The nearly leaders.  Jeremy Hunt.  Andy Burnham.  Yvette Cooper.  David Miliband.  Now it seems likely that Rishi Sunak will join their number.

What else do they have in common?  Each would have been a more centrist leader; each would have been a less divisive leader; each would have been a better leader than the one who ultimately beat them.

In most cases, they were the preferred choice of their democratically elected parliamentary colleagues.  So, why did they fail?

Because, ultimately, they were not the choice of the voting members of their respective political parties; a minority who make up roughly 0.4% of the adult voting population in the case of the Conservatives and 1% in the case of Labour.

And, by their very nature, these small groups are likely to contain the more extreme elements of each party, rather than comprise people with the more liberal views held by the wider electorate.

This cartel of votes does not serve our democracy well, resulting in the most important role in the country being chosen by an anonymous and unelected group.

Prime Minister Hunt or Primer Minister Burnham or Prime Minister Cooper or Prime Minister Miliband or Prime Minister Sunak.  I rue the opportunities our country has missed, and will continue to miss, had it only been governed by better, democratically-elected leaders.

© Beery Sue

Beery Sue drowns her political sorrows.