Warsi's 'nasty party' moment

Vulture

Warsi is of course Dave's token Muslim 'Tory' woman and unsackable. So she can say anhything she likes.

If a picture tells more than a thousand words look at the (appropriately blurred) line-up of Dave's clique in your picture. They are about as inspiring and effective as a fighting force as the Volksturm in Berlin in 1945.

We won't get anywhere so long as these tosspots remain i/c the so-called Conservative party.

Johnny Smythe

Normally one says that such a person 'has a good face for radio', but sadly this morning's R4 outing shows that whatever the broadcast medium she is a vote loser for the Conservatives.

Cuse

She is more than an accident waiting to happen.

She is an utter disaster, a token effort to look inclusive and an appointee devoid of political nous or talent.

That Dave retains her shows his most damning weakness - his inability to be objective with those he considers loyal.

It will be his downfall.

dg

If she gets sacked as a fake gesture to the mainstream conservatives, never forget that:

"Parties are transformed by capturing the leadership."
- Daniel Finkelstein, February 19, 2010

Christopher Bowring

Mr Vulture, So I take it from your comment that you think Michael Gove is a 'tosspot'. In my view, Mr Gove is introducing extremely wide-ranging changes to schooling which will improve our education system -- changes which appear to be supported by Labour's Lord Adonis who tried to do much the same when he was a minister, but was blocked by Gordon Brown. Perhaps, Mr Vulture, you could give us a slightly more considered view on Mr Gove's performance?

Jonathan Woolf

Vulture - bit harsh on Gove and Willets but pretty much agree with you. Seems to me that the "right wing" of the Conservative party is in fact most of the Conservative party, including most of their voters and ex-voters (of whom there are a lot, as demonstrated by Lord Tebbit amongst others).

The narrow elite at the top of the Tory party, lots of them drawn from a handful of public schools and privately wealthy, are proving to be arrogant, out of touch, devoid of principle, and downright lazy.

Remittance Man

Okay, so Lady Warsi says all those naughty righties now throwing bricjbats should have been up in Oldham campaigning like crazy.

Just how were they supposed to have been inspired when their leader seemed to haveeffectively said: "Sod this one, let the LibDems have it"?

Commentator

Gove's radical reforms are nothing of the sort. They are a faltering, half-hearted antidote to decades of damage done to state education with the active collusion of the Tory Party, whose One Nation wing is virulently anti-meritocratic. As for Gove himself, he comes across as oily and weird. I wish his second-rate policies well but if the going gets tough with the vested interests on the left, Dave will knife him. He isn't really part of Dave's inner circle, although he would like to be.

Warsi is the John Prescott of Blue Labour.

and I'll go to bed at noon

I am powerfully reminded of the travails of Michael Steele, soon-to-be-ex-Chairman of the Republican National Committee in the US, a role comparable to Warsi's. He too was chosen, at least in part, in order to "visibly show" how his party has changed (i.e. as a token non-white face in the age of Obama). However, either because of the limited pool of prominent black Republicans to choose from or because the RNC simply wanted a black guy and didn't think any further beyond that point, his tenure has been an unmitigated disaster. Fundraising efforts, such as they were, have tanked, and he didn't seem able to open his mouth without embarassing his party.

The resemblance to the Warsi case is obvious. Much as I'd love to believe the modern Tory party is genuinely race-blind, I rather think they were so overjoyed to have a photogenic, female, Asian Muslim spokesperson that they didn't trouble to make sure she actually knows what the hell she's doing. They are now reaping the consequences.

In other words, after spending decades attacking positive discrimination/affirmative action as unfair and counterproductive (or even racist in itself), the right on both sides of the Atlantic have now embraced it with the finesse of an excitable labrador retrieving a discarded bone. The desire to bring social, ethnic and religious minorities to the fore is an entirely laudable one. When applied in this clueless and opportunistic a manner, however, it does more harm than good.

Simon Lewis

Excellent isn't she. Anything to damage this govt can only be good news!

dg

"Dave will knife him. He isn't really part of Dave's inner circle, although he would like to be."

Er, the Goves take it in turns with the Camerons to take each others' children to (the same) school. Both wives write for the same church magazine (the church that runs the school that their children go to). How close can you get?

Wacko Jacko

Warsi is a product of gesture politics, a token to show Dave is all inclusive and the that Tory Party has changed! Cobblers,Warsi is talentless and thick and it says so much about Cameron's judgement. She is in the Cabinet without any role and she is not trusted to be the sole Chairman of the Party. If he has any sense he will sack her and stop dragging the party in the centre left direction.

