The papers are unanimous: Andrew Mitchell is a dead man walking, and like most pantomime ghouls he’s become a laughing stock. Fraser’s Telegraph column tells of MPs and cabinet colleagues ridiculing the chief whip. The joke deepens because Mitchell, perhaps due to his insistence that he did not use the word ‘pleb’, apparently does not recognise the gravity of those offences to which he has confessed. He is the still the merry cyclist, by all accounts.
As Fraser points out, the joke becomes more serious at this stage because it shrouds the Tories’ attempt to tackle inequality with welfare and education reform. In that sense, Mitchell is an impediment to David Cameron’s desire to ‘spread’ privilege and banish the popular charge that the Conservatives exist solely to protect entitlement. Therefore, it is little surprise to see the Telegraph joining the Sun in calling for Mitchell’s resignation, adding that he is a ‘walking, talking embodiment of everything with which David Cameron would least like his party to be associated.’
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