Ben WRX Bug-Eye

Think he might be the one to turn things around for the Tory party?

Petem95

I would say either David Davis or Liam Fox (local MP as it happens)

Hope they get their act together as Labour need ousting ASAP, along with that tosser Ken Livingston for that matter.

Ben WRX Bug-Eye

Ken Clarke has just got a lot of experience, and it's no easy job battling against New Labour spin and propaganda. Both those two certainly have more carisma than Michael Howard though. Couldn't agree more about Ken Livingston - he's a disgrace.

paulr

William Haugue

Jerome

Apparently KC has "cooled" on the idea of the disaster that is the UK going into the Euro. This makes him marginally more palatable.

Anything to get NL out is OK in my book.

Leslie

He has the experience and he did well as Chancellor, and he seems to have the personality to do the job. I am still suspicious of his stand on the Eu before however and his convenient denial of the euro, and he was happy to make money out of tobacco and the misery it causes.

Les

SWRTWannabe

I met Ken Clarke when he visited a company I worked at. He really is a very intelligent guy - in fact the questions he asked about our products were more perceptive than those asked by our customers who have been in the industry for years!

Abdabz

Nope - As a staunch conservative supporter I will be mortified if the old fat one gets it. We need an anti-european younger leader to deliver stability and keep us away from Brussells...
He's a nice guy but if he wins the race then my vote will one he will have to make up elsewhere (although I live in one of the safest Labia seats in the country and thus waste my vote at each election - God bless FPTP NOT)...
P

Leslie

I must be a floating voter since I go by results rather than tradition when it comes to the party I support. My concern is for the country and what each party will really do to improve the electorate's lives.

I tend to agree with what Abdabz just said.

Les

Andrew Dixon

In principle I think Ken Clarke could make the most credible Tory leader in long time. Unfortunately I think his deputy chairmanship of British American Tobacco puts a big nicotine coloured stain on his reputation.

More here.

unclebuck

Too late for Ken now. They had an 'old school' leader at the last election and it didn't work (even though they did pretty well). If Ken got it I don't believe it would help them win next time.

It's crucial they get it right this time. The New Labour 'project' simply has to be stopped.

Ben WRX Bug-Eye

David Davis seems to be the favourite at the moment. I really hope the conservatives get their act together this time around. They do need a charismatic leader. A lot of people just vote on image and the Labour spin and public relations experts did portray Blair in the right way to win votes (largely off the naive who bought into what they had to say hook line and sinker). People who known nothing about the issues tend to go on image and I feel of lot of people voted Labour just because it's (or was) seen as 'trendy'.

Labour really have done a huge amount of damage to this country which will not be fully appreciated for some time to come yet. Much of what they have done is going to be pretty damn hard to reverse too and the future governments are going to have one hell of a job on their hands!

The Chief

I personally think he is too old, i show my **** in Burtons window if the Tories get in power with him on board, we need a young (ish) dynamic leader who can feed us all spiel and bulls**t and con us all into voting for them - a bit like Blair then!

Brit_in_Japan

Since New Labour have got into govt, how good have the Tory leaders been?

- Williams Hague, probably came too early for him, would have been a strong candidate if standing for leader now
- IDS, a political lightweight
- Michael Howard, politically shrewd, but not popular or particulalry electable. Was never going to live down the "something of the night" tag or make us forget the Jeremy Paxman Most-Slimy-Slippery-Politician-of-the-Decade award following that classic Newsnight interview.

And now what is the best they can come up with....
Ken Clark, capable, but likely to split the tories top to bottom once again over Europe
Dave Davies, a safe pair of hands maybe, but won't get anyone excited
Malcolm Rifkind - just can't see it myself

...anyone else? It's still not looking great for the Tories.

Kyl3cook

I think Ken is the only politician out there that I like. He went to the same school as I did (obviously a few years before me ), and his 'not so pc' attitude is quite frankly what we need as a country.

He was actually sitting across from us last friday evening in a restaurant after I think he'd been to the Cricket. There's charisma about the man, and he speaks plainly, and to the point.

I'm all for it.