The Tory leadership, we are told is "delighted" at the smooth reception of "Do-nothing" Dave's non-policy on "Europe".Looking at the Politics Home snap poll on the issue, however, it can be seen that support is polarised, following orthodox political groupings. Amazingly, Conservative supporters support, er ... Dave. Labour supporters, er ... don't.
Thus, Tim Montgomerie notes that, to a very large extent, the party appears to have recovered its once secret weapon: unity. In other words, in their lust for what they think is "power", the Tory faithful is prepared to swallow any old tosh from the Great Leader, in order to present a unified façade.
By no measure, therefore, does this poll represent a vote of confidence in the non-policy. And the "unity" is, or course, skin deep. As we find in Afghanistan, the tribe unites against the common enemy. Once that is neutralised, the in-fighting starts. James Delingpole offers the obvious way out, but little Dave was never interested in that. Mary Ellen Synon, however, is expecting to hear that patriotic Tories will be found in Conservative Central Office, trying to find the way down to the cellar.
Short of that, the fight for "power" is increasingly a scrap between two bald men fighting over a comb. While Dave postures and prances, power drains away to Brussels. And that, never forget, is what it is all about. Dave might be happy to be a satrap. We would prefer our own government.
And that is all he will be. "The coming into power of the Lisbon Treaty marks the annexation of Europe by Brussels – the expansion of Belgium over an entire continent," says Brussels Journal, and they are not wrong.
It comes to something though when even Pravda notices something amiss. Twenty years ago, one wall came down, but another is being erected - this one between the people and the ruling élites. We are approaching the end game, but all the Tory faithful are interested in is getting their Boy into No 10. Their pitifully limited horizons allow them to see no further.
Yet all they will get is a hollow victory, the trappings of power rather than the substance.
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