Howard sets out deadline to quit, page 1

Maybe, there are a couple of things about Davis that stand against him IMO.

For a start he will be 61 in 2009, if Howard though 68 was too old I'd hardly say 61 was a spring chicken.

Then there is his backing for the recent tory campaign and it's questionable (to say the least) comments about immigration.

'Immigrants threaten British values'

www.timesonline.co.uk..." target="_blank" class="postlink" rel="nofollow"> www.timesonline.co.uk...

Along side his support for the racist John Townend.

Davis has been criticised over his support for ‘racist’ ex-Tory MP John Townend. Launching his 2001 leadership bid Davis claimed he would have refused to expel Townend if he had been leader.

Townend, then MP for Yorkshire East, caused outrage when he claimed Britain was being turned into a ‘mongrel race’, and lavishing praise for ‘rivers of blood’ right-winger Enoch Powell.

Townend said British people would have made Powell prime minister if they had known Birmingham and Leicester were now on the verge of becoming ‘ethnic majority’ cities.

The then Tory leader William Hague forced Townend to apologise amid calls for the MP to be ejected from Parliament.

But when Davis was he was asked whether he would have expelled Townend from the party, he said: "No, I wouldn’t have expelled him. That’s my view."

Davis made no attempt to distance himself from Townend’s remarks.

www.blink.org.uk...

I wouldn't be too quick to rush to Davis if I were a tory, a lot of people in the tory party have already gone well out of their way to see he does not get the leadership.
I wonder why.

Anyway, IMO there is a generation of tories who have 'missed the boat', Davis is one and Rifkind (reportedly another possible) is another as is Maude......and Fox is just to repellant for words.

They're either just too old, too long out of it all or have no public appeal whatsoever.

The trouble is that the younger up and coming type are too young and totally inexperienced and unknown.
Of these the one to watch (IMO) is Cameron in future years, although his career to date as a Hague speech writer isn't much of a reference!

(Hopefully that boy Osbourne is not another weirdo tory (from immigrant east european roots, as he is) who'll lecture us all abour 'British values'.
I must admit I pity him for the shredding Brown is going to give the gawky looking lad.

)

[edit on 11-5-2005 by sminkeypinkey]