chase populist novelties.
She thus opens a door to liberal One Nation voters. Her open-minded approach to assisted dying, on the other hand, might frighten off social conservatives. But the distinctive, broad-based Badenoch appeal was contained in her bold answer on imperialism.
“We don’t need to be embarrassed about our colonial past,” she said, “This is the past.” Countries that bang on about it “want to use guilt to try to exploit the UK” and “we have to look out for ourselves, too”.
In short, electing Kemi as leader would give Tories permission to feel good about themselves. Here is a fantastically intelligent, philosophically conservative British-Nigerian woman who says we’re not a bunch of fascists.
Hope polled the audience. They not only put their hands up for Kemi in large numbers, they cheered gaily, as if striking Bingo.
Kemi has flaws. She denies she is aggressive in an aggressive manner, barely resisting the temptation to smack Hope on the bottom, and when enthused talks too quickly. But putting her side-by-side with Jenrick, one sees that she has the indefinable superstar quality that he lacks. Were it not for that repeat of Vera, the one where she chases the killer off a cliff in wellies, this evening might have clinched it.
The result was clear. It’s Badenoch who will allow Tories to once again feel good about themselves
Kemi’s the one. The GB News debate brought clarity to the Tory leadership election: she has charisma, the members love her and, surprisingly, she might unite the party. Robert Jenrick, defined almost entirely by wanting to leave the ECHR, faded from view. This, despite winning the coin toss that allowed him to go first: a canny move as much of the elderly audience will have turned over halfway through to watch Vera on ITV3.
The Generic label is hard to shake. Forced to stand and grin as Christopher Hope explained the rules, he resembled an Austin Reed mannequin, ready to spring into life and shoot Dr Who in the belly. Asked questions by an audience of strange boys with unpleasant accents, he hit all the ideological high-notes: more prisons, more for defence, less immigration, the latter falling to the tens of thousands “or lower”.
Jenrick seems to have disagreed with almost everything the party did in office, which makes his rise as a minister a tribute either to his charms or his employers’ patience.
Today he is praised for his message discipline. Perhaps he pushes the self-control too far. When Jenrick insisted he’d never done drugs, he was the one politician I’ve ever believed. “I joined this party, aged 16, in Wolverhampton in 1997”, he declared – a sign of clan identity that in previous years might have impressed. But everyone knows that in 2024, the Tories need to be something more than Tories.
That something is Kemi. Consider that she actually didn’t tell the audience what it wanted to hear: she won’t commit to Right-wing policies and thus won’t necessarily leave the ECHR. Her argument is that you need to think before you commit; that, as an engineer, she prefers to fix broken systems rather than chase populist novelties.
She thus opens a door to liberal One Nation voters. Her open-minded approach to assisted dying, on the other hand, might frighten off social conservatives. But the distinctive, broad-based Badenoch appeal was contained in her bold answer on imperialism.
“We don’t need to be embarrassed about our colonial past,” she said, “This is the past.” Countries that bang on about it “want to use guilt to try to exploit the UK” and “we have to look out for ourselves, too”.
In short, electing Kemi as leader would give Tories permission to feel good about themselves. Here is a fantastically intelligent, philosophically conservative British-Nigerian woman who says we’re not a bunch of fascists.
Hope polled the audience. They not only put their hands up for Kemi in large numbers, they cheered gaily, as if striking Bingo.
Kemi has flaws. She denies she is aggressive in an aggressive manner, barely resisting the temptation to smack Hope on the bottom, and when enthused talks too quickly. But putting her side-by-side with Jenrick, one sees that she has the indefinable superstar quality that he lacks. Were it not for that repeat of Vera, the one where she chases the killer off a cliff in wellies, this evening might have clinched it.