On that occasion the Appointments Committee put forward the names of the
Archbishop of York, the favorite of the church leaders but one who had
ruffled Mrs. Thatcher's feathers on other issues.
To try to encourage his selection, the second candidate was generally
regarded as unqualified. An old line evangelical, who thought the
Bible contained the answer to every question and who was known to speak
in tongues.
The Church leaders thought this candidate, George Carey, was too
bizarre a choice even for Margaret Thatcher. However, the Prime Minister's
anger was such that she decided to teach the Church of England a lesson.
George Carey became the designated Archbishop of Canterbury.
This reminds of a papal election, where all the cardinals voted for one of the least likely candidates in order to see how the other's were voting. The candidate then won unanimously on the first vote
It's often mentioned when extremist parties start to rise. People may vote in anger thinking there will never be enough people for this vote to matter.
That's usually a slightly risky move, but it upgrades to very risky indeed when the choices are presented to an antagonist who may well decide to be wilfully malicious and call you on your bluff.
If you click through to the original source, the Church had deeply angered Thatcher by criticising her policies extensively and finally praying for the argentinian dead during the ceremony celebrating the end of the Falklands war. After the ceremony,
> Prime Minister Thatcher was livid and quite vocal at the door of the Cathedral that day and vowed that she would never let a representative of the church embarrass her again.
I'm not surprised she decided to fuck with them and pick the crazy guy, she wasn't call the Iron Lady because she liked building steel plants (quite the opposite really).