TomTom

Warsi symbolises New Conservatism and that is why it will be as successful at the polls as she was against Shahid Malik in Dewsbury

Andie Riley

Warsi looke dso out of her depth on Newsnight, Wednesday, that if I were a tory from either end of the spectrum, I would have been embarresed.
Dave loves his "tokenism" and it shows. He gives out jobs based not on your ability (Osbourne), but on how well you fit a tick chart of PC tokenism.

Mike Thomas

It is not the 'true' Conservatives or 'real' or 'mainstream'.

These are the dusty, gobby old farts that think the 1990s were an abberation and the Conservative Party can enact their bastardised brand authoritarian Thatcherism on the masses.

It would be funny if they weren't so deadly serious at railing against the liberals in their midst when Thatcher was a Manchester Haykeian Liberal 30 years ago.

If the knuckle-dragging wing of the party wants to leave, for the love of god, go!

You are a disgrace to the ideals of Tory Democracy and the history of the Conservative Party.

david

Dear Mr Cameron

I would just like to say how impressed I was with your selection of Baroness Warsi too represent the Conservative Party on much of todays media. How lucky you are to have such a remarkable woman in your team. I do hope that she continues in this role and we will be seing much much more of her over the coming months and years.

Yours in hope and expectation

E. Miliband

TrevorsDen

Warsi is not a token, Vulture - she IS a muslim who IS a Conservative.

Why should the Conservatives write off a whole section of the voting public.

You and the Tory 'right' might be thick but I am not.

You have no evidence of tokenism; all WE have evidence for is your bigotry and prejudice.

Clique? The only clique i have evidence of is your ignorant clique of self serving chip on the shoulder prejudiced numpties.
before you complain about the mote in someone else's eye, look at the plank in your own.

pharbitis

@Mike Thomas: Don't understand your rant at all. Who are you talking about? What policies?And is it necessary to be so nasty about anyone?

TrevorsDen

I tend to agree with Mr Thomas. The nature of the loony bright is to invent a conservative history which never existed in norder to justify iots prejudice.

I prefer the reality, the Realpolitik, of government to the purity of opposition.

I notice in Oldham, the Coalition got 45 and Labour 42

davidk

She has a grating voice and patronising manner that do her party no good whatsoever. She IS unsackable, though, and she'll continue to alienate and turn people off for a good time to come.

Maybe Dave should try and make way for a competent Asian minister by asking one of his university or school chums to take a back seat for a while? Then he can bin Warsi without the Nasty Party resurfacing the racist undertone attributed to it in the recent past.

Commentator

TrevorsDen and Mike Thomas: two splenetic peas in a pod. Not surprising they agree with each other. Warsi is about as Conservative as Ed Miliband.

TomTom

"You and the Tory 'right' might be thick but I am not."

You know Trevor, we all have our doubts about you !

Verity

Gove was a prominent trougher. Why did Dave appoint him?

dg

Mike Thomas, are you the same Mike Thomas that was a Labour MP?

Mike Thomas

Impossible Commentator, you are projecting.

Years of being made cynical after the Mainstream Conservatives were rejected humiliatingly in 2001 and 2005 perhaps?

I am optimistic about the path we are following - you would rather have the country ruined and in Cameron sacked or in opposition.

You are nothing more than a defeatist, a true conservative nihilist.

Ms Proper - Courtesy Advisor to The Stars

Pharbitus - "And is it necessary to be so nasty about anyone?"

What? Of course it is! Necessary and fun!

Verity

David K - Her choice endorses the tone-deaf nature of Dave the Rave. I'm assuming she is a Pakistani, thus demonstrating the tone deafness of ol' Dave.

If he wanted some ethnic diversity in the Cabinet, he should have stuffed it with Indians, who are much admired in Britain. They also have a far superior sense of humour to the islamics - though who doesn't?

Anyway, a Cabinet with lots of Indians in it would be rather jolly.

David Ossitt

“But as one Tory press adviser said to me just now, ‘you can’t put her on the radio. She’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”

Having this woman as both party chairman and as a high profile spokesman will always be a problem for conservatives from all wings of the party.

She is quite frankly a permanently angry self opinionated loud-mouth, who does the conservative party no good each time she starts to rant.

I am total against all forms of equality and diversity, positive discrimination for ethnic minorities, women, and homosexual’s etcetera.

But to elevate a woman to the House of Lords in order that by appointing her two or three of these diversity boxes could be ticked off is crass stupidity.

The coalition might well be headed by a small group of centre left conservatives but David Cameron should never forget that the majority of conservatives are positioned much further to the right.

Vulture

@ Christopher Bowring & Jonathan Woolf: OK...I relent on Govey -( he once commissioned a piece from me when he was features ed. on the Times)- but the rest of them are useless. What has Willetts ever done with his two brains? If one of them worked it would be a bonus.

