Could there be a new Conservative Leader by Friday???

Xenon is not alone in wondering if there could be a new Conservative Leader by Friday. The BBC News website is also reporting this and it has been a topic of key discussion on various Conservative forums and elsewhere.

I'll repeat my comments on Xenon's blog:

Frankly the way the Davis campaign team (sic) is disintegrating one has to wonder just what would be the point of a Davis vs Cameron contest other than to finish Davis off for good.

The party is not in good shape financially. An all member ballot will be expensive for both the party and both candidates. If the result is such a foregone conclusion then why not put that money towards keeping the party on an even keel and get on with the important task of exposing the Government's failings, rather than prolonging things for another two months merely for the sake of David Davis's more fanciful dreams?

There's the other possibility that with Davis's support hemorrhaging so badly that Liam Fox might just scrape past him with the supports of about a quarter of the Parliamentary Party. So much for this system ensuring that the leader has the backing of a majority of MPs! Fox is only still in this leadership election because of the tactical support of a handful of MPs with personal grudges against Ken Clarke. That's not a decent basis for starting a leadership or a good basis for a campaign in the country, especially given the way Fox has chased after hardline votes by pretending this is the United States and he's a Bush Republican.

Let it end sooner rather than later.