Loony Tunes

When Jeremy Hunt (left) said, yesterday, the Conservatives were "united" in their approach to the EU he probably meant it, regardless of what the general public think of growing civil war in his party.

He probably believed it when he said it was the Labour Party who had the real problem. He probably even believes in all that guff about the "global race" and how a pointless legal change about an in/out referendum will be an expression of the will of the people.

With all this posturing he is convincing no-one. But that is the style of this Government, it has never felt  like persuasion, getting down and dirty, was necessary. It has felt leadership commands deference from the public and its core supporters. To call them "mad, swivel eyed loons" captures the gap between the ground troops and the officer's mess rather well. If anyone of Thatcher, Heath or Major's administration had so insulted the activists pounding the streets, he would have been sacked on the spot. All that is denied but even if Feldman did say it, Cameron would feel frankly, you know, sort of rather embarrassed to give a chap his marching orders when they are all such good chums going way back.

The disunity within the party is virulent and worsening, any damn fool can see that. The reasonable voices are being drowned out by the whack jobs. Geoffrey Howe's bit in the Observer was a throw back to how a politician used to write articles, unafraid of writing intelligently, with full historical context. The other side are not listening: they are imbued with purpose derived from their political momentum. They appear to have forgotten disunity plays very badly with the public who rate the EU about 10th on their priorities well behind, jobs, growth and living standards.

At least when John Major went to war with his "bastards" it was a simple argument to follow. The Maastrict Treaty brought us a little closer to EU politically - they hated that. Cameron's position cannot be summarised in less than about 1,000 words and is so full of twist and turns, humiliating contradictions and bare-faced hypocrisy.

But suffice it to say, a vote on a referendum will not be passed in the Commons, if it did it would not bind the next Parliament, if Cons won the election (ha!) Cameron would vote to stay in. Also the much repeated "renegotiation" with EU is doomed because any of the other 27 countries can veto any aspect of it and any concession granted will be judged by people like John Redwood and Peter Bone who won't be satisfied until the Channel Tunnel is dynamited.

Cameron is now like the prefect who everyone has discovered has a father "in trade". His authority is dwindling by the day, his Defence Secretary casually mentions he would support leaving the EU, gets a "now, look here" talking to, then the next day disavows the Government's policy on gay marriage.

Cameron's problem is that he expects people to follow by mere dint of him being leader. Now they are leading him into political oblivion.