Where will the deficit fall, this time?

In the first televised Tory leadership debate Kemi Badenoch noted — admirably, and yet for such a junior minister, a little patronisingly — that all decisions made by government involve trade offs, such that every gain is achieved at the cost of a deficit somewhere else.

Something similar occurs of course with the decisions made by those tasked with choosing the representatives by whom they wish to be governed. 

The context in which Badenoch brought this to our attention is illuminating, for every member of the audience — and perhaps more importantly the actual electorate of Tory MPs and then members — will have been pondering how to settle on another pair of proportions, that between the aspirations and the capabilities of each of the candidates. 

Some sound better than the others, some seem more capable. This same electorate erred rather drastically on the side of hot air last time and may be liable to compromise somewhere closer to the other end of the spectrum now.