News from the New Party

Tea with Maggie

History does not record whether or not the young Gordon Brown ever took pleasure from pulling the legs off spiders, but his treatment of David Cameron is scarcely less painful to watch.

Of course it is entirely reasonable for a sitting prime minister to invite the most distinguished living former resident of 10 Downing Street to tea.  Such a gesture is not controversial in itself, but the symbolism and timing are of profound significance.  Gordon Brown's recent praise of Baroness Thatcher as a "conviction politician" - and his claim to be one himself - is a calculated embarrassment to the Conservative Party in general and to David Cameron in particular.  For one thing, in Tory circles since 1990 the term "conviction politician" has generally referred to a politician who has been convicted.  For another, while Gordon Brown can happily associate himself with his illustrious predecessor, this is something that David Cameron cannot do without torpedoing his own strategy. 

Everything the Conservative leader does has to convey the impression that the party he leads is completely different from the party of Margaret Thatcher.  Michael Ancram's recent complaints against the trashing of the Thatcher legacy have a powerful resonance with Conservatives.  It is hard for David Cameron to row back from his initially dismissive attitude towards the Thatcher years, and there is clearly widespread resentment as a result - a point which will not have escaped Lady Thatcher herself: it was not just Gordon Brown who was making a statement yesterday.  Ann Treneman remarks:

They say that revenge is a dish best served cold but I think that now has been trumped by Mrs T. For yesterday revenge was served with tea and cakes and how sweet it must have been. She is said to be hurt by the way the Camerons have treated her. Mr Brown would do anything to infuriate the Tory leader. Last week he told us how he and Baroness Thatcher were both conviction politicians. Now I think we know what they share a conviction about.

The timing was perfect for them and perfectly awful for the Tories. It was supposed to be Quality of Life day. Earlier that morning I had watched as five men in suits had presented a 547-page document called Blueprint for a Green Economy. It was so heavy that it was more like Doorstop for a Green Economy. Inside, the endless paragraphs were delineated by numbers, such as 7.2.2.1.1. It just seemed beyond ridiculous.

The man in charge of Quality of Life was John Gummer. Yesterday, he looked a bit like the Nutty Professor. "I am a Tory," he cried. He said that the document was in the tradition of Wilberforce, Shaftesbury and Disraeli. And, of course, Mrs Thatcher.

The beleaguered leadership of David Cameron and his peculiar project to reform the Conservative Party increasingly appear to be doomed.  Constantly outwitted by the prime minister, and failing to make an impact with his much-hyped policy review, the opposition leader looks more and more like a lamb on his way to the slaughter.  The Conservative Party may not yet be dead, but it is certainly approaching a dead end.