Airstrip One

The Blairites are coming out

Another Blairite comes ripping out of the closet. This time it's the rabidly Tory Peter Briffa (although he has kept his Blairism the strict confines of foreign policy). Who's next?

The point is, however, a serious one. Although there tends to be no appreciable Falklands effect with the wider electorate - there does seem to be with the chattering (or blogging) classes. If the Conservatives keep on merely repeating what the Labour Party is saying but assuring the electorate that "we'll bomb em harder" they'll become an irrelevance. Those who strongly support the war will go to the Labour Party, those who strongly oppose the war will go to the Lib Dems.

The Tories will be irrelevant on the issue of defence. Like Law and Order and the economy before.

Of course the Conservatives could go back to their roots and talk about a British foreign policy that looks to British interests before those of America or Europe. Sceptical questions could be directed towards the overstretch of British forces. And who knows, people may think that the Tories have something interesting to say.