THE NEW LOOK TORY PARTY

Conservative MP and Time columnist Michael Gove has filed a piece in today's paper which, extraordinarily, claims not only is he a punk, but so, too is Tony Blair. In the current version, anyway:

To update the debate, do you prefer Blair Mark One, the builder of the Big Tent, the soft-rock leader of the first term? Or do you prefer Blair Mark Two, the punk premier who’s happy to break up the party to get what he wants?

Of course, he does have a point - Tony Blair is punk, in exactly the same way that John Lydon is; they're both convinced their buy-in to the establishment is part of some glorious iconoclastic revolution. Selling your back catalogue to the advertisers, bringing back the 11 plus - but we do wonder if this is some sort of Central Office directed campaign to try and prove how cool it is to vote for Tories. Doubtless at this point George Osborne is working up his "My Goth Years" think-piece for the Sunday Telegraph.

music michael grove