I'm genuinely surprised any of them are going for the job now. I know Ego is a powerful drug, but wanting to be PM at the minute is like seeing a bubbling chalice with a post it note on saying 'Don't drink me, I'm fucking poison' sat underneath a flickering neon light proclaiming a 'free poisoned drink available here' while a Mariachi band does Poison covers next to it and thinking "You know what, I'm thirsty".
No matter how smart, cunning, popular, charismatic and brave they think they are, the playboard is set up for colossal failure. Let's start with the obvious shit show of Brexit. This national wrist slit of a decision will dominate the political landscape for the next few years and with a General Election taking place in 2022 there is no chance of escaping its shadow in the run up to it. A Tory PM will have to navifate the mutant shark-with fricking lasers on their head-infested waters of trying to deliver the Brexit their looney base demands while forewarned with the knowledge that to do so might tank the economy so much that winning in 2022 anyway will be almost impossible anyway (Corbyn notwithstanding). The EU won't negotiate a new deal without a significant change in the landscape (and they don't see an internal Tory power shift as that) and the current deal is deader than A line flares with pockets in the knees. So they can either decide to serenely float to a no deal Brexit in which case the entire blame for the aftermath (Financial, social, Scottish/Irish "issues") will be on them which is never a position a good politician wants to be in or go for a second referendum which will tank their base for the GE in 2022 and give Frottage a huge 'look at me I'm relevant again' boner to thrust in the nation's already battered arsehole. They can't even turn to Parliament for help because the numbers still aren't there for a majority either way unless they risk going for a snap election to change the numbers board and risk being the shortest reigning PM in modern history.
Even away from the cluster-fuck of the obvious Brexit issues it's other shock waves will prevent the winner of this contest from being a passable PM let alone a good one. With Brexit dominating Parliament there's hardly been any time to go forward with other legislation and I can't see that changing until at the very least the Halloween deadline because of the urgency of it and also the summer recess taking up a huge chunk of that time. Even after the deadline, pending what happens, Brexit is going to dominate Parliamentary time. The country has so many things it needs to work on in terms of the NHS, well paying jobs, infrastructure, the economy, poverty and defence as well as the general finding our standing in a ever changing modern world but we can't work on them because so much of it is dependent of our relation with the EU and all the various laws and regulations that are intertwined in it. The winner can't put their own stamp on the country because they won't have the time before the mandatory election to do it.
What sort of narcissistic egomaniac would think they can solve one of these issues let alone all of them together?
The best leader the Tories currently have is the smart one who realises that the next Tory leadership contest is the one to go for and it probably won't be too far down the line one way or another.
