Reid ‘wants some Etonian blood on his hands’. But so does Brown

The most famous political quotations come not from politicians but the wickedness of headline writers. Although Jim Callaghan never said ‘Crisis? What crisis?’, the phrase stuck because it seemed to sum up perfectly his psychological denial during the Winter of Discontent. It was a newspaper, not Thomas Jefferson (or even Thomas Paine), which declared ‘that government is best which governs least’. So it scarcely matters that David Cameron never actually said ‘hug a hoodie’ — the words seemed a credible summation of his approach to crime. It is enough, anyway, for Labour to declare war.

When the Tory leader resurrected the theme last week with a new saying — ‘we have to show more love’ — he provided John Reid with the mission he had been waiting for. For some time the Home Secretary has been looking for an excuse to engage in some hand-to-hand combat with Mr Cameron. He still has his eye on the party leadership, and his chances will be significantly augmented if he can well and truly savage Mr Cameron.