IN RECENT months one of the key charges against the EU by Brexit-backers was that this peculiar institution is ‘undemocratic’ – but consider this.
A new Prime Minister will be catapulted into Downing Street come September, not chosen by the nation-at-large but 130,000 or so Barbour jacket-wearing Tory party members.
That’s 130,000 mainly white, mainly well-off, mainly retired or nearly-retired middle aged men, who are in the main dotted around Britain’s leafy shires – oh, and they utterly despise the EU to its core. Do they really want Theresa May as PM?
* MIND you not everyone stands to be utterly bowled over by the Home Secretary, according to Worcester MP Robin Walker.
He said: “When I first met Andrea Leadsom in 2010, my wife was with me and said afterwards ‘she’s future Prime Minister material’.”
* TOP Worcestershire Tory Lucy Hodgson shrugged off the Brexit uncertainty by enjoying a short vacation in Germany last weekend – marred by an ironic twist.
On the way back from Cologne their Eurostar inexplicably broke down, leaving the passionate Remain supporter quite literally stranded in Brussels.
* LAST week we told you how 57 former Labour parliamentary candidates had signed a letter calling on Jeremy Corbyn to quit, including Joy Squires.
Conspicuous by his absence on the list was businessman Dan Walton, widely tipped as a rising star in Labour circles after standing in West Worcestershire last year – but it wasn’t by choice.
“I didn’t see the letter, if I’d have seen it I’d have signed it.” he tells us.
* THE very morning of the EU referendum result the Conservative group at County Hall held one of its regular Friday meetings, chaired by leader Simon Geraghty running on around three hours sleep.
Not to be confused with a funeral procession, he tells us how the mood was during those confused first few hours.“Bewildered”.
* THE weird mood around County Hall post-Brexit has been captured perfectly by Labour Councillor Graham Vickery, the party’s Worcestershire health spokesman.
He says: “I’ve woken up every day this past week feeling depressed.”
* ONE county politician after the next has been lining up to slate the seven-year wait for the Iraq Inquiry to finish, but Labour’s Richard Udall has his own colourful take on the blasted 12-volume dossier’s long arrival.
“I hear the government is going to get Chilcot to negotiate with the EU,” he says.
“That way we should delay Brexit by about 20 years.”
* How politics works: on Wednesday, UKIP deputy treasurer Peter Jewell says Nigel Farage should stand for parliament.
Within hours, his phone goes bananas from people asking him if he’s standing for leader.
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