Tory whips express their "total loyalty" to their leader

There’s too much tolerance for blatant lies in this world. Or perhaps there’s too much tolerance for lazy journalism.

I don’t have the time to go through press cuttings to look for examples where, on date A, candidate X says “I have every confidence in our leader”, and on date B candidate X issues a leadership challenge. But it happens a lot, and hardly ever is the candidate quizzed seriously on what his statement A meant in the light of statement B. Witness the latest BBC politics report on the Tory party.

And the result is that whenever someone that journalists think might be running for leader, says “I’m not running for leader, I have no plans to run for leader, I think the current leader is doing a great job, I don’t see myself as leader in a year’s time” - well, most people assume he’s lying, and nobody pushes him further.

As it happens, nothing in that previous quotation actually says “I would never run for leader”:

1. I’m not running for leader - it’s not official, but everyone that matters knows
2. I have no plans to run for leader - they’re not finished yet
3. I think the current leader is doing a great job - well, I would say that as a party member; but I think I can do a better one / his priorities are misplaced
4. I don’t see myself as leader in a year’s time - a) I think the leadership battle will take longer than that; b) I see myself as leader in 5 years’ time.

Let’s look at what Michael Howard actually said:

We are on course to present a clear and coherent programme for government at the next election.

These are Iain’s policies. They are a tribute to Iain’s work.

Iain has earned the right to carry that work forward.

OK, so none of this says “Iain Duncan-Smith is a hopeless leader.” But, equally, none of it says “Only Iain Duncan-Smith can lead us into the holy land.” In fact, if you consider the last two sentences as meaning “Iain has given us policies”, and the first one as “Iain’s policies are internally consistent”, then Michael Howard is not, in fact, saying that Iain Duncan-Smith’s policies are, in fact, any good.

I personally hope the Conservatives dissapear up their own arse, implode messily, and give the social-democract / socialist population of the UK some pleasure for a brief moment. It won’t make any difference to me, as I live in Scotland and Tories are disallowed by law (apart from the Scottish Parliament, where we need Tories to balance out the Greens and Dennis Canavan), but it will be a long sought-after pleasure.