I can't understand the need for televised debates when only the party members can vote on the next PM. It won't be a public vote like the referendum or a GE. Why inflict it on everyone else ?

So that their lies are out in the open, and they can be held to account? Not that it matters much these days. MPs seem to be able to spout whatever nonsense they like without being challenged.

The Donald and Bumbling Boris, leaders of the free world.
Beam me up Scotty!

Just looking at an atlas and I'm pretty much as far away from these two "bastions of democracy" as I could be.......thank the gods.

They do have plenty of common ground, at least in the way that they conduct themselves in the political arena.
Both with swear that "black is white" and then deny having said anything.

Boris tries to cover over his racist views by describing them as "mistakes" when he's called out.
Some of his language when describing Muslims or "Black" women has been bloody disgraceful.

What did the world do to "deserve" these two clowns

I’m starting to miss Theresa May already, red lines, hostile environment and all.

Strange how silent the Brexiteers are over the threat to democracy when 0.0005% of the population are currently deciding who will 'lead' this country for the next few years.

The Conservatives’ mandate is very weak and the new leader taking it on second hand is not going to be in a strong position. His party won’t allow a deal, Parliament won’t allow no deal, a general election would be massively unpredictable with the Brexit Party and committed Remain parties taking votes from the Conservatives and Labour, and a second referendum would likely be close enough to not solve the problem. Stalemate.

Clumsy, ugly and potentially disasterous as it will be, maybe it needs someone like Johnson to bring it to a head, and see how it falls out. Or maybe he’ll just tie himself and us in even more Gordian knots.

We really have made a right pig’s ear of this.

I'm not disagreeing with much of that. Johnson doesn't give a toss; he lies to his family, lies to the populace & will be immune to any fall out. Seeing supposedly ethical colleagues lining up behind him to be seen to be supporting the victor & secure a prominent position in the new cabinet is vomit inducing. It reaffirms to me Brexit is all about forriners not democracy.

I have yet to meet a politician who doesn't lie to the populace when it suits, What Brexit has reaffirmed to me is that we don't live in an open democracy as some will advocate, we live in a parliamentary democracy, god help us with this shower what ever party.

I have to believe there are good people on all sides; far more on the left obviously....

I agree with that & this is what the dischuffed & disenfranchised should be putting their frustrations into. Taking central power from London & giving it to the regions for all but national & international strategic decisions. Getting people to believe they can truly influence politics.

Writing about the Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair without an election, this is what Boris Johnson said;

“It’s the arrogance. It’s the contempt. That’s what gets me. It’s Gordon Brown’s apparent belief that he can just trample on the democratic will of the British people. It’s at moments like this that I think the political world has gone mad, and I am alone in detecting the gigantic fraud.”

“They voted for Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to serve as their leader. They were at no stage invited to vote on whether Gordon Brown should be PM… They voted for Tony, and yet they now get Gordon, and a transition about as democratically proper as the transition from Claudius to Nero. It is a scandal. Why are we all conniving in this stitch-up? This is nothing less than a palace coup… with North Korean servility, the Labour Party has handed power over to the brooding Scottish power-maniac.”
“The extraordinary thing is that it looks as though he will now be in 10 Downing Street for three years, and without a mandate from the British people. No one elected Gordon Brown as Prime Minister”

“Gordon Brown could appease public indignation over that, and secure the democratic mandate he needs, by asking the public to vote at once on him, on the new EU treaty, and on the implications of the devolutionary settlement. Let’s have an election without delay.”