Inb4 someone in the press who does even less research/work than Kemi Badenoch mentions Sir Graham Brady in the write up of her inevitable leadership contest in May '26

She ran against Heseltine in the first ballot and then withdrew from the second after it was clear she risked defeat, and Major and Hurd entered at the second ballot. 20th century Tory leadership rules were zany lol

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_Co...

Though I think Thatchers position was different than May and Johnson because she actually attempted to run, whilst PM, against Heseltine, Major and Hurd. May and Johnson faced yes/no confidence votes

My brain apparently memory-holed the downfall of the May government lol

Thatcher must be the only party leader in recent memory to even attempt to survive a public leadership contest whilst being tht sitting PM right?

Flat out stupidity cannot be excluded when the leadership keeps making moves that imply it's trying to win over the electorate of the German CDU/CSU and not the electoral coalition of the Labour party

This. This is the memory that sticks in mind. The absolute horror of witnessing Jeremy Vine on election night TV with pie charts "redistributing" votes from mainstream parties such that Nick Griffin wound up as an MEP

I want the ability to give my preferences and absolutely throw under the bus the most ignominious people running by saying "actually you are so beneath contempt you don't even get a redistributed vote from me after 5 other parties got a shot"

It is theoretically irrational but I found it offensive the way that D'hont PR for UK EU elections notionally "redistributed" votes without you having the ability to say, as with STV, "no, actually hell would freeze over before you redistribute an iota of my vote to the far right"

Yeah it does feel like it's being "codified" and fixed in aspic in a way that takes some of the 80's zanyness out of it

Warhammer 40K is such a great example of this. It is wildly contradictory (and still is) because the notion of 'this has to be coherent and make sense' just doesn't apply. Contradictory 'lore' and retconning are fine, actually

"Chief executives are like generals: always fighting the last war"

I blame Marvel. "Audiences need to do homework and everything is a cinematic universe with lore" is a symptom of MCU brain throughout much of (though not all of) the industry

....are....are they *trying* to self-immolate and end up coming third/fourth in May '26

As an aside, exhibit A of "absent minded imperialism" is the fact that basically no Brits are aware that parliament had to pass acts in *the late 1980s* in order to fully effect Australian & Canadian sovereignty because *it was legally unclear whether Canada & Australia could do this themselves*

"Area man argues with autocorrect"

Come to think of it this (with a different angle on it) probably also explains Russia's complete inability (even pre Putin consolidating autocracy) to reckon with Soviet crimes because "but the USSR helped crush the third Reich"

The Empire being on the victorious allied side in both world wars has also immensely dulled the instinct to see the empire for what it was. It's easy to be absent minded about the crimes of empire when your country's modern pseudo-founding myth is "the defeat of the third Reich"