Indiscipline should worry the Tories as much as complacency

There has been a lot of talk about how the Tories must avoid becoming complacent. Indeed, one-half expects to find that champagne is only available under the counter in Birmingham. But just as great a danger is posed by indiscipline. Take today’s papers. Dominic Grieve, the shadow Home Secretary, has stepped on the Tory economic message by giving an interview to The Guardian in which he criticises multiculturalism and bemoans that “We’ve actually done something terrible to ourselves in Britain”. The issue here is not what Grieve said but when he said it.

His predecessor, David Davis, has talked to the Telegraph about his new role on the backbenches. He hasn’t been disloyal but has said just enough for his comments to be presented as a Tories split story. The Telegraph.co.uk headline on the story is ‘David Davis: Conservatives do not have the right policy for financial crisis’

As Jonathan Freedland notes in The Guardian, “the press corps is making one of its periodic collective, if unspoken, decisions to change the narrative”.