I surely cannot be alone in finding the comparison between Charles Clarke's trawl around the media yesterday with Geoffrey Howe slipping the knife gentle between the Lady's shoulder blades to be entirely fatuous. Howe had resigned on a matter of principle. Yes, he resented Thatcher, but much, much more than that he despised her for the direction she was taking the Tories in. Clarke was sacked... and the almost universal opinion of those I have spoken to in the Labour Party is that the only problem with his dismissal was that it wasn't done sooner. OK, so... ex-Minister is sacked and spits a bit of bile in the direction of the person that sacked him. Join the line, Charlie. You would get a damn site more respect from me if you felt so strongly about the direction that Blair was taking the Party if you had done the Geoffrey Howe thing and then launched your missiles.
Having watched the Newsnight interview... and missed the only worthwhile 5 minutes of Switzerland-Ukraine, I really cannot understand why Iain Dale was wetting himself about David Davis's 'killer instinct'. Davis was limp wristed to say the least. If this was a savaging from a 'nearly-was' member of the SAS, John Reid will probably sleep easy. Sometimes Iain lets his affection for Davis run away with him. Now... if you want to see a savaging of John Reid... this is a way to go! Say what you think, I say.
