Is the Tory right secretly gunning for Cameron? Rachel Sylvester today raises this prospect, and you can take as read this reflects thinking at a senior level within the Cameroons. This bodes ill and suggests someone is worrying that “the Wicked Tory Right are coming for Dave, that explains all the criticism of George, let’s fight them” rather than “we messed up, we have no clear message, let’s sort ourselves out and quickly.” Sure, there are grumbles in the corridors of Westminster but this is several places on the Richter scale away from a kill-the-leader rebellion. I have detected absolutely no anti-Cameron sentiment, and the very idea of an alternative leader is laughable.
So why this reprisal of the Cameroons v the Nasty Party narrative? It was a useful WWF-style play fight laid on for a section of the London media, who did actually believe in Theresa May’s myth of the Nasty Party. Cameron played to this theme, saying he was moving the Conservatives “into the mainstream” (implying, presumably, that the party that won more votes in England than Labour in 2005 was somehow a fringe movement). There was much of this in Bournemouth 06, where Cameron and Osborne squared up to this non-existent enemy and poor old Lord Tebbitt had to be wheeled out, fists aloft. That whole conference reminded me of those stupid re-enactments of the Battle of the Boyne which some do in Northern Ireland where no one ever wants to play the part of the Jacobites so the whole “battle” is risibly one-sided. But Cameron’s carry-on worked in so far as it said: “You see, those nasty chaps from the Nasty Party have gone. Stake through the heart, garlic, the works. We’re in charge now.” But sometimes, I do wonder if the Cameroons convinced themselves that it was real.
It’s true that if Osborne flunks the PBR response, the whispers will gather volume. But the party is united in that no one says “George has done well”. The vast majority (myself included) consider Osborne a formidable talent who can pull out of the silent nosedive and deliver a strong, roaring PBR response. We see a little of that today in his abandoning the commitment to match Labour’s spending plans. This was only a pledge valid until the end of this spending review in 2010, so the Tories were never going to be in a position to implement it. But it was an unnecessary vote of confidence in Brown’s economic strategy, and one Osborne has done well to withdraw. Of course, many Tories still feel he’s out of his depth, and should go. But there is no Tory regicidal movement aimed at Cameron. Anywhere.
Brown is desperate to turn this wobble into a major split. If anyone in Cameron HQ starts talking disparagingly about the “Tory right” then they are playing right into Brown’s hands. At this time, above all others, they should remember Reagan’s Eleventh Commandment.
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