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Who wants to be a Tory Leader?

On tonight’s TV show ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire?’ a contestant was asked “Who in 2002 became known as ‘The Quiet Man’ of British Politics?”
The contestant – an attractive if not terribly bright brunette – was offered four choices:

  1. John Prescott
  2. Kenneth Baker
  3. Edward Heath
  4. Ian Duncan Smith

She had no idea. She used her 50/50 lifeline which left her with Baker and Duncan Smith. She slightly guessed the latter but felt she needed to call her father. He promptly said: “IDS”.

Last year a programme on the same game show asked a father and son who the leader of the Conservative Party was. The programme was recorded the day after Ian Duncan Smith made his first speech as leader of the Conservative Party at the Party Conference. The son said “I haven’t a clue”, the father thought it might be Kenneth Clarke. They asked the audience. A minority knew the answer. Finally they called a friend and got the correct response, although on that occasion the friend wasn’t so sure.

One of these blokes is the leader of the Conservative Party… apparently.

7 comments to Who wants to be a Tory Leader?

  • And as part of the very same phenomenon, you twice misspelled the man’s name!

  • Antoine Clarke

    Which one?

  • ernest young

    I used to think that ‘prat’ Major was as low as a Tory politician could go, even lower than Hesseltine or Clarke, but this lot really do take the biscuit!.

    Hey!, who cares?, they only espouse an inferior form of statist socialism, and are, and always have been, part of the British problem – i.e. socialism in any form. Bring back the Whigs…..

  • ernest young

    I used to think that ‘prat’ Major was as low as a Tory politician could go, even lower than Hesseltine or Clarke, but this lot really do take the biscuit!.

    Hey!, who cares?, they only espouse an inferior form of statist socialism, and are, and always have been, part of the British problem – i.e. socialism in any form. Bring back the Whigs…..

  • IDS = Iain Duncan Smith, not Ian Duncan Smith.

  • How frightening is it that I knew who Iain Duncan Smith was, even though I’m an American?

    I must have “political geek” tattooed on my forehead.

  • Why is Iain Duncan Smith?