Erica Blair

The Tory Party made the catastrophic mistake of assuming that just because Warsi was stupid, ambitious and obnoxious, then she was 'one of us'.

An understandable error, but there are Warsis in every party - indeed New Labourites were Warsis to a man and woman.

Ms Proper - Quotas Advisor to Reverse Racists Everywhere

and I'll go to bed at noon: Good post. Thank you.

Verity

David Ossitt - as much as I normally agree with you, I take issue here: "But to elevate a woman to the House of Lords in order that by appointing her two or three of these diversity boxes could be ticked off is crass stupidity."

It is NOT stupidity, it is malevolent greed.

hugo first

She's thick as mince - didn't anyone spot that? Nothing to with alleged Tory feuds. She's good value though, always worth keeping up with.

John Jones

Warsi, Labour's secret weapon.

Verity

Erica Blair - Good blog name.

Verity

dg - Re Cameron and Gove: "Both wives write for the same church magazine (the church that runs the school that their children go to)."

Oh, Gawd - Samantha's not just a cutting edge retailer (pink Bibles!), but a writer! Is there no beginning to the Camerons' talents?

Cynic

That's what happens when people are appointed to tick the right boxes (ethnic/gender) rather than on ability.

Dimoto

I do wish one of these "expert" analysts would actually mention (and analyse) the turn-out.

Fergus Pickering

Johnny Smythe, areyou saying the Baroness is ugly? That is both ungallant and untrue. As for her being stupid, a party that contains the duckhouse man, the moat man and the man whose house looks like Balmoral cannot have a particularly high Intelligence Quotient. 'The finest brute vote in Europe' was that not Disraeli's phrase?

Mike Thomas

dg - No I am not.

George Thomas, Lord Tonypandy is a distant relative though and I'm sure he'd been spinning in his grave at the likes of Millband Jr leading a rabble of mealy-mouthed liars and shysters though.

Varzi

Please don't get rid of her she is so funny. Wind her up and watch her go. She is the authentic person who could start an argument in an empty room

normanc

TrevorsDen@2.57

'You and the Tory 'right' might be thick but I am not.'

Tagging this thread for quote of the year contender.

David Ossitt

Verity

“It is NOT stupidity, it is malevolent greed.”

I stand corrected.

David Hamilton

Warsi may not do Newsnight or R4 very well, but she can put forward conservative arguments with sincerity and vigour.I once saw her on Question Time and she had the audience enthusiastically applauding her attacks on profligate spending and Labour's sentimental arguments about spending cuts. It would be hard to imagine Liam Fox or David Willets getting the same response.

Is her role evidence of tokenism, as many of the respondents here suggest? Perhaps, although I happen to think she is in her way an able performer. But do Coffee-housers not recognise that the Conservative party must do more to reach people other than middle-class whites inthe South East?

Woody

She's a northern lass, as am I. We call a spade a spade, so get used to it. She's got more guts in her little finger than some of those gutless wonders in the government.

Major Plonquer 1

Looking at the size of her arse I'd say she's too big to fail.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

How inconvenient that Warsi isn't disabled and homosexual, then she would really be the perfect token Woman For All Seasons.

Anne Wotana Kaye 1

Major Plonquer 1
January 15th, 2011 3:25am

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Looking at the size of her rumps. I'd say she's too big to fail.
=====================
Horses have sturdy rumps. Even Trojan Horses!

TGF UKIP

I'm tempted to say that you can tell a great deal about someone from the tokens they choose to promote but it then occurred to me that it would not have been Dave to whom she owed her elevation but almost certainly to his Labour mole. Then as both he and I are after the same end, the destruction of Dave and this farce of a government, then all I can say is "Go Sayeeda!"

Indeed, all Hilton has to do now is engineer a few media appearances by Loopy and his peerage from Red Ed, well before the end of 2012, should be a racing certainty

m barnes

She is certainly a weak link along with Gideon and Gove.The tories would be a lot better off without them.

Archie

"Baroness" Warsi. Another brilliant appointment by our revered leader, then?

Jack Dawson

I don't think it's fair to allude to the Baroness as a 'token'. She clearly doesn't see herself as one. If she did, then she'd probably be sticking to the party line and not raising the issues she is now. Whether you agree with her or not on this matter, she is at least speaking her mind.

The more relevant question is this: whether the Tories themselvs see her as a token? If they react to her comments by dismissing her, and in doing so, denying her her voice, then there's a good argument that they do. However, so far that hasn't happened and so let's give them the benefit of the doubt and judge them by their actions and not by what we think their intentions to be. We should aim to be skeptical but to be cynical is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.