Well, after Thatch's backing of Iain Duncan-Smith
yesterday, it wasn't too much of a surprise when today his Tory leadership nemesis Kenneth Clarke got plaudits from his old boss and ex-PM,
John Major, who then goes on to slag off Thatcher, whom he happened to replace as PM!!!!!!!!! No doubt, this has nothing to do with IDS being one of a group of "rebel" MPs who kept annoying "Mr Grey" during his tenure as PM- to the point that he was inadvertedly recorded as referring to them, and one or two of his ministers, as "bastards"!!!!!!!!!!!
Wot's more surprising is that old bastion of Old Conservative "Bash Johnny Foreigner" culture, "quality" tabloid the
Daily Mail has backed Mr Pro-Euro Clarke!!!!! Displaying a surprising pragmatism for a paper which is usually more at home complaining about How Things Were Better When Britain Had An Empire, the Mail today says:
This paper has great faith in the common sense of Tory members and their desire to see their party survive, which is why we endorse Kenneth Clarke.
So, whinging about "tradition" and "principles" is one thing, but backing the more electorally popular candidate, so that the Conservative party doesn't go down the plughole and they lose their entire readership is obviously a bit more of a pressing matter for the Mail!!!!!!!
But the behaviour of some non-Tory-supporting papers are even more interesting!!!!! Particularly vaguely (In more ways than one!!!!!!!) "New Labour" friendly broadsheet
The Guardian, which devotes a portion of it's front page to linking Clarke with
tobacco smuggling by his old employers in British American Tobacco (BAT)!!!!!!
BAT not merely colluded with smugglers in the past, but is centrally organising the process and collecting hundreds of millions of pounds worth of black market proceeds
Or, as the Beeb news said:
Mr Clarke has also been hit after claims of tobacco smuggling by British American Tobacco, of which he is a non-executive deputy chairman.
Hmmm....!!!!! If someone were to actually hit podgy old Clarke, he would lose his fist amongst multiple layers of fatty flesh!!!!!!!!!! I think somehow this is an unlikely situation!!!!!!!!!
Meanwhile,
The Independent, as they keep banging on at every opportunity, have Clarke as a director of their newspaper, which can surely have nothing to do with this rather interesting
column in todays issue, which basically calls supporters of IDS idiots!!!!!!!!!
Several party members have declared on the airwaves in recent days: "People dismissed Maggie when she first became leader. It is the same with Ian. He will be like Maggie." They said the same with Hague. "Maggie was unpopular in the polls when she first became leader, and look what happened. William will be like Maggie."
William is about to depart, having led his party to a massive defeat. [...]
Well, for all you non-UK folks, you can now find out what all this storm in a teacup is all about- there's a live
TV debate on tonight at 2230BST (UK time!!!!) on BBC2's Newsnight proggy!!!! (Apparently it's "The programme that asks the awkward questions"!!!!!!!!!! Wot, like: "Minister.... Whjkfhg dsgjhds gjkhsdgjkdhg dshjgjsdgh?!?!??! Answer the question, please!!!!!!!!!!!!"?!?!??!?!)
