Bill's Comment Page

Amanda Platell quits the Conservatives - now the healing can begin!

Ms Platell writes what I would describe as a joke article in the Guardian newspaper, announcing her resignation from the Conservative Party, saying that she is 'disgusted' by the treatment meted out to Iain Duncan Smith.

This is the lady, remember, who oversaw William Hague's media profile during the time he was Leader of the Conservative Party. Hague started off, after the massive defeat of the 1997 election, as an apparently moderate right-of-centre Conservative and by the end of year two, or the beginning of year three, of his tenure had taken the Party considerably further to the right in a deluded attempt to galvanise the anti-European, anti-immigration vote. It seems clear that Ms Platell was, at least partially, the architect of this disastrous policy. And with the elevation of Iain Duncan Smith to the Leadership in 2001 the Party's far-right consolidated their position, as a result of the ridiculously short-sighted leadership election rules foisted on the Party by William Hague. If the Party wishes only to talk to itself this may have been acceptable, but the Party's purpose, surely, was to attract a lot of people who had either never or had formerly voted 'Conservative'. So the election of Iain Duncan Smith was essentially a narcissistic folly - which has, thankfully, now been corrected.

Ms Platell will undoubtedly continue to 'gripe' from the sidelines, but I hope the Conservative Party can now get on with the business of developing policies for a modern Britain.