Where are all those panicky Tories who were so frit with the Kippers that they wanted Cameron do deals with them? Is Peter Bone still wanting to have a chat? Is Nadine Dorries still wanting to negotiate? And I doubt whether the splendid Micky Fab is quite so keen on dialogue.
Panic can do strange but predictable things to a politician’s judgement.
It would be foolish to write UKIP off before the Euro elections as I suspect that they will do very well as the National Spitoon Party. They will once more ride high in the polls only to have their numbers diminish in the run up to the election that matters where I would be amazed if they are not wiped off the map. And there are dark jealousy fuelled plots to to clip the wings of offshore Farage who is seen to be getting a little too big for his boots.
Their fox has been run to ground though not yet shot over immigration.
Cameron knows how to use good luck to his political advantage. And he has had a hell of a lot of it. The UNITE vote rigging scandal has been bubbling along for years. For the Tories to have run with it alone sounded hollow and opportunistic. But jump on the coat tails of the Blairites exiled to the Miliband political death camps who decided to put the boot in and you create a lethal weapon of mass distraction.
And It makes Miliband look weak and ineffective for not acting earlier, which of course he couldn’t have. I don’t think that we will be hearing too much about his bravery in slaying the vested interests for a very long time.
There seem to be two schools of thought about how to handle the horrors of the Health Service. Some say it shouldn’t be used as a political football, others think that we should be putting the boot in as it happened on Labour’s watch. Personally, I am a putting the boot in man.
Jeremy Hunt has been remarkably good as Health Secretary. I thought he would be excellent at charming patients and reassuring everyone that the service was in safe hands. Not only has he been politically astute in wrong footing Labour over the one area in which they lead in the polls he has shown strong and tough leadership in getting things done.
The problem for Miliband is does he move his accident prone Shadow Health Secretary the rather pleasant Andy Burnham and admit some form of Labour guilt or let the poor lad stumble on?
A tough one.
So with the economy perking up, crime going down, benefits being capped and education given a dose of rigour the runes aren’t looking at all bad.
And James Wharton’s EU referendum Bill has been a tremendous success in discombobulating both Labour and the Lib Dems. There’s more mileage in this little wheeze too.
But Tory backbenchers are an odd bunch. When things are looking so good (Labour’s low double figure lead is now in single digits, remember Kinnock was running at a 29 point lead in the eighties) you just wonder why some of them come out with such mindless crap as the other day, “another Coalition cannot be an option for Cameron”. Somehow I thought that was for the electorate to decide. And they are less likely to vote for an absolute Tory majority after reading the alternative Queen’s Speech (ban the Burka, Thatcher Day and other swivel eyed loonery) if they think that the the patients are taking over the secure hospital.
The Lynton Crosby problem is still not parked. But it is only a problem and not a catastrophe waiting to happen. The Brooke’s, Coulson trials start in September could kick start public interest but it will be interesting to see how the papers will spin the coverage.
The niggle with Crosby that he is he is a lobbyist by trade. What Cameron has to do is be a little more straight forward about it. The line on Marr today was that he won’t say whether they spoke about tobacco advertising and that all will tell us that Crosby didn’t “intervene”. This is a mistake because it makes Cameron look shifty when he doesn’t have to.
Why not be honest? Why not just say that Crosby advises on strategy and the strategy on tobacco advertising is that we should wait and see what all the evidence is before making announcements? Of course we talked, its just that he was advising us, not lobbying on behalf of anyone else.
Number 10 are lucky that we are in recess. They have time to tweak the official line to take.
But at least Cameron can pop off to Cornwall knowing that the chances of a leadership challenge which was deadly serious a few weeks ago has melted away. Even the swivel eyed loons can spot a winner. Even if they still can’t can’t stand him.
