Tonier than thou

As part of his plan to have his own career mirror the rise of Tony Blair, David Cameron has now reached his very own "Clause Four" moment. Remembering how Tony Blair faced down the unions, Cameron now has his very own dinosaurs of the 1922 Committee to vanquish - proving himself not only a man for change, but a strong leader.

The parallels are striking - The Labour Party never came anywhere near to enacting "public ownership of the means of production", any more than a Conservative government has built any grammar schools in the last 30 years. Yet each clings to its unenacted policy more out of a sense of identity than anything else: "if we don't stand for this, then what do we stand for?" No doubt the answer will dawn now as it did then: "whatever it takes to get elected."

I just hope he stops before he reaches his equivalent of the Iraq war.