The I Paper has reported that a governmnet official has pegged PUS Armed Forces Al Carns as a possible replacement for SKS as Labour Leader and PM
He only joined Parliament in 2024, and still has a Commission in the RMR, should be intresting to see if it goes any further.
He’s not part of the “Labour establishment” so unlikely that Rayner or Streeting are going to step down in his favour
Thoughts?
As you say, he’s not an establishment guy, so as much as we’d all like it to happen, I really don’t have any expectations that he does
It’s the same way I felt about Andy Burnham, we need someone not inside the establishment for a fresh start, but he needed establisment approval to even stand in a by-election
Catch 22
This is the only outcome I can envisage where things don’t actually end up getting worse.
100% behind Al if he does go for the job. Had the fortune to meet him twice. Top bloke in every sense.
I generally don’t think Starmer is that awful of a PM, at least compared to the last few incumbents. Not to say he’s good in any sense, but I think he gets a harder time of it than his predecessors seemed to.
However, my chief criticism of him is his distinct lack of any ideology or vision for the country. I don’t think Al Carns would be able to offer a decent fix to this fundamental problem to be honest.
Other than his positions on defence, I have no idea what Al Carns believes or actually stands for. And if he’s willing to come up with unachievable campaigns as MinAF like 30 by 30, imagine what he’d do if he ever got in No10…
There are certainly far worse candidates for PM, but I do wonder if Al would be better placed as SofS for Defence, doing a good job quietly (much like Ben Wallace did previously), than actually taking the top job?
That’s a good shout, Ben wallace was (one of) my MPs and SecDef at my most Tory hating time in life, but he always came across as a small c conservative not a bic C Crazy person.
Had a good back and forth with him about AOSB and the Scots Guards due to my having a mutual friend with his son.
Solid Bloke
Some new commentary on Al Carns…
Watching “The Rest is Politics” podcast from yesterday and only a few mins in they’re discussing Al Carns as a potentially strong candidate that even Rory Stewart (former moderate Conservative) likes.
I like him and I’m a right-wing conservative. As leader, I think he could do some serious damage to Reform in the ‘red wall’ as he’s a plain talking no-nonsense socially conservative working class literal hero.
I would say Rory Stewart is mildly right wing given his outward confession of Lib Dem support (who are centre left) and the general shifting of the Overton window
Does Overton even still apply now? If it does it’d have to be panoramic
In fairness the Lib Dems have always been a fairly broad tent, from the social liberals (the extreme of which even support UBI) on the centre-left to the ‘orange-book’ classical liberals on the centre-right who were often called ‘yellow tories’. I imagine it’s the latter that Rory would probably align himself with.
I’ve often felt closest to them, because that broadness gives balance.
But I think that balance, and the nuance it requires, is why they’ve often struggled to gain a lot of traction.
I’ve heard more mainstream talk of Al Carns recently, so need to do a bit more research on him to make a judgement there.
I like Rory, but I’m not exactly going to take his word for who would be the best labour leader, atleast not yet
It still exists, just someone has knocked out the wall to the right.
one teeny problem, that wall was load bearing and the roof is collapsing in
Playing catchup ATM so only just listened to it - interesting to say the least to hear Rory call Starmer good on defence!
….and he’s resigned
He’s become very outspoken on this morning’s media duties and on IG. Massive applause for that!
