One down, two to go

Well, well, well, the lobby of Conservative MPs have eliminated Kenneth Clarke from the running for Tory leadership. (For those unfamiliar with the process, the Conservative MPs eliminate first one, then another candidate before returning two possible choices to be voted on by the Conservative party membership at large).

Ken had sort of threatened them all...essentially saying "If you don't vote for me, the folks out in Constituencies will be angry."

Of course the folks out in the consitituencies voted for the uber-boring, ineffectual Ian Duncan Smith over Clarke in a previous leadership contest - so maybe Ken's blowing smoke out of his own cigar.

Still, even though Kenneth Clarke is a bit of Europhile and wanted to take the UK into the Euro Currency (treason to most Tories), you gotta have a bit of soft spot for a bloke who an unashamed smoker and tippler.

Had we run an office book, we'd have all picked Liam Fox (the most Conservative of the bunch) as the candidate to be eliminated today. But we didn't, and he wasn't.

Maybe we're reading this all wrong and the Tory party wants to go more 'hard line'.

Read all about it at The Times.

Tags: Tories UK politics