Reply #2: Michael Howard? [View All]

[T_i_B]

He was an authoritarian home secretary in the Major government, much like his "new" labour successors. His motto at the time was something along the lines of "if you don't want the time, don't do the crime."

He is very much part of the Thatcherite right wing of the party, he has an unusual record of being loyal (well unusual for a tory anyway). He was famously decribed as "having something of the night about him" by Ann Widdecombe. The Widdibeast served under him as a junior minister and her attacks on him pretty much scuppered his leadership bid in 1997. The image still lasts to this day. Today's Mirror for instance protrayed him as a vampire on the front page.

As PM I suspect that Howard would govern on similar lines to $hrubya. I am not expecting a great deal of change from the policies of Dimwit-Smith if truth be known. The difference is that Howard won't have his arse kicked by Blair in at PMQ's as much as Dimwit-Smith did and he won't be as much of a nonentity as IDS. It always made me laugh when certain Blarites tried to portray IDS as a genuine threat to Blair as that much was always patently false.

He will be a tougher opponent for Blair then the last two tory leaders but I still don't think that he has what it takes to dislodge Blair from office at all. And I also have my doubts about whether or not he can lead the tories out of their current white, upper class, elderly, home counties ghetto.