This election is going to be terribly confusing, something the latest TV debate proposals from the broadcasters highlight very nicely indeed. The debates are starting to resemble an episode of Take Me Out with the number of parties who’ll be standing behind lecterns growing – and calls for even more to join.
One of the things that’s adding to the confusion is that no party appears to have the momentum, and what momentum there is has become difficult to discern in the usual ways as Parliament is emptying on a Wednesday night as MPs head off to take part in 650 by-elections.
Because no one party has momentum, both main parties are as fascinated with who could lead them next as they are with whether they might be in government. MPs certainly get more excited about the leadership battles as they are a cheerier subject than what it might be like to govern from May 2015 onwards.
The Tory chatter over the past couple of weeks has mostly been about Boris Johnson and George Osborne but of course there are many, many other contenders. Some of them made their intentions a little clearer towards the end of last year by sending party- wise Christmas cards for the first time. Leadership hopefuls who wooed their colleagues in this way include Sajid Javid, Boris, Chris Grayling and Liz Truss – though Truss managed to upset some religious colleagues by writing ‘Xmas’ instead of Christmas, which ranks along with ‘season’s greetings’ as a mealy-mouthed way of taking Christ out of Christmas. It’s the kind of little slip-up that gets noticed in the Tory party. Meanwhile as well as sending Christmas cards, Chris Grayling now has a parliamentary campaign operation working on his behalf, which I understand currently largely consists of those who’ve worked with him as his PPS. This is a very similar set-up to the one that Theresa May has working on her behalf.
And speaking of Theresa May, I hear that the Home Secretary was spotted lunching with Liam Fox in a secluded corner of a Westminster restaurant this week. Both are considered to be ‘on manoeuvres’, but it could be that May us trying to harness the sway that Fox has over (some but certainly not all) of the Right of the Tory party. She still needs to repair relations with MPs from that wing after her ‘Nasty Party’ comments. Or else, they could just have been holding a long lunch to discuss a constituency matter. You never know…
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