Norman Lamont, meanwhile, rates as the worst Tory holder of the post, with 38pc compared to 23pc for Anthony Barber. It is unclear how many people voted for
Iain also asked his readers who should be Chancellor in the "next Conservative Government." Without necessarily conceding that this is anything more than a purely hypothetical question, I voted for Vincent Cable, as he is head and shoulders over anyone else David Cameron could choose.
5 comments:
A good bit of thinking out of the box there Paul.
I take it you believe like myself there is a good chance of a hung Parliament at the next election?
Personally, I feel Labour may get a majority over the Conservatives but not enough to stop the Conservatives and LibDems forming the next government.
Perspective plus personal bias on behalf of Iain's readers methinks!
Bill
I'm on record as saying I think there will be a hung Parliament although of course there is plenty of time for that to change.
If there is one - and at the moment I think it's the likeliest outcome - I think on balance the Lib Dems will probably end up going with the largest party.
If the Tories have the most seats, this will be a no-brainer. There is no way that the Lib Dems could credibly team up with a defeated government to keep it in power. In those circumstances, I think a full-blown coalition government which saw Cameron as PM, Cable as Chancellor, Hague as Foreign Secretary and Clegg as Home Secretary would be a good outcome.
Osborne is not ready to be trusted with the nation's finances yet.
The situation is less clear-cut if Labour is the largest party, but I think the pressure on Clegg to do a deal and so avoid putting the voters through another general election would be a pretty strong one.
I'm afraid I always blamed Harold Wilson for the '67 devaluation (the reason I'm a Liberal Democrat now). "Sunny Jim" Callaghan was clueless, but he was only doing his master's bidding.
I think Lamont takes a lot of beating on the competence issue. Lawson left him in a hole, but Lamont continued to dig.
Anybody with responsibility for the ERM exit who admits the singing in the bath that night
is clearly not "at the races".
P.S. Occasionlly lamont has appeared as a director of companies I held shares in: always taken it as a "sell" signal, it has mostly proved to be a good call.
Vince Cable is clearly the man of the moment...but surely there's no way Cameron could put a LibDem in charge of the Treasury. It's just too powerful. After all the Blair/Brown trouble won't Cameron want an ally at the Treasury. Even one as unconvincing as George Osbourne would do.
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