The Guessing Game
Question: why do the presidential primaries in the US not happen immediately after the election?
Answer:
- why choose someone four years ahead of time, when you do not know what the political environment will be like then?
- why choose your next leader in the aftermath of a defeat?
- why stake all your issues for four years so much on one man?
so given this, why do the UK parties select who they are going to run in the next election immediately after they’ve just lost the previous?
Proposal: the Parliamentary Party should select a leader now, who can represent them and lead the party. Then, a year before the next election, the party membership should choose a shadow PM to run. Who can be (and may well be) the Parliamentary Leader.