Will Rishi Sunak Do Anything to Improve the Life of British Ex Pats in Spain? - Page 79

I’m extremely surprised any Irish would be Conservative through and through. 

The two traditional parties in Ireland are Fianna Fail and Fianna Gael and they are both centre right parties, Labour are only at 3 or 4% and Sinn Fein are now the largest party but the other two join together to keep them out of office even though they have deep historical divide going back to the Irish civil war

No, Tory leaders aren’t chosen by MP’s only - they are chosen by ballot by party members, which is why a handful of Tory party members chose the Prime Minister.  It is how Liz Truss got in, despite not being the MP’s choice - she was selected by the party members.

‘In the first, successive ballots of Conservative MPs narrow the list of candidates – who must be sitting Conservative MPs - down to two. The winner is then chosen in a ballot of the membership. If only one candidate is nominated by conservative MPs, they may be chosen without a members' ballot’. - Institute for Gov.

I refer you to the last sentence.

A bit disingenuous - you implied that Tory leaders are chosen by MP’s only in your initial post - I was merely correcting that … oversight.

I’m well aware that no members ballot is necessary if only one candidate makes the final cut. But to my recollection, BoZo, Truss and indeed Sunak have all gone to member ballot

Help the aged here please . How does the uk , mainly 2 party Parliament compare to the mainly 2 party Spanish government on the corrupt and sleaze front . I only read about bits and pieces with articles in the Spain in English . Just wondered how you feel towards your right wing PP party going into deals with the far right Vox party with your left leanings ?            I’m not having a knock here Dario . This , when you think about it is a Spanish region forum . With I think mainly ex pats , holiday home owners and various other nationalities contributing. But never really discussing any other government except the uk one . When you look at some other national leaders , Trump , Berlusconi , Putin and Kim Jong Un.   Blair ,May , Truss and Johnson are just pussy cats . 

Pedro Sanchez has seen the way the wind is blowing Devo following local elections and has called snap elections for July, which doesn’t allow PP / Vox much time to get organised.

It will be interesting as much is being made of how PP will have to do deals with Vox if it wished to form government and the one thing you can say about Spain is they do not like the thought of a Falangist party ever regaining power.

There are of course those ultra-right wing who would like to see a return to the days of Franco but they are few and far between.

Vera is a very right wing town with 3700 of the 6600 votes cast going to PP and them getting a majority in council and even Vox getting one seat - but only one.

Now … elections in July is a clever political move as I said, as it doesn’t give them much time to organize and is now right in the traditional “vacaciones” season, so we wait to see how many Spaniards will cut their holidays short, or even take a break to return to their home districts to vote in the GE.  Can PSOE hang in there? I have no idea.  Spain, like UK, tends to swing from one party to the other … but a distaste for Vox along with low voter turnout may help prevent a PP / Vox coalition

If anybody is wondering what’s so bad about Vox, well … Spain for the Spanish only, ALL foreigners to be given one month to leave; abortion to be made illegal; marriage equality to be scrapped; domestic violence laws wound back so that a man striking a woman is not an offence as “women should do what they are told”; a wall to be built between the Spanish territories of Cueta and Melilla and the rest of Morocco (wonder where they got that idea from …) etcétera.

As can be seen, Vox are ultra-nationalists and this election I’d like nothing more than to see them utterly wiped out.

Nice post Devo. You're on your way to becoming the Voice-of-Reason on this forum. We too, have crooked politicians in Rep of Ireland. The main difference between Irish and British politicians is that a sex scandal in Ireland would have no effect and certainly no resignation. The opposite is the case in the UK. We have had a Taoiseach (Prime Minister) who has had more rides than Lester Piggott and another Taoiseach who is openly gay. Their private lives do not matter to the Irish electorate and neither should they. Most Irish politicians are open to the occasional "stroke pull" too. 

Perhaps somebody can start a thread on the forthcoming Spanish general election next month. Like Devo, I am ignorant of Spanish politics, but I know they are colourful and many Spanish politicians are more open to pulling a stroke. 

Thanks to Dario for a "summary" of Spanish politics. As a holiday home owner in Spain, I feel the expat would have some influence/protection by the election of a non Spaniard English speaking person asap.

Thanks for responding Dario . It is nice to know a smidgeon of Spanish politics. I imagine the moderates from both sides are not too far apart it always the will be the extreme representatives that get the publicity. What makes Vera a right wing ( with one Vox ) council. ?  It still amazes me how ordinary people can be swayed to vote or to follow some obviously charismatic crank . Trump , Boris .etc . In Hitlers case causing so many atrocities . Once again thanks for replying without jumping down my throat . Mathew , Ireland is a special case . They have Guinness and wonderful horses so who cares about politics and naughty priests .

Could you explain what 'right wing' is please?

I've found it a label to easily used by the left, to attach those who disagree with their woke ideology, to the likes of Hitler. Even those who voted for Brexit are considered right wing by the mainstream media and those who voted to remain.

I would be interested to know your definition of 'right wing', which I consider a very divisive terminology when trying to win an ideological debate.