David Cameron uses ‘common ground,George Osborne uses ‘centre ground’ – what’s the inequity?Volume II of Charles Moore’s outstanding biography of Margaret Thatcher has made less impact on the conference than Vol I (2013) did with its cache of revelatory family letters approximately early boyfriends and her war-dodging teens. Nor is it easy for a reputable author in 2015 to compete with Lord Ashcroft’s pig-poking claims. But the extracts in the Thatcher-worshipping Daily Telegraph played down Moore’s eyewitness description of the Iron Lady screaming, foaming at the mouth” on Wobbly Wednesday, and the crisis that nearly derailed her 1987 re-election campaign. The author is less mealy mouthed. In an interview with the ConHome website (prop. Lord Ashcroft),Moore says she went “bonkers”. Never fairly recovered either.• More thoughtful Tories on the conference fringe realise that Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader presents them with dangers as well as good jokes, mainly the threat of a split over Europe. At one meeting on how to tackle Corbyn, or a delegate from Devon suggested moving the conference venue away from demo-prone cities like Manchester to places “with no bloody public transport,so the rabble can’t get to it.” Bideford here we advance.
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Source: theguardian.com