Anyone who has seen the BBC TV series “Yes Minister”, episode called “Party Games” will recognise the process going on in Hong Kong leading up to the “Election” of a new Chief executive.

In Party Games, the Prime Minister resigns and the party has to go through a selection process to find new leader and hence PM. There are two main candidates, who would tear the party apart if either won. But one was OK as Chancellor of the Exchequer (British finance minister), even though he had had some girl friends, including a shady lady from Argentina. The other was Foreign Secretary, but he had some shady financial dealings which would not be good if he was First Lord of the Treasury (Another name for Prime Minister).

This is mirrored in the present situation where one candidate has had make that walk to the cameras and microphone with his wife gripping his hand tightly to explain that the affair that has been exposed in the press is all over and her has explained to his wife, who understands and there is no problem with their marriage.

The other candidate, coming from a business background and ahead in the polls, is dogged by allegations about his finances and conflicts of interest in his previous public life.

In the TV series, Jim Hacker becomes the compromise candidate and Prime Minister after talking to the two front runners and getting them to stand down. But in present day Hong Kong, the third candidate will need something better than the “Euro Sausage”, to propel him into a winning position.

But what would be an equivalent of the Euro Sausage in Hong Kong? Well as anything Euro in the UK is about bashing Europe and if possible the French, the Hong Kong answer would be mainland people, so there are plenty of targets available and growing every day. From the distortion of home prices by mainlander buying homes in Hong Kong, to mainland women coming to Hong Kong to give birth in A&E, and the recent name calling over Local People objecting to a mainland girl eating noodles on the MTR, which is not allowed. The MTR is a clean, nice smelling place, not at all like the smell of urine on the London underground. Local people would like to keep it that way and there are regular announcements that “Eating & Drinking are not allowed in the paid area of stations or on trains”. So when news of the Hong Kong people objection to the girl eating reached Beijing, one academic rounded on Hong Kong’ers calling them “British running dogs” and supporting the mainland people’s right to make a mess anywhere they please. Thereby reinforcing the view that you can take the mainlander out of the village, but you cannot take the village out of the mainlander.

So number three may have a chance, with so many open goals to shoot at, but then he would have to work with the mainland government. Not a problem for a UK Prime Minister, who can veto European decisions, but a big problem for a Hong Kong Chief Executive.

The “Election” process here does not take anything as long as electing an American president, but is still due to drag on a little more as we wait and see who gets to replace Bow Tie looking for Snakes next February 10th.