The Tories and their torturious position on the Lisbon Treaty

By Marjorie Smith

So, drunken text messages in a highly pretentious manner begin to reveal the true extent of the hidden division over Europe in the Conservative party.

Having made an incoherent speech at the Tory Party Conference in Manchester, in which he undermined Cameron's deliberately opaque position on the Lisbon treaty by calling for a referendum when (IF) the Tories get elected to Government, Boris Johnson then scuttles back to London.

Having returned from the conference in Manchester on October 5, Mr Johnson then received the pretentious threat by text in Italian , “La vendetta è un piatto che va mangiato freddo”, by text message in the early hours of Tuesday. It translates as: “Revenge is a dish best eaten cold.”

Nick Boles from the Cameron Clique admits sending the text, which is indicative of the tantrum Cameron would have thrown following Johnson's speech to the Conference. Make no mistake Johnson's position is much closer to the vast majority of his party over Europe than Cameron's is. Cameron knows this and behind his 'nice guy' image is a man who acts like a spoilt brat when he can't get his own way. He will have certainly have been stamping his feet in a fit of pique following Johnson's intervention.

The Conservative party has become a much more eurosceptic party than it ever was under Thatcher or Major and euroscepticism is now one of the few ideological poles (besides an abiding belief in the reforming power of the market) that is shared by 90%+ of the party. Cameron has spent a lot of political capital both collaborating with the eurosceptics (hence leaving the sane centre-right bloc in the European parliament) and also talking about the EU in order to keep his rabid right quiet in the UK.

However, what would really stoke up a civil war in the Tory party , in which the Cameron Clique could not contain the outpouring of vitriol would be if Tony Blair was to be appointed as EU President.

Whatever the rights or wrongs about Blair being appointed rto this position form a left perspective, it would be worth it to watch the Tory party tear itself apart over Europe and Blair's appointment would be incendiary.

Cameron would not be able to hold the line of having an aggresssively pragmatic attitude to the EU and consequently, the Tories important first year in Government would be completely overshadowed by their usual compulsive /obsessive fascination with the EU.