13 September 2009

Will Frank Field be the man to wield the dagger?

When Brown revealed his latest strategic move to increase the Tory majority, Frank Field commented:

The timing for this could have been decided in Conservative headquarters.

A few days ago we had Our Frank praising Alan Johnson, which had Tom Harris saying that Our Man is a good bloke.  Is Tom dropping hints?

Today, Our Frank has an niece little piece in the Telegraph on the battle over public expenditure cuts.  He is none too complementary on the way his government have conducted the debate so far:

History will indeed judge the next government by whether it walks the walk on public expenditure and provides a titanic dose of sanity to the public accounts. However, an election will have to be won first. And on this make-or-break issue, Cameron is now up against Alistair Darling, who is the first member of the Government to state publicly that the election will be a fundamentally different affair from the 17 before it.

He seems almost resigned to the fact that Cameron will win:

My guess is that the Government will find it increasingly difficult to join this debate in any meaningful way in the long run-up to the election. So here is the big threat to Mr Cameron – and his great opportunity. The tougher the Opposition leader is in spelling out his policy on cuts, the more favourable will be the immediate market reaction, and the level of long-term interest rates so crucial in deciding the size of the final repayments.

And finally:

Of course, these new strategies would be difficult to enforce, especially in a country groaning under the weight of that colossal deficit. But our fiscal situation actually makes radical change more possible – and increases the likelihood that whoever wins the next election could head the league table of great reforming administrations.

Clearly, he doesn't think this Labour government have hit the button with their reforming zeal.

Could it just be that Our Frank will be the one that is prepared to get blood on his hands and tell the Labour party Brown’s time is up?

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