And another thing…

SOME Tories are getting awful excited by the three-and-a-half-minute diatribe that Daniel Hannan MEP launched against his prime minister in the European Parliament this week.

The mainstream media are being criticised for not giving the same prominence to a speech by an unknown MEP as they did to the speech by Gordon Brown. Hmm…

And now, according to Political Betting, he’s being talked of as a future candidate of his party. I can think of nothing more likely to turn moderate voters off than his strident, smug, arrogant neo-Thatcherism. So best of luck to him.

What was truly repugnant about his speech was the total absence of any sense of patriotism. Some Tories on the extreme right of the party share the problem of some Republicans in the States: they don’t regard the head of government to be the nation’s leader unless he or she is also a member of their little party.

Gordon Brown isn’t just Labour’s prime minister; he’s Britain’s prime minister, and for any UK politician to launch such a disgraceful, personal attack on his country’s leader — in a foreign country — is nothing short of disgraceful. 

Which is why he’s so popular in David Cameron’s Conservative Party, I suppose.

UPDATE at 12.48 pm: From the comments received so far, the consensus seems to be that it’s not on to criticise the PM while abroad, unless he’s a Labour PM. Oh, and suddenly every commenter has turned rabidly pro-Europe. Go figure…

LAST week I asked the question: are the Tories happy with a 10-point lead?

Well, that seems irrelevant now that we have the latest ComRes poll, giving Cameron’s party a 16-point lead, with Labour on 28 and the Liberals on 17.

The same poll a month earlier put the Liberals within three points of Labour, so the glimmer of good news for my party is that we’ve seen them off.

The figures in full:

• Conservatives 44 (+3)
• Labour 28 (+3)
• LibDems 17 (-5)

TOMORROW’S Telegraph will carry an ICM poll giving the Tories a 12-point lead over Labour, and putting the Liberals on 22, up six on the previous month, according to Political Betting.

The figures are:

• Conservatives 40 (-4)
• Labour 28 (-4)
• LibDems (22 (+6)

ACCORDING TO Political Betting, a ComRes poll due out tomorrow puts Labour on 28 per cent – 15 points behind the Tories at 43. The Liberals are on 16.

POLITICAL Betting has details of a new Ipsos/Mori poll giving the Tories a 14-point lead over Labour – up ten points since the previous survey.

The numbers are:

• Conservatives 44 (+5)
• Labour 30 (-5)
• LibDems 17 (+2)

  Bugger.