Bill's Comment Page

Who will succeed as Leader of the Conservative Party?

There are strong indications that Michael Howard may be the sole person to put his name forward for the post - although he has not so far formally announced this. There have been 'trails' all morning on the media that an announcement will be made by (or for) him at around 3.30 this afternoon.

However, several of the other potential candidates have already ruled themselves out - David Davis, Tim Yeo and Michael Ancram and perhaps one or two others I've overlooked. Assuming Michael Howard is the sole candidate, he will likely be 'crowned' as the new Leader fairly quickly - by about mid-November or thereabouts, from what I hear.

Despite Michael Howard's reputation as a politician of the 'hard right', I have always had a sneaking liking for him. He is of a high calibre, in my view, both intellectually and managerially, something that I don't think could be said for his immediate predeccessor as Leader, or the last but two Leaders.

Whilst I, perhaps bizarrely, think positively about him, it is a fact that his voting record in the House of Commons has, over many years, been antipathetic to the cause of homosexual equality. For example, his opposition to the equalisation of the 'age of consent, expressed in the vote taken on 21st February 1994:

Michael Howard's blatant homophobia "homosexuals are still set apart from society and young men must be protected from an unhappy lifestyle"

He has voted against most of his Conservative parliamentary colleagues on only a few occasions; there is a very good website I discovered recently courtesy of Slugger O'Toole, which allows the voting record of any MP since 1997 to be easily looked into - the Public Whip is an invaluable resource.

If he becomes Leader I will wait until I see whom he appoints to his Shadow Cabinet and listen attentively to any relevant comments he makes in the first few months of his leadership before making any decision about re-joining the Party. I have not become affiliated with any other Party since I left the Conservative Party in September 2000.

Addendum: I notice that there have been some web searches alighting on my website, concerning the fact that Michael Howard is Jewish; I can't recall having written about him in this context before (but perhaps I have mentioned it in passing), but for the record I consider this matter entirely irrelevant in whether I might decide to re-join the Conservative Party in due course - it is quite simply of no importance to me in making my decision either way. Further, I disassociate myself completely from the "something of the night" remark made about Michael Howard by so-called colleague Anne Widdecombe some years ago and reiterated this morning on BBC News24.