Au Revoir, IDS
‘IT surely will not have escaped your notice that yesterday The Quiet Man slipped coughing and spluttering out of front-line politics.
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| IDS brought great humour to the serious business of politics |
Iain Duncan Smith made his final appearance at Prime Ministers Questions as leader of the Tory party unless, of course, his colleagues decide to stab his successor Michael Howard in the back and bring IDS back from the wilderness.
And judging by his performance at the despatch box yesterday, they might already be plotting to do just that.
Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it, says Simon Hoggart in his Guardian sketch, observing that IDS appeared happy, relaxed, articulate, funny, self-deprecating and generally in command of things.
Perhaps it is our lasting British love for losers, says Hoggart. We only like politicians once they have no power over us.
By that reckoning, IDS should have been more popular than an ice cream salesman in the Sahara seeing as there was never any prospect of his having any power over us.
By contrast, Tony Blair (who, the Guardian reminds us, has seen off three leaders of the Opposition, which is more than even Maggie Thatcher managed) looked like a father who has had to say no 19 times to a request for immediate ice cream.
But The Quiet Man is gone, the political worlds loss is the literary worlds gain as tonight IDS launches his novel in Bond Street.
Its title? A Frog In My Throat, perhaps…’
Posted: 6th, November 2003 | In: Broadsheets Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
