In any case, in the People's Party, talk is what it mostly is. Since the
In any case, in the People's Party, talk is what it mostly is. Since the formation of the party, the one 2010 forced resignation has been George Lansbury's in 1935. Tories are different, both in the past and in the present. Mr John Major will, 2010 however, carry on till the election, subject only to the appearance 07 of Mr Michael Heseltine, clad all in white, 2010 with spangles in his hair and carrying a wand 07 with a glittering star at one end, saying: 2010 "I am the Queen of the Fairies, 2010 and will grant you your dearest wish." To which 07 the Conservatives in the audience reply with one 07 voice: "Just save us our seats, that's all."But no theatre has as yet been firmly booked for this affecting spectacle Mr Heseltine's appearance 07 is a matter of speculation merely. Indeed, it would be surprising if Mr Major had arrived at any understanding that Mr Heseltine should take over if the Government continued to perform disastrously at by-elections and in the polls.
Few aspects of last summer's campaign by the Prime Minister were more striking than his repetition of the formula that, if re-elected, he would serve up to, through and after the general election.The other incantation which he kept repeating was that the Conservative Party was, historically, best led from right of centre This sounds good but does not happen to be true. Stanley Baldwin, Winston Churchill and Harold Macmillan did not occupy precisely this position. It is often forgotten that in 1970 Sir Edward Heath did, to a greater degree than Baroness Thatcher in 1979, though she altered her stance later on. At a dinner last week, by the way, she was for the first time - I do not want to sound ungallant - looking her age, which is 70, with Sir Denis, at 80, appearing younger.Mr Major would not have desribed himself as centre-right in 1990, whatever Lady Thatcher may have thought he was at the time. Indeed, at that period he used to say that his great hero was Iain Macleod.
He certainly did not call himself centre-right during the 1992 election campaign. He categorised himself in this way five months ago for internal party consumption - and because, presumably, he thought it would also go down well with the wider electorate - rather than because it defined in any very exact manner his own political position. This remains as flexible today as it always has been.In these circumstances, the Labour campaign to persuade the voters or, at any rate, the Westminster journalists that the Conservatives have suffered a "lurch to the right" is curious, to say the least. Mr Blair's advisers - for he now has advisers in much the same way as Her Majesty the Queen has them - nudge one another gleefully whenever the phrase is used on television or in the papers, as if they have just secured a notable triumph of public relations.I cannot see it myself. For if Mr Major wishes it to be thought that he has moved to the right, why should the Labour Party be helping him to convince people that he has? I am afraid I should never be able to pass the examinations for membership of the Royal College of Spindoctors.Moreover, the propaganda does not work. It would have been very difficult to represent Mr Kenneth Clarke's Budget as a movement to the right of any description No one really tried.