I AM not a Tory. I have never voted Conservative in my life and I never will. So why was I so devastated to learn that an Eton-educated, opium-smoking posh boy won’t actually become Prime Minister?

Rory Stewart looked and sounded like a life form from another planet in Tuesday’s BBC debate. He was the only man among the wannabe nation-savers to really challenge the other (sadly all) men on their false promises of milk-and-honey-Brexits and their un-costed plans to cut taxes for rich friends.

In his earnestness to connect with the public, a trait in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s persistent efforts to avoid us, Stewart repeatedly kept turning away from his fellow contenders towards the audience (or rather, toward the space where an audience would have been if these great men of state were brave enough to actually have one).

Several times, his body language betrayed a genuine frustration with his colleagues’ attempts to over-simplify the Brexit issue and promise they could re-negotiate the deal that the EU has repeatedly said is firmly closed. He was the only candidate to ever pick up a pen and paper during the debate. Then his tie disappeared. Odd.

Even more striking, though, was the stark difference in the content and tone of Rory’s contribution.

Here was a man whose natural disposition is to really listen to people and try to understand them, to respond courteously to questions after letting others finish. Being heard over this particular set of particularly shouty Tories was always going to be a challenge for him. While he did get his elbows out a bit, in the end, it was his message that just didn’t get out loudly enough.

It is a great shame, because that message, his idea to convene a Citizens’ Assembly to find a way forward, is the only intelligent suggestion any politician has put on the table. The recent EU election result shows that the country is as divided as it was in 2016. A second referendum would take us nowhere. The only thing parliament can agree is to agree nothing. If there were a time for a creative, intelligent solution, this is it.

Sadly, our political system doesn’t reward creative, intelligent solutions. Nor does it reward those increasingly rare politicians who really are governed by their principles first before personal ambition or party loyalty.

As a Scot who voted Remain (and Yes), I genuinely believe that Mr Stewart was the man who offered our country the brightest prospects against an otherwise bleak horizon. I have every confidence that he would have worked tirelessly to deliver the least-damaging Brexit possible. And, were the time to come when Prime Minister Stewart were asked to legislate for a referendum on Scottish independence, his obvious commitment to democracy and to doing the right thing would ensure this were granted.

By the end of Tuesday’s debate, Stewart looked like the outsider he had just become. Perched on the end of his stool, on the edge of the row, he resembled the clever, quirky friend who gets bustled into the corner seat of the pub booth when your A-list chatty friends finally arrive. These are the ones who will give you great entertainment but, when it’s time to split the bill, you turn back to the man in the corner for the sensible answer.

It was inevitable that he would be punished for calling out his colleagues on their falsities – the very “blue-on-blue” Johnson feared – and, sure enough, the next day, 10 fellow MPs abandoned him. The Tory self-preservation machinery had been kicked (or at least WhatsApped) into life, and Rory Stewart was out of the race.

I don’t want a Tory to be our next prime minister. I never did. And Rory Stewart definitely is in the Tory Party, as his fellow MP and supporter Antoinette Sandbach told Channel 4 News’s Cathy Newman, albeit a tad too emphatically. I suppose I was drawn in by the refreshing honesty and civility of a man who, I firmly believe, wanted to do the right thing and wasn’t afraid of getting into complex arguments with ordinary people.

Too often our politics are characterised by nastiness and hate. Publicity stunts and gimmicks are prized over well-researched policies and detailed dialogue. In the past two weeks, Rory Stewart has given us a welcome taste of an alternative. I am still not a Tory.
Graeme Wallace
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