Happy birthday...

Astonishingly, it’s now almost six months since this blog first saw the light of day.  And, although it’s incredibly tempting to indulge in retrospective analysis, that’s not happening - mainly because it’s far too self-indulgent.

The day’s main news is, of course, dominated by the Tory Party conference at Manchester. These self-cogratulatory bashes at which the faithful give obeisance to their lauded leaders often mask the more serious point about such events: that conferences can be a useful way of testing the water with new ideas. The Tories - having been out of power for rather longer than they would have liked - are doing just that, but they’ve got a problem.  Well, several, really.

Tony Blair was - no matter your own political allegiances - an excellent Prime Minster.  So good was he, that he timed even his exit with a deftness normally associated with precision ballet. He left power - and the hapless Brown holding the reins - just before the world’s financial institutions imploded. Brown, of course, is dreadful.  Everything about him, from the strange little movement he does with his lower jaw at the end of every phrase to the monotonous ‘I know what’s needed’ drone that adds such scintillating counterpoint to his pronouncements seems to scream ‘Don’t elect us!’, and that’s the main reason why they have to get rid of him before next June.

But returning to the Tories, Cameron was made leader because the Tories finally realised that what was keeping them out of No. 10 wasn’t policies;  it wasn’t their track record.  It was - simply - their leaders.  Cameron knows that and he also knows that he has to win to retain his position.  But the really sad aspect of modern politics is that we treat them, now, as a reality show which - in some ways - they are.  And on reality shows it’s the person who comes over best to the media and makes fewest gaffes that seems to win.  Which is why Cameron will win.   He’s actually rather good in front of the cameras and he is - of course - the Tories’ Tony Blair, gambling on his sheer niceness on camera, his undoubted intelligence and his youth. But DC has to keep a close eye on his minions: the egregious Osborne or the malevolent Johnson could still inflict serious harm on their chances.  But the real threat would be if Labour decided to dispose of Brown and elect a new media-savvy leader. If that happened, then maybe we’d start to see something abut policies.