Albion’s Alchemist

Well here’s a turn-up – your author has before commented on the lack of international news to be had from the mainstream media, so you will appreciate his feelings when he caught a report about the current German leadership contest on the BBC’s ten o’clock news broadcast. Good for the Beeb. Alas it was unsubtly biased and indicated the corporations doubts concerning Angela Merkel’s ability, and right, to govern, but as I said to m’good friend Poosh I am a grown up boy and expect nothing better from the BBC. Alas.

Id the Alchemist knows his German correspondent then she will even now be writing a joyful missive to him – the which shall be the basis of a post in the very near future.

However, this is by the by. Today we are going to talk about the Conservative party. I cannot wait.

They say (the Telegraph but other sources too) that David Cameron (Alchemy Passim) has overtaken Kenneth Clarke and is the second favorite to lead the Tories into the next election. As I have said before, I believe Dr. Fox to be the best man for the job, but will reluctantly be supporting David Davis as the lesser of the two evils (t’other evil being Mr. Cameron). It is of course well known that we Tories are a capricious bunch where our leaders are concerned, but I think the question of why this Cameron chap is rising so fast in the race is one which could bare a little examination.

You will recall that I have said all along that what we really need is a leader with charisma. Well, Cameron has that in spades no-doubt, added to that he is young and he has not split the party with his opinions, like Mr. Clarke and Dr. Fox had. All to the good you may say. Cameron is significantly more popular among activists when compared to Foxy and has a real backing amongst the rank and file of the party too.

The fact of the matter is that Cameron has founded a ‘cult of personality’ I use Dr. Fox’s own words on Cameron. This is his greatest strength (charisma!) and also his greatest weakness.

Y’see, the Great British public have already a Prime Minister who’s sole weapon is his personality. Given the choice between Tony ‘all mouth and no trousers’ Blair and David ‘all mouth and no trousers’ Cameron, the electorate will choose the devil they know and we shall have lost another election.

Certainly we need a leader with charisma, but that will not be enough, our leader must have something more. He must not merely equal Blair, but beat him, on more than one element. Writing in the Telegraph Cameron claimed that this was the case, he said that he had more than mere charisma, but if that is so, we have yet to see it.

So far 70 mp’s have declared for Davis, 33 for Cameron and a mere 21 for our Foxy, this is why the Alchemist supports Davis even though he prefers Dr. Fox.

Incidentaly, whilst we are talking about the Conservatives, have’ee ever noticed that the Conservative homepage has buttons for Scottish Conservatives and Welsh Conservatives, but not a murmer about English Conservatives…

Now I’ve not really talked about the Tory leadership contest on my own site before, but I’ve stuck my oar in when others have brought the subject up, today I thought it about time to rectify this. Not least because the alternative is complaining about the growing ease of obtaining a GCSE, you don’t want to read about that and I don’t want to write about it.

The new Leader, will be chosen in October, god willing, and even if you are not that interested in the contest, even if you are not a Tory at all (Those of you who are not, I congratulate you on being here, I know it can be difficult to read a blog written by a man who does not share one’s own ideology) you ought to learn a little. Y’see, the choosing next leader of the Conservatives is of critical importance to Albion, nay, to Europe and the world.

If the next Leader is a good man, a popular and wise statesman then people will vote for him. He will be elected, the Tories will have power, the EU will find opposition where now they find welcome, the state shall be just a little les of a nanny, and all will be right with the world. If the next Leader is a poor candidate, then Brown will be elected, the planets shall align and Satan will begin his thousand-year rule of the Earth.

Hyperbole aside, it seems obvious that Labour are the default victors of the next election, unless the Conservatives can furnish us a truly worthy candidate, hence, we must watch the contest carefully, since it is this very contest which shall ultimately decide our next Prime Minister.

Obviously, the name on everyone’s lips is David Davis, currently Shadow Home Secretary. That’s not snow on the roof, that’s cotton wool leaking from his head – in your Author’s opinion. Make no mistake, the man has ambition, and he’s a fine tactical sense, but he is not fit to govern. Not that I’d say it to his face you understand, If Davis hits a man, he don’t get back up again.

If not a Davis backer, most people will generally claim allegiance to Liam Fox, Shadow Foreign Secretary, your humble obedient among them. Our Doctor Fox has something the Tories have lacked since the good old days of the Iron Lady, charisma. It is a sad fact that elections are won by men (/women) not parties, and Fox is the man to do it. He might be a Scot, but he is a proper right-wing euroskeptic and not one to be bound by political correctness neither - you might remember many years ago there was a group of pop-tarts calling themselves the ‘Spice Girls’, or to use Fox’s nomenclature ‘three dogs and a blackbird’. Naturally this made a lot of people angry, but it made the silent majority laugh (quietly)

The third big hitter in the race is Sir Malcom Rifkind, Shadow Work & Pensions Secretary. He’s a good politician, but just a little wet for the leadership I deem. He’d probably do rather well as a chancellor though, just a hunch, you heard it here first.

Should Dr. Fox find himself the Leader this October, I can well envision him defeating Labour. He has shown a strong anti-Europe streak which will keep people from wasting their votes on UKIP (I’d vote for them if it were not a waste) Veritas and sundry other euroskeptic parties, and as a Scot he will appeal to the haggis fanciers who essentially decided the last election (nope, I haven’t forgiven yee yet jimmy). Shoulod Davis win, I fear we will be doomed to Prime Minister (President) Brown – and eventual membership of (occupation by) the United States of Europe.

This leadership competition really is that critical.

I’ll let’ee in on a little something, come closer, that’s it.

I don’t normally bother with unsolicited email invitations. Well, neither do you, I can tell that just by your presence on the net. However, We all of us must make exceptions to certain of our policies from time to time. A gentleman calling himself ‘Toque’ emailed my during my recent hiatus, but naturally I was not able to read his message until today. It seems there is a new group recently incepted Glorying in the name of the Witanagemot.

If you are anything like the Alchemist you are probably thinking ‘wow, the forerunner of the Privy Council is reforming, only now they will all be wearing chef’s hats instead of mitres and helms’. Or something along those lines certainly. In fact Toque goes under the more explanatory name of ‘Little Man in a ~’ and this Witanagemot is not a group of busybodies who advice the monarch, but a group of busy bodies who bitch because our country enjoys not parity with our neighbouring countries. Count me in!

The objective of the Witanagemot is to highlight the deplorable state England finds herself in, which I know to be a matter as close to your heart as it is to mine.
You probably remember my complaining that England is the only nation in the EU without her own parliament (Alchemy Ante-Intermissio) for instance.

Incidentaly, if you are very like the Alchemist then something about the word ‘Witanagemot’ will have been bothering you since you began this post. I could not quite put my finger on it either, but it seemed wrong. As I so often am forced to do these days I turned to my trusty Dictionary of Old English and Anglo-Saxon – it is a regrettable, but I am afraid disuse dulls the old linguistic blade and one must turn to the books. Lo, we find that the original Old English would have us spell an advisor as ‘wita’, but the plural is ‘witena’, not ‘witana’. Alas, it seems that even our language suffers corruption just as England herself. It is to be hoped the new Witanagemot (for so we shall spell it) might help, in some small way to slow the decline of our land.

Those of you with a craving for more of the gemot will find the blogroll ensconced in one of the Alchemist usefull scrolling boxes in m’sidebar.

Those of you who’d like to see further scholarly discusion of Old English are like to be disapointed, the Alchemist knows a limmited-appeal topic when he sees one.