They failed once... now let us vote
We could have a new Prime Minister by tomorrow night – chosen for us by just 356 voters. Which is a weird way to run a democracy. It was how the Soviet Politburo elected their leaders... and the last time we looked the UK was not a Communist tyranny.
Should those 356 MPs not be able to make up their minds, then 172,000 Tory members will get to have their say… which is just 0.4% of the British electorate.
And not a very discerning electorate at that. The last time they gave us a PM, she turned out to be the worst in modern British history.
Now they threaten to foist history’s second worst PM on us in the shambolic shape of Boris Johnson. If Mr Johnson was not the answer to Britain’s woes in July, then he is certainly not the solution we desperately need now.
Perhaps there is some private Tory practical joke going on to see who can beat the 45-day record for the shortest-serving PM ever.
Because next month Mr Johnson goes before the Commons Privileges Committee. If it finds he lied to Parliament he could be ousted as an MP. And out of No10.
CONDEMN
Meanwhile ordinary Brits are facing soaring prices, eye-watering energy bills, and a cost-ofliving crisis which could condemn millions of people to living in poverty.
Oh, and the British economy is sitting on a rubbish truck while we wait to discover whether it will end up as landfill.
So we would hope that the governing party would have more things to worry about than their own petty squabbles.
We would also hope they have not forgotten what the British people certainly remember about Mr Johnson’s previous premiership.
His mishandling of the Covid pandemic, which left frontline health workers without enough PPE to keep them safe.
How he disgracefully condemned 20,000 care home residents to death by discharging patients from hospital without Covid tests.
They will remember how it took footballer Marcus Rashford to put him right over his refusal to give free school meals during holidays.
They will remember him snatching back the £20 Universal Credit uplift which had been such a lifeline to so many.
They will remember No 10’s illegal lockdown parties, trying to get sleazy buddy Owen Paterson off a Parliamentary suspension, and not acting swiftly when ex-deputy chief whip Chris Pincher allegedly drunkenly groped two men.
They will remember that Mr Johnson – the only sitting PM to have broken the law – was a dishonest, lying, chaotic, lazy PM and there is no reason to think he would not be again.
Liz Truss trashed the economy and her party. Poll after poll shows the people now want not just a change of leader, but a change of government. Only a general election can deliver that.
But under our constitution only the next PM can make it happen.
We’d like to think he or she will be an advocate for letting us choose our own destiny – a strong believer in the democratic process.
We’d like to. But we’re not holding our breath.