Of course, Nadine Dorries' rallying cry to "KIll Cameron" was entirely metaphorical. She qualified her commentary on the launch of the Fox / Davies vehicle "Conservative Voice", by confirming that her intention is to "...kill Cameronism...". She's not lining up with Liam Fox and David Davis, either, as she claims that what is needed is a "strategy" to deal with Cameron, rather than just a "voice".
In the lead up to the conference season, new Chief Whip, Andrew "Thrasher" Mitchell has his work cut out to get the likes of Dorries to toe the party line; which she won't. Neither will Fox or Davis, as all three of them and many others besides are beginning to believe that Cameron will not survive as party leader until the next general election and fancy themselves as the next PM. Another of the whips, new boy Jo Johnson, might also be well-advised to have a word with his brother Boris about the London Mayor's plans to deliver the keynote address for Conservative Home fringe meeting the night before Dave's to the main conference at the ICC Birmingham. Tim Montgomerie, the creator of Conservative Home, one-time chief of staff for Iain Duncan Smith and founder of the Conservative Christian Fellowship is not a Cameron fan. He's a Boris fan, as is Dorries (for the time being).
The conference fringe event being hosted by Conservative Home will focus on Boris and his "Olympotastic" summer. Yes...that word is actually being used by Montgomerie to promote it. It's a new word that may yet get included in the OED, as did "amazeballs" this year. Oh, dear. Anyway, the olympotatstic event is likely to be amazeballs and receive more media attention than the dull Dave's recessionastic miseryballs address scheduled for the following day. And just to demonstrate how bang up-to-date Conservative Home is, it's current leading articles feature John Major's opinions and Norman Lamont "...busting some myths about the ERM...". How current.
With Boris's star in the ascendant, Fox, Davis and all of the other wannabe leaders might as well pack up. The Fourth Column has already looked into a future of Boris's Britain , and it isn't pretty. Cameron doesn't appear to have released any attack dogs on the simmering Boris campaign but it's probably too early to do so while Johnson rides the olympotastic wave. An opportunity did come up in the last few days, however. After the chilling revelations over Hillsborough, I was suprised not to see many references to Johnson's editorial in the Spectator from 2004 labelling Liverpudlians in general as people who preferred to wallow in grief and the football fans in 1989 as drunks that were instrumental in the disaster. Johnson has apologised (again) but in the midst of so many other apologies from public figures that it made little difference and no headlines. Hardly anybody buys The Sun in Liverpool and a similar number are likely to vote for a Boris-led Tory party but I doubt that will perturb the man any. Johnson appears indestructable.
The only thing Dave can do is to explain, carefully, that being mayor of London, fronting the olympic shows, being a jolly good chap and speaking latin fluently are not qualifiers for the role of Prime Minister. But Dave might as well be pissing in the wind. The Boris juggernaut is only just revving up, and it will crush Cameron under its wheels come 2013. And Dave cannot rely on his chief policies providing the electorate with a viable alternative to Borisism. Hunt will simply continue where Lansley left off (plus compulsory homeopathy for all), Gove is determined to take us all back to to the 1960s and whilst IDS's Universal Credit is probably a very good idea, it's almost impossible to implement in the face of facile criticisms from the left and is not scheduled to roll out until 2017 anyway. On top of that, Osborne's mismanagement of economic recovery has been total.
With the Liberal Democrats dead in the water, that just leaves us with Labour to stop Boris becoming PM (the small matter of him not being an MP will be resolved by Zac Goldsmith or some other sap giving up their seat for him). So what do the Eds have to offer after more than two years in Opposition? Not much. Tory bungling, u-turns and wonky policies have offered so many opportunities for Miliband to savage the right...and as many have been eschewed by him. Why?
OK, maybe Miliband isn't as useless as I used to think to but if he's biding his time before striking then he'd better do it soon. Cameron is vulnerable. The Tory conference doesn't look like an opportunity for him to recover significant ground either, at least not while he continues to give Osborne the keys to the safe. But if Cameron falters critically and Johnson weighs in, Ed will have little chance of victory over the Tories in 2015 before Johnson is found out for the lightweight he is. It's all about timing, now...
| Spot the difference....? No, neither did I.... |
The conference fringe event being hosted by Conservative Home will focus on Boris and his "Olympotastic" summer. Yes...that word is actually being used by Montgomerie to promote it. It's a new word that may yet get included in the OED, as did "amazeballs" this year. Oh, dear. Anyway, the olympotatstic event is likely to be amazeballs and receive more media attention than the dull Dave's recessionastic miseryballs address scheduled for the following day. And just to demonstrate how bang up-to-date Conservative Home is, it's current leading articles feature John Major's opinions and Norman Lamont "...busting some myths about the ERM...". How current.
With Boris's star in the ascendant, Fox, Davis and all of the other wannabe leaders might as well pack up. The Fourth Column has already looked into a future of Boris's Britain , and it isn't pretty. Cameron doesn't appear to have released any attack dogs on the simmering Boris campaign but it's probably too early to do so while Johnson rides the olympotastic wave. An opportunity did come up in the last few days, however. After the chilling revelations over Hillsborough, I was suprised not to see many references to Johnson's editorial in the Spectator from 2004 labelling Liverpudlians in general as people who preferred to wallow in grief and the football fans in 1989 as drunks that were instrumental in the disaster. Johnson has apologised (again) but in the midst of so many other apologies from public figures that it made little difference and no headlines. Hardly anybody buys The Sun in Liverpool and a similar number are likely to vote for a Boris-led Tory party but I doubt that will perturb the man any. Johnson appears indestructable.
The only thing Dave can do is to explain, carefully, that being mayor of London, fronting the olympic shows, being a jolly good chap and speaking latin fluently are not qualifiers for the role of Prime Minister. But Dave might as well be pissing in the wind. The Boris juggernaut is only just revving up, and it will crush Cameron under its wheels come 2013. And Dave cannot rely on his chief policies providing the electorate with a viable alternative to Borisism. Hunt will simply continue where Lansley left off (plus compulsory homeopathy for all), Gove is determined to take us all back to to the 1960s and whilst IDS's Universal Credit is probably a very good idea, it's almost impossible to implement in the face of facile criticisms from the left and is not scheduled to roll out until 2017 anyway. On top of that, Osborne's mismanagement of economic recovery has been total.
With the Liberal Democrats dead in the water, that just leaves us with Labour to stop Boris becoming PM (the small matter of him not being an MP will be resolved by Zac Goldsmith or some other sap giving up their seat for him). So what do the Eds have to offer after more than two years in Opposition? Not much. Tory bungling, u-turns and wonky policies have offered so many opportunities for Miliband to savage the right...and as many have been eschewed by him. Why?
OK, maybe Miliband isn't as useless as I used to think to but if he's biding his time before striking then he'd better do it soon. Cameron is vulnerable. The Tory conference doesn't look like an opportunity for him to recover significant ground either, at least not while he continues to give Osborne the keys to the safe. But if Cameron falters critically and Johnson weighs in, Ed will have little chance of victory over the Tories in 2015 before Johnson is found out for the lightweight he is. It's all about timing, now...
| One day, Dave...all of this will be mine. Tomorrow, with a bit of luck... |
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