Comments | Eastern NC Now

A former British colleague I had worked with in Europe who had held roles in the UK Conservative Party much of his life told me before the election that he expected this result. Rishi Sunak had lost the confidence of the party base and they had Reform nipping at their heels from the right. I see in the British newspapers that at the latest count, Reform had picked up a fifth seat.

This election was more a referendum on Rishi Sunak than anything else, and he was not very well liked even within his own party. I see Boris Johnson now has a plan to revive the Conservative Party, but its way forward is still uncertain until new leadership is selected.

This election has many similarities to John Major's race after he ousted Margaret Thatcher in a palace coup in the middle of her term, and then went down to resounding defeat in the next election. Rishi Sunak stabbed Boris Johnson in the back to take his job, and had the same result at the next general election. Both Major and Sunak were Tory "wets" (less conservative and more opportunistic) but their main reason to oust the sitting prime minister in both cases was personal ambition. Thatcher and Johnson were both small"c" Conservatives who had led their party to major victories, only to see themselves ousted, replaced by weak leaders, and the party go down to defeat the next election.

In Sunak's case, he particularly alienated the party base by the way he went about his power play. After stabbing Boris Johnson in the back and causing his ouster, the party had a two step process to choose a new prime minister. First parliament reduced the choices to two in a series of votes and then all party members cast a ballot between those two. Sunak was the top choice of the parliament caucus, but lost by a wide margin to Liz Truss among party members. Sunak then set about undermining Truss and bringing her down. Truss was another snall "c" Conservative. Sunak then managed to change the procedure to elimintate the party members voting on the replacement, so he won with only the parliament caucus. That created a lot of bitterness among party activists which has lingered since and made Reform more attractive.

Boris Johnson may be the Conservative Party's only hope of getting back on its feet. Johnson has also had an ability to work things out with Farage in the past. If the new leadership is another "wet" then look for the party to be replaced by the Reform Party.

Commented: Friday, July 5th, 2024 @ 4:03 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, and little 12-year old Jocelyn Nungaray are NOT "links", they are victims of illegal alien criminals, raped and murdered by illegal aliens from Venezuela and El Salvador, who should never have been in the country in the first place. And there are a lot more other Amricans you have been victims of rapes, murders, or other crimes by illegal aliens. It takes a really sick individual to dismiss what is being done to our country and our citizens through Biden's open borders.

Commented: Friday, July 5th, 2024 @ 1:24 pm By: borderhawk

Who cares, Eastern Elementary called, they want the diploma back!

Commented: Friday, July 5th, 2024 @ 10:21 am By: Big Bob

Conservatives got crushed.

Commented: Friday, July 5th, 2024 @ 10:18 am By: Big Bob

These people swore an oath to uphold the laws. They should be prosecuted on that fact as a start.

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 6:37 pm By: David Gallinger

Yada,yada,yada-you’re a dope

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 6:29 pm By: Big Bob

Democrats and progressives trying to register and vote illegal aliens has been a major problem in the past, and they will be up to their old tricks this election year as well. This problem goes back a long time. When the Democrats narrowly defeated Congressman "B-1 Bob" Dornan in California in 1996, it was clearly established that more illegal aliens voted in that election than the Democrat's margin of victory, but the Democrat House majority qucikly swore in his opponent before he could get the issue in court. A poll of illegal aliens in California a decade late showed an alarming number telling pollsters they were registered to vote.

Then there was the Texas election for US Senate six years ago. The state Democrat Party got caught sending out a mass mailing in Spanish to unregistered Latinos with a voter registration card that had the block for "US citizen" already pre-checked "yes". Later an email, verified and admitted as coming from the campaign email of Democrat US Senate candidate "Beto" O'Rourke asked for volunteeers to drive "undocumented immigrants" to the polls on election day.

What is needed to deter this activity is very severe criminal penalties for illegal aliens registering to vote and even more severe for actually voting. Those who run registration campaigns to register illegal aliens should also receive very servere prison sentences.

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 9:14 pm By: borderhawk

The only cult member on this board, LIttle Bobbie, is YOU, as you are a member of the Climate Scientology pagan quasi-religious cult. Also, we do not have any "far right" people in the GOP but the Democrats sure have a lot of the far left "progressives" in their party. The term "progressive" was used by the Soviet communists to describe a combination of communist party members and their "fellow travellers" (those who beleived in communist ideology but were not formal members of the party). It is telling that the modern American far left would adopt that term for themselves.

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 9:55 am By: Conservative Voter

Sounds like more links

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 9:18 am By: Big Bob

You are like a broken record, Bolshevik Bob, to keep repeating your bullcrap far left talking point, claiming your opponents "will turn on everyone" or some variation. You are just practicing the Josef Goebbels playbook that if you tell a lie often enough, you think it will become the truth.

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 8:07 am By: Rino Hunter

Your post, Bob, is merely deflection and shows you either do not keep up with the news or your blinders are on so tightly that you do not see what is going on. The issue is not about all people from Third World countries. It is about the illegal aliens, those who distain not only our immigration laws but also our criminal laws. They do that everywhere they go. In Germany,for example, illegal aliens make up 14% of the population but commit 60% of the violent crimes and comprise 62% of welfare use.

Commented: Thursday, July 4th, 2024 @ 7:21 am By: borderhawk

So, no real answer to my post

Commented: Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024 @ 6:19 pm By: Big Bob