Hopefully this recent potted history of British politics provides some context for the current Conservative leadership debate playing out across the pages of the country`s often partisan press publications, during the height of the so-called summer "silly season."
Reporting outside Downing Street on the morning of the recent election result, I felt comfortable positing an oft-repeated adage that the Conservative Party does not like a loser, even if the party`s cadre of elder statesmen represents a veritable pantheon of leadership and electoral losers, from Michael Heseltine to Michael Howard, John Major to John Redwood, and not forgetting William Hague. But if the squabbling Conservative backbench briefings and counter-briefings are to be believed, voters across Britain will hardly be faced with an awe-inspiring choice for a post-May prime minister. Current Brexit Secretary David Davis has already failed to win his party`s leadership twice. Meanwhile Jacob Rees-Mogg`s potential candidacy at least proves that persistence pays off - he was only seated as a member of parliament on his third attempt - and during his first campaign as a 28-year-old in a staunchly Labour seat, he canvassed alongside his former nanny. Would either men represent strong political leadership, or introduce positive and fresh ideas to a country in desperate need of them? That is, of course, highly debatable.
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