Want to know the problem, Tories? You’re … weird. And even your own tribe thinks so | Zoe Williams

The Conservative leadership race reveals a party still banging the same old drums. Natural Tory voters are looking on askance

Two months on from the Tories' worst election result in its history, none of its prospective leadership candidates inspire confidence in a fast bounce-back. Research by More in Common found that 70% of the public either didn't know who could win the next election for the Tories, or thought none of them could. James Cleverly, third place in Wednesday's vote among MPs, did best: 8% of respondents believed he could turn things round. Results are starkest for Mel Stride (still in the contest by the skin of his teeth): 1% of general voters and 1% of 2024 Conservative voters polled think he stands a chance. Priti Patel is now out of the race, but Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick all hover around 5% of general voters, perhaps reflecting the fact they've done little to distinguish themselves from one another - instead chasing the same fervid, anti-immigrant dreamscape. But surely the worst finding is that voters are starting to find the party weird".

It's a word that's been deployed to devastating effect in the US, where Tim Walz detonates it folksily against Donald Trump and the entire Republican party. That stuff is weird. They come across weird," he said. It is a line he has repeated in slightly different iterations across the pre-campaign trail. Walz could be talking about anything: Trump's rambling speeches, or his hair, or the spectacle of a billionaire blatantly fighting for the interests of capital with grand, pugnacious rhetoric about the working man. It's all weird. A poster doing the rounds on social media reads: We're not perfect, but they're nuts! Vote Democrat". It's close, but it's no bullseye: often the Republican stance is perfectly sane, in the sense that self-interest is sane and seeking victory is sane. But it's still, objectively, weird.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist

This article was corrected on Thursday 5 September 2024 to say that James Cleverly came third in Wednesday's leadership vote. Previously, the article said he had come second.