Feud For Thought
‘IT is hard to imagine that there was a world before Tony Blair moved his beautiful family into Downing Street and embarked on his mission to heal the planet.
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| ‘My Right Honorable friend is a grinning idiot’ |
However, anthropologists remind us that there was a time when Tories roamed Britain at will, selling off everything that moved (and, in the case of the railways, things that didnt).
To remind yourself what these Tories look like, we suggest you turn to this mornings Telegraph, which pictures a few remaining examples of the species in action.
The action required of this bunch is not much more strenuous than smiling, clapping and looking glad that Michael Howard had come to see them.
However, it is nice to see that, despite eight years out of power, a young Tory still manages to maintain that insufferable smugness that is his or her birthright.
Today they have more than just the fact that they have a new leader to smile about as the Labour Party steals the Tories penchant for tearing itself apart.
The Telegraph says the feud between the Prime Minister and his Chancellor has burst into the open with Gordon Brown venting his frustration at being kept off the partys National Executive Committee in a series of breakfast TV interviews.
And, says the Guardian, things boiled over later when Brown launched a shocking and gobsmacking attack on ID cards at a cabinet committee meeting.
Anti-Brown sources claimed the fierceness of yesterdays row had little to do with ID cards, it says.
It merely reflected a wider battle being waged by the Chancellor over the political direction of the party and his eventual inheritance as leader.
All of which, one imagines, meant a frostier atmosphere than usual as the pair met up for a routine dinner that was being billed as a Granita II.
[Granita was the Islington restaurant where the two agreed that Blair should be the one to run for the leadership of the Labour party in the wake of John Smiths death.]
Is it just our imagination, but as we read this has the smile on the faces of those young Tories in the Telegraph just got that little bit more smug?’
Posted: 7th, November 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
