Blogger Nick Barlow recalls a 2001 suggestion from then-Daily Telegraph editor Charels Moore, the last time during a previous search for a Tory leader — that they entice David Trimble to take on the job.
Are you thinking what we’re thinking?Barlow recalls the thinking at the time went something like this: “Sure, he’d have had to to leave his Ulster seat, and some pliant Tory MP in a safe seat would have had to take the Chiltern Hundreds to give him a seat on the other side of the Irish Sea but it was no more unworkable than other political schemes.”
Now, Barlow points out, the Nobel laureate Trimble has a bit more time on his hands.
Couldn’t find the Telegraph piece that proposed it, but plenty of reaction. The Guardian in 2001 called the inclusion of Trimble’s name among Tory leader candidates “bizarre”.
Ed Moloney in the Tribune picked up on it as well, as recorded by the invaluable Nuzhound.
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