The Tories have just wrapped up their conference, and in order to score a conference trifecta, I must blog about it too. I confess to paying scant attention, even though this conference was actually the most exciting of the three.
The Tories are facing the prospect of choosing a new leader, for which the main requirement seems to be being named "David" or even the doubly davidicious "David Davis". From what I can tell, the process is nothing like the American primaries, whereby lots of mud is thrown about, serving to disenchant the vast percentage of the populace, who then stay home on election day, allowing the party faithful to elect a candidate, who will in all probability be defeated in November. (Master of the run-on sentence, I am.)
Come to think of it, it's not all that different. After a handful of candidates declare they are running for leader, the MPs vote for their favorites, narrowing the field to the top two, and then the party members* vote for one of these. (Before you express shock at the lack of democracy involved, remember they've come a long way from the days when the main requirements for leading the country were, one, who was your daddy, and two, how big an army do you have.)
My imaginary vote goes to David Cameron, who I heard mention how the Tories should pay more attention to Darfur. Bravo, that. Of course, I would never use my imaginary vote to vote Tory; I'm more of a Lib Dem girl, but it's nice to see the Tories recognize that all the cool kids these days are socially liberal.
The final decision will be made in December. After participating in a grueling American primary season, I can see some value to such a short and sweet campaign. Maybe the Brits could teach us something about this voting business after all.
May the best David win.
*(aka party faithful; hardly anyone is a member of a party, as it would make one look a little too earnest wouldn't it?)
