Genuine question: has there ever been a worse leader of one of the three historic major parties in the UK. Not necessarily electorally, politically, or in terms of damaging the country, but the fundamentals of doing the job of party leader.

Really good question. The contenders to her crown are Asquith and Lloyd George, and that I think you need *both* to achieve what she has done alone tells its own story.

For me, it's the sheer irrelevance of the Tory party right now. I never thought I'd see either Labour or the Tories achieve that, especially not this quickly, but as someone on the left of Labour (or beyond its left in the current iteration) I thought I'd enjoy it more than this...

When Jenrick gives her the boot they'll be relevant again, but in a bad way. That's why Reform are polling so high, because the Tories are so crap.

The rest is history are absolutely fantastic on their insights into Asquith, especially in their current series on WW1 and how unserious he was being in the lead up to and the first half of it

surely Truss is in with a shout? Even though she perhaps got madder as a person after being booted (I'm struggling to remember how mad she came across during her month in office)

Johnson.

Corbyn ?

Jeremy Corbyn ate my hamster.

And that was just for starters

You're supposed to be irritated by my wit, not be witty in return. That's not fair. 😭

No, obviously not close, because Labour did not flirt with *extinction* while he was leader and were able to form a government after him. The first is definitely not true of Badenoch, and the second may well also be false.

Are all of the Tory Party's ills blameable on Badenoch though? She didn't come too long after Truss and Johnson, who set things on a downward slope. Much though politically I'd be politically closer to Corbyn, I think he out-craps her...

Badenoch took over a party polling 28 per cent that was flirting with first place.

Would the subsequent nosedive have happened anyway though? Unfortunately I think the only thing that will boost their ratings, at least in the short term, is some Jenrick like character, given that we live in polarised times.

In hindsight there was no extinction event, but after 2019 that wasn't so obvious - the Starmer turn around and Johnsons failings were still unknown. She is clearly flirting with extinction - but that hasn't happened (yet), and we don't know who will replace her (bench don't look too good though).

Not in hindsight - in 2019 there were 200 Labour MPs, there was not a viable alternative party. The 2025 local elections are a calamity for a major party of a kind not seen in this country since the 1920s.

Also Corbyn becoming leader was a weird factional trick shot. But Badenoch was hyped as one to watch before being being elected, was fast tracked into ministeral ranks & entered the leadership election as favourite. Her being so bad raises so many questions about her motivation & party culture

it's such a weird lie to tell as well

Indeed - absolutely no value in making the claim at all.

Oh god this so reminds me of something someone I knew at uni once similarly claimed, which because I knew it to be clearly false has never left me even though I could not even tell you her name or anything else about her. Somehow nothing worse than being exposed for this, for some reason.

I think it scarred me to the point where I actually cannot bring up genuine successes I've had in case I have accidentally imagined them!

I do want to circle back to the guy who would definitely remember if they’d offered a place to someone in Nigeria 30 years ago though. I mean it might be true but er

I guess if you only did like 4 scholarships to 16 year olds across your career, you'd probably remember them all.

Yeah fair

He also says there were never any offered to Nigerians so it’s plausible he’d expect to remember the one time a scholarship from a given country

I seem to have skipped several words there, but you get the gist