Saturday 22 June 2019

"Dark arts" in Tory election!

As if it wasn`t  sufficiently undemocratic to have our next prime minister elected by 160,000 Conservative members, nearly all of them "richer, older and whiter than the general population", it appears that there are clearly, to use Rory Stewart`s words, "dark arts" at work (This Tories-only election will install a prime minister with no credible mandate, 20/06/19). Should the public not be told whether Johnson`s campaign manager, Gavin Williamson, really has "people who have five or ten proxy votes", as Stewart claims, in these "strange secret ballots" at Westminster? Can we expect more vote-fixing to ensure Hunt is Johnson`s main opponent in the final vote, someone perceived to offer him much less of a challenge than Gove?
   Was it merely coincidence that the fuss over the tweets of the TV debate`s questioner, Abdullah Patel, only came to light after Johnson `s feeble and embarrassing attempts to answer his question about "words having consequences" (Imam and solicitor from BBC debate suspended over tweets, 20/06/19)? Supporters of Johnson who "criticised the BBC`s handling of the debate" certainly succeeded in deflecting attention away from this, and Johnson`s failure even to remember the imam`s name! "Rules", no doubt, are "being followed", as your editorial says, but that does not mean the country is not being manipulated into having the odious Johnson as its leader!

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