Some of the runners and riders in the Tory
Donkey Derby managed some interesting quotes following
yesterday’s elimination of the three lowest-placed candidates.
Rory Stewart, who scraped into seventh
place with 19 votes, was pleased with that number, because prior to the voting
he only had six declared supporters.
Hold on a moment there – to get onto the ballot at all, he needed a
proposer, a seconder and six supporters; if we assume that he voted for himself
(although in a rational world there would surely have been at least one of the
candidates who pondered the wisdom of doing that), he should have
expected a minimum of nine. Mathematics therefore
suggests that he was expecting at least three of those who signed his nomination
papers to then vote against him. It’s a
strange world. And with supporters like
David Gauke claiming that Stewart’s seventh place with 19 makes him the main
challenger to Boris Johnson on 114, it may yet get stranger.
Matt Hancock (who may or may not still be a candidate
by now) said that it was "terrific to have more votes from colleagues
than I could have hoped for" after receiving a total of 20. Bearing in mind that he needed a minimum of
17 under the rules to survive the first round, how many did he actually hope to
get? Perhaps deep down, he was really hoping
to get less than 17 and thus be eliminated.
That would, of course, make him the most rational of all the candidates - and
therefore the most deserving of removal from the list.
Rationality is the last thing that his party is looking for at present.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment