The British Right Doesn’t Want to Hear Doubts

This is a long, hot summer in Britain, and 150,000 people are choosing our next prime minister.

One candidate is charmlessly patrician, full to bursting with clever, informed answers. The other talks about “challenging the orthodoxy”—a fancier version of “draining the swamp”—and is accused of denying reality. Care to make a bet on who will win?

Last week, the race to succeed narrowed to two candidates, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss. They will spend the summer appealing to the only people with a vote—Conservative Party members, who will register their choice by mail or online—before the result is announced on September 5. How many of these powerful electors are there? The most common estimate is 150,000, equivalent to 0.2 percent of the British population, but no one outside the party knows for sure, because the Tories won’t give out hard numbers on the size of their membership. The next prime minister could be decided by the votes of 1 million people. Or by three dogs in