Why do politicians obsess about the potential downfall of their own party's leading figures? Until recently, you could hardly bump into a Labour MP without being told that Gordon Brown's days as Prime Minister were numbered. Now he is safe, the boot is on the other foot. Tory MPs speak of little else than whether George Osborne will keep his post as shadow Chancellor. He is judged to have had a bad economic war and to have lost the mad battle of Corfu he waged against Lord Mandelson by revealing what he said about Brown at their private dinner there in August.
Osborne is not having much luck. Today he suffered the indignity of presenting prizes to two of his main political foes at The Spectator magazine's parliamentarian of the year awards - Lord Mandelson and Vince Cable, his Liberal Democrat counterpart. Lots of quips about Corfu, being in the same boat and where he and Mandelson would holiday together next year.
There's no smoke without fire. The calls for Osborne to be moved to a new berth - probably Tory chairman - are coming from Tory backbenchers, and are not a figment of the media's imagination. One Tory summed up the mood to me perfectly: "Everyone is convinced George will not be shadow Chancellor by the next election. But equally, they can't quite see how David Cameron will bring himself to move him." I suspect the Tory leader will stick by his close ally and friend rather than give Labour the scalp it would crave.
Why on earth don't the Tories get Ken Clarke back as shadow Finance spokesman? He'd have Darling Alistair for breakfast and Brown for lunch.
Posted by: tris | Thursday, 13 November 2008 at 10:23 PM
I've gotta say, George Osborne has really sunk to a new low this week with these comments. He has chosen party politics yet again, over basic support for the UK Prime Minister. I don't care what people's political persusion is, but you have to support your leader in a time of crisis, we were told a few weeks ago by the conservative leadership that it would support the government in what actions it undertakes to tackle this problem. But the increasing support for Gordon Brown in some of the opinion polls recently is too much for the conservative's leaders to bare it seems. So swiping at the PM at any and every opportunity is now the policy for Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne. Does the Shadow Chancellor realise how damaging his comments are, absolutely unbelievable from a shadow chancellor. Once it starts to sink in on the severity of his comments, I think i't will be
"Nice knowing you George"
Posted by: Henry | Saturday, 15 November 2008 at 11:31 PM
one tax cut suggestion at last years tory conference, tory ratings went up and osborne was a hero. But osborne who has never had a job outside politics, has no clue on economics and was a bad choice in the first place. Bring on ken clarke. Tory commentators are floundering in the wake of mandelson and the obviouse realisation that labout will definitely now win the next as 'socialism' is the order of the day and capitalism is sinking. On top of that, Obama has a similar political philosophy and will now be in uk in april. Want to bet on an election one week later ? I am a Simon Heffer tory and like him can't stand the present tory leadership like most of my friends.
bob king
Posted by: bob king | Sunday, 16 November 2008 at 12:16 AM