POLITICAL WINDS OF CHANGE

[Cole Parker]

I've been on vacation so may have missed it, but I've seen no mention of any of these new Prime Ministers crawling around all over the place. I'd expect some comments from our group. Especially from our group! So, how about this May? Disaster? Elation? Concern? And how about the new conservative in the land Down Under?

C

[Graeme]

He's not a new conservative -- he's the same old conservative that we had before It will be interesting to see how much he's able to control his party. A lot of his policies were previously those of Tony Abbott (who Malcolm Turnbull replaced), even where he's known to disagree with them (eg. he doesn't want a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, but to gain the support of the right-wing of the party when he overthrew Abbott he needed to keep the policy that had been agreed by the party at an earlier caucus). I would like to see him stand up for some of his own policies.

[Nigel Gordon]

​Teresa May is on the the shrewdest, hardest and politically savvy politicians around. Politically, at least with respect to social issues, she is probably slightly to the left of the Conservative party but on a number of issues (like immigration and law and order) she is somewhat to the right. Although she officially supported to Remain side of the referendum she was very low key about it. Overall she gave the impression that she supported Remain to stay loyal to the PM whilst seeming to hint that she did not really believe in it.

If you thought Thatcher was the Iron Lady this one will probably turn out to be a very sharp Tungsten Steel blade wielding Knife Lady!!

[Chris James]

​Perhaps someone can give us a few comments on Boris Johnson, the new Foreign Secretary. In some ways he sounds like the English version of Donald Trump, who it seems he despises. Doesn't like the competition for fool of the year?

​Scandals...check, television personality...check, bad hair day every day...check. This has become quite the political season on both sides of the pond.

[Nick Deverill]

Boris often plays the fool, but in reality, he's sharper than that.

A very interesting appointment, I think I see where Theresa is going with it as he'll have to become both serious and sensible. If he does, well and good, if not, she's got grounds for sacking him, and if sacked for being a blundering fool, that will be him out of the political picture for a bit.

Have to see how long he lasts now.

[Nigel Gordon]

Boris is one of the most politically savvy operators around. Anybody else when shafted by Gove would have stayed in the leadership contest just to show they were better than Gove. Boris didn't, he stepped back and left Gove looking like the nasty piece of work that he was. He put his backing behind May and got one of the top jobs.

Theresa has pulled off a masterstroke of political manoeuvring. She has place him and two other Leave leaders in a position where they are responsible for organising Brexit. If they pull it off and manage to get a decent deal with the EU then she can take the credit for doing a good job, if it all comes unstuck she can blame them saying "I put those who wanted to leave in charge of it."

If Boris does pull it off it leave him in position to be the next leader of the Conservative party.

[Nick Deverill]

If Boris does pull it off, it leaves him in position to be the next leader of the Conservative party.

And that of course was his ambition. This time wasn't going to be on, but next?

PS Nigel - I added one comma and an 'S' to your sayings, I'm pretty sure doing so only clarified your comments