Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Grand entrance
There is nothing like starting a new job with a flourish or leaving on a high and Gordon Brown and Tony Blair have managed to do both today with the announcement that the Conservative MP Quentin Davies has defected to the Labour Party.
Mr. Davies' verdict on his former party is cutting:
In his letter, he wrote: "Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything.
"It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda."
Mr Davies added: "Believe it or not I have no personal animus against you.
"You have always been perfectly courteous in our dealings. You are intelligent and charming.
"As you know, however, I never supported you for the leadership of the party - even when, after my preferred candidate Ken Clarke had been defeated in the first round, it was blindingly obvious that you were going to win."
He also wrote: "Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative Party to achieve."
Gordon must be pleased.
Mr. Davies' verdict on his former party is cutting:
In his letter, he wrote: "Under your leadership the Conservative Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything.
"It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda."
Mr Davies added: "Believe it or not I have no personal animus against you.
"You have always been perfectly courteous in our dealings. You are intelligent and charming.
"As you know, however, I never supported you for the leadership of the party - even when, after my preferred candidate Ken Clarke had been defeated in the first round, it was blindingly obvious that you were going to win."
He also wrote: "Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership to which you aspire and which it is the presumed purpose of the Conservative Party to achieve."
Gordon must be pleased.
