Like all Little Britain navel gazers, the thing that Matthew Lynn doesnât understand is that, apart from the NIP, the EU doesnât give a damn what the next PM does. The reason Barnier and Verhofstadt are celebrating is because, like any serious, honorable person, they are pleased to see a mendacious, selfish buffoon get his just deserts.
Worth looking at the view of Peter Oborne - himself a former Tory - indeed Daily Telegraph political editor:
I have sombre tidings for those who expect change: itâs most unlikely. The next Tory leader will almost certainly pursue the same policies as Johnson. On Brexit. On civil liberties. On the Human Rights Act. The same English nationalism and cheap, ugly, vicious populism. Remember that Johnson was not brought down because of his policies. These were popular among Tory members, many of whom thought he did not go far enough⌠Bear in mind there are less than 200,000 members of the Conservative Party. They tend to be elderly, white, insular - and hostile to the European Union. Many are former members of UKIP, the right-wing party formerly led by Nigel Farage. Unsurprisingly, surveys prove that large numbers of them are bigots.
Did people really think government policy would change for the better once Johnson disappeared?
Unfortunately KS wonât be standing down as Labour leader anytime soon - I had hoped that Yvette Cooper would have put her name forward to replace him as l believe he is not capable of successfully leading Labour into the next Election.
But why would they John? As Oborne points out, the fundamental nature of the Tory party - in the country, not just in parliament - has changed. Why on earth would any aspiring politician, with a modicum of integrity, insight or empathy, choose to join a party most of whose members âbelieve the noxious conspiracy theory that parts of the UK are governed by sharia lawâ?
This is my fear too.
Johnson was wrong about most things, but right when he pointed out that even in the terrible economic situation people are faced with in the UK, and a clearly incompetent and disintegrating government (he didnât say that bit, of course), Labour are only a handful of points ahead in the polls - far less that most mid-term oppositions in fact.
And as I pointed out in another thread, there was absolutely no real comfort in the Wakefield âwinâ, achieved on both the back of an exceptionally low turnout and lower share of the vote than under Corbyn.
A shiny new Tory leadership, however bad for the country in reality, could well win against Starmerâs Labour.
11 points currently
However thatâs quite wide at the moment (though I agree probably fragile) - polls have shown the two main parties to have been pretty close since about 2003 with only occasionally more than 15% between them.
Self interest.
Best of a pretty poor bunch.
Not tainted by Boris.
Unsurprising on 6-7 July - before Johnsonâs resignation but in the midst of the general chaos (Javid and Sunak resigned on the 5th). Labour will be boosted by the uncertainty over Tory leadership - but the Tories will bounce back once itâs resolved.
Possible - depends if Johnson is embroiled in any more scandal before he finally steps down.
I fully expect the Tories to turn on him completely though and attempt to pin all the negative press entirely on his shoulders as a way of detoxifying the party.
It will certainly work with some voters, let us hope it does not work with many.
In the Guardian article Ranked: how green are the Tory leadership candidates? itâs actually Gove that comes top.
Please let it be JRM just for the aneurysms it would cause.
Stamerâs problem isnât whether heâs up to the job, itâs the dearth of talent he has to form a cabinet from.
The current Shadown Cabinet is comprised of fringe loons, box tickers, no-marks and the odd has been. Rather like the actual Cabinet in some ways, to be fair.
Well JRM would be a boost to the tourist industry. Heâd turn the Country into a Sherlock Holmes theme park.
Oh, I donât know⌠thereâs always Diane Abbott for the Home brief⌠even she would be better than Pritti Awful 
Indeed, the Downing Street cat will be better at catching the ratsâŚ
I believe that Geof and nobody could accuse me of being far right. No doubt shitty imams are manipulating people, no less that shitty priests did the in years gone past.
Rees-Mordor did find some âBrexit benefitsâ (with the help of readers of the Sun newspaper).
Among them were such gems as allowing us to have more powerful (and energy-guzzling) vacuum cleaners (assuming manufacturers decide to make special UK-only models), and avoiding a 2% rise in the price of fish fingersâŚ
So the answer is, we all join the Tory Party and change it from within!