Unease over Michael Howard's interpretation of the middle ground deepens with today's interview with the editor of the Sunday Torygraph, Dominic Lawson. Key quote:

''To be fair, I think the Conservative Party was slow to realise the way in which the country was changing. I think that the way in which the country had changed was symbolised by its reaction to the death of Diana. We are in many ways a different country from what we were 20 or even 10 years ago. People have a different approach in the way they lead their lives and that's something the Conservative Party has to recognise and embrace.'

It's possible that all Howard means here -- as he goes on to say -- is that the public are most concerned about things like education, health and crime. But the reference to Diana worries me. The undoubted Dianafication of the country is a change for the disastrous -- a plunge into sentimentality, false emotion, manipulation, infantilism, self-centredness, irresponsibility and hysteria. If the Tories are going to embrace this, it will be a case of the unelectable grovelling before the unspeakable.

So what's Howard doing here? Making Portillistic noises simply to put the libertine wreckers off the scent, but intending in practice to hold the line for order and decency? Or has he decided that the only way to deal with the path to social suicide is for the Tories to join the procession along it, too?

Posted by melanie at November 2, 2003