According to the new rules of party leader selection, when a new leader is chosen by ballot among the members of Parliament, he/she must be formally accepted by the party rank-and-file. This could be the glitch in the process. Mr. Howard's reputation among his colleagues is quite different from his reputation with voters. His constituency is sixth on the Liberal Democrats' list of vulnerable seats to target. Mr. Howard has changed constituencies several times during his Parliamentary career, and he is a favored target for insults within and beyond the Conservative Party. Asking the rank-and-file to accept someone with such a reputation for controversy will be a very intricate undertaking.
The only alternative is another round of the Hague/Smith brand of party leadership. The role of the opposition is to oppose, and Mr. Howard is definitely very capable of doing that. Whoever wins the leadership contest must be capable of that and of managing the reverse of the divide and conquer strategy. The new leader must conquer the Conservative Party and divide it from the New Labour idealism.
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