{"id":92221,"date":"2024-11-03T03:00:45","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T08:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=92221"},"modified":"2024-11-02T22:34:16","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T02:34:16","slug":"kemi-badenoch-replaces-rishi-sunak-as-uk-conservative-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2024\/11\/03\/kemi-badenoch-replaces-rishi-sunak-as-uk-conservative-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"Kemi Badenoch replaces Rishi Sunak as UK Conservative leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the National Post<\/em>, Michael Murphy<\/a> discusses the new British Tory leader and why she could be a viable challenger to Two-tier Keir’s Labour government:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

… in July, the Tories were ousted by Labour after 14 years in power, limping on with only 121 seats in the 650 seat House of Commons. But the honeymoon period for Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government ended almost immediately, as its popularity plummeted faster than that of any administration in recent memory. This has made the Tories interesting once again at precisely the moment when they’ve chosen a new leader: Kemi Badenoch<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Nigerian-raised mother of three, elected today to lead the Conservative party, threatens to be kryptonite for a Labour party wedded to identity politics. A black, female immigrant at the dispatch box is apt to leave Labour frontbenchers \u2014 particularly Sir Keir, a one-time BLM kneeler \u2014 somewhat stumped. To make matters worse, Badenoch is a persuasive speaker, commanding a charisma and eloquence that Sir Keir \u2014 a dull, po-faced lawyer \u2014 does not possess.<\/p>\n

These qualities have given Badenoch cross-party appeal within the Tories, rallying endorsements from both the left and right. By endorsing her, however, the party has effectively signed a blank cheque, as Badenoch, unlike her opponents, has made few specific pledges. She has chosen instead to reflect on the election loss and the party’s ideological roots; she is prepared to play the long game, hoping this will allow the Tories to “earn back trust”.<\/p>\n

On some issues, though, Badenoch is clear. “The government is doing far too much and it is not doing any of it well \u2014 and it is growing and growing,” she declared recently. “The state is too big; we need to make sure there is more personal responsibility.” These ideas are common fare among Conservatives, especially in bloated welfare states like Britain \u2014 but her zeal for them evokes, for many, memories of Margaret Thatcher. As the political commentator Simon Heffer wrote, “Mrs Badenoch is the politician who most reminds me of Mrs Thatcher since I last saw Mrs Thatcher”. He noted both women’s hard-mindedness, “deep principles”, and grasp of the “art of the possible”.<\/p>\n

Badenoch’s Conservatism can be traced, as the writer Tom Mctague has argued elsewhere, to her beginnings in Africa. Having fled Nigeria during a 1996 military coup, she has a keen, outsider’s appreciation for Britain’s core ideals \u2014 not least the rule of law and policing by consent. She is therefore a champion of Britain, of both “the good” and “bad” of its former empire, at a time when it is fashionable to denigrate it, precisely because of her first hand experience that these norms are rare and fragile.<\/p>\n

Like Thatcher, Badenoch studied a hard science (computing), marking them out in a Parliament filled with lawyers and humanities graduates. And the swift rise of both women, from modest beginnings through the ranks of the Conservative party, suggests that the “art of the possible” is indeed etched into their stars.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Armchair General<\/em><\/a> has a few suggestions for Badenoch’s agenda to turn the British economy around:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The new leader of the Conservative Party (image: www.kemibadenoch.org.uk)<\/p><\/div>\n

My one reservation [about Badenoch] was that, being a software engineer, instead of espousing liberty or slashing laws and regulations, Kemi might reach for more tinkering technocratic solutions \u2014 and your humble General is surely not alone in his opinion that we have had quite<\/em> enough, thank you, of technocratic governments.<\/p>\n

However, the more that I consider the severe problems that afflict this country, the more I believe that a process-driven leader, who can focus on the details, might make the biggest difference in the short to medium term.<\/p>\n

The immigration issue<\/strong><\/p>\n

As we know, uncontrolled immigration has seized the public imagination greatly \u2014 and, indeed, Jenrick centred his campaign around leaving the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). We should almost certainly do this anyway \u2014 simply because, like the Americans, we should refuse to sign any treaties that raises foreign courts above our own Parliament.<\/p>\n

But leaving that aside, the stated problems with mass immigration can largely be divided into two halves:<\/p>\n