Leaning to the right? JOHN MAJOR decided to write his own speech for Tory conference this and, according to Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman, "it showed".
Homespun reassurance that the NHS would never be privatised drew muted applause compared with the loud reception given Michael Portillo's xenophobic rantings and Peter Lilley's new plans to force claimants to work for a pittance.
The enthusiasm for introducing identity cards and the anti-Europe mania showed the politics of the ageing party activists, a massive 90% of whom are over 56. Once again the Tory right is setting the political agenda.
On one thing Major was right: the Tories have won the political battle, and in contesting the "middle ground" Blair is capitulating to Tory ideology. As Major so rightly pointed out, if people want Tory policies they will tend to go for the real thing; as he put it. "if you want to buy a Rolex you don't buy it from a man on a street corner"
The Portillo-led right wants to bounce Major even further rightward before the next general election in 1997. If Major loses, Portillo is the next party leader and the mad dogs of vicious anti-working class nationalism will be let loose with a vengeance.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 70, October 22 1994, Page 5 meaning of "a modern statement