In Your Face

Lancing The Boil

I am glad to see that the UK Conservative Party has finally plucked up the courage to resolve the question that has been dogging them for some months now. Namely, do they wish Iain Duncan Smith (IDS) to remain in the position of leader?

I noted in an earlier article, entitled “The Only Party In Town” , that the ongoing whispering campaign against IDS was doing considerable damage to the reputation and “life force” of the party. The Conservative Party was in fact in danger of being consigned to the “dustbin of history”.

Finally the Chief Whip has collected 25 letters from Conservative MP’s, asking for a vote of confidence to be called on the subject of IDS leading the party. This will be taken this afternoon (Wednesday 29 October 2003), and the result will be declared in the early evening.

The result will either be an endorsement for his leadership, in which case there will be no more challenges until after the general election; or he will be removed from office, and a new leader selected.

Either way, the end result will mean that the Conservative Party will then be able to focus on the more crucial task of forming a credible opposition; to allay the descent of Britain into a one party state.

David Mellor (an ex member of the Party and ex Cabinet Minister) put it rather succinctly, the vote of confidence will be rather like being sick; unpleasant up until the moment that it happens, but afterwards you feel great.

The “boil”, that was undermining the leadership and destroying the life force of the Party, will have finally been lanced. I am glad that the Party took my advice. The next step is to remove the power of the ageing constituency party membership to have a say in the election of the leader.