Thatcher intervenes in Tory election contest
Last night at a Conservative dinner Mrs Thatcher made her first intervention into what is the fifth leadership campaign since she stepped down in 1990. Reports are sketchy but it appears she basically urged them to hurry up with choosing a new leader, widely seen as support for David Davis (though it appears Davis has so many supporters already campaigning for him that anything is spun as such).If she is supporting David Davis, it's worth looking at her record in these matters.
1990 - Thatcher supported: Major. Winner: Major. Record: Terrible
1995 - Thatcher supported: Not known. Winner: Major. Record: Terrible
1997 - Thatcher supported: Hague. Winner: Hague. Record: Worse than Major's.
2001 - Thatcher supported: IDS. Winner: IDS. Record: Worse than Hague's.
2004 - Thatcher supported: Not known. Winner (and only candidate): Howard. Record: Better than Major, Hague or IDS's, but still terrible.
Of course it's not because Mrs Thatcher supports the candidate they have won and then been terrible and useless. Both her support, their victories and their uselesness are related to the same thing - they have come from the right-wing of the Tory party.
Nothing appears to be different this time. Anthony Wells links to an interesting YouGov opinion poll which shows that David Davis is by far the preferred candidate of party members and supporters. Of those they most definitely wouldn't like to be leader, Ken Clarke, Tim Yeo and Oliver Letwin -- all widely perceived to be left of the party's centre - feature prominently. Interestingly John Redwood however tops the bill with 55% saying they definitely wouldn't want him to be leader. This is presumably a function of doubts about his election-wining ability, as witnessed by his low-profile in the last campaign, and concerns about tabloid reports of his complicated family life.
posted by Matthew @ 6/15/2005 08:35:00 AM
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