The worst wounds are those that are self-inflicted. David Cameron has given himself a nasty slug in the shoulder that may well give him gyp in the cold months to come. While he basks in the afterglow of an impressive formation of the Lib/Con coalition, he will feel invincible. But he could have just sewn the seeds of his own downfall.
The bid to include Ministers in the 1922 is a naked grab at controlling the Tory backbenchers. The 1922 is the talking shop, or grumbling house, that makes Tory timeservers, has-beens and never-will-bes feel better. It lets them feel they have power behind their moaning.
The key is that rebellion can still forment, whether or not Cameron has his yes-men in the Committee room. It is obviously not yet clear how many of his backbenchers are now undeclared enemies of the Prime Minister, but it is not fanciful to suggest they may, given the pitch to the centre that the coalition documents set out, soon outnumber the Liberal Democrats on the government benches.
The 1922 saw off the quiet man. They may decide in the future to go back to their roots, and see off another coalition.
While I remain in favour of the vast majority of the coalition programme, I can’t help feel that further aggravating already uneasy right-leaning backbenchers is a major error.
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