Dear Jezza, you can't deny Tories are in trouble

Lord Howe, the one-time Sir Geoffrey Howe, he who felled Prime Minister Thatcher as though she were sapling instead of a mighty political tree.

The man we called Geoffrey Who, changed the face of politics and drew the blood of the media pen and former Tory pals who labelled him vicious. . . devastating. . . calculated to inflict the maximum damage. . . and, for good measure, put him in the tower."

The moment the Baroness died though, Lord H protested his innocence. 'Never meant to end her career, Sirs and Madams, that one killer speech was just an explanation of my own position at the time'. Humbug!

He might not have floored our first female PM single-handedly, the odd Heseltine and a few other lurkers helped, but those of us knocking around politics then, remember the sequence well.

Now he has has loomed forth to accuse the present Prime Minister of running scared of Eurosceptics and losing control of the party. If he was right when he said it, by the time this hits the headlines, there may not be a party anyway. Face it, a day (or two) is a long time in politics.

But we really could do without his lordship's reappearance as in an ancient cloud: does he have it in mind to dismiss yet another leader in his lifetime?

If so, here comes the Cameron Knight in Shining Armour, health secretary and Dave's former Oxford buddy, one Jeremy Hunt. He believes the Conservative Party is united and that the boss was showing leadership on Britain's relationship with Europe. Oh dear. But this is he who tried in vain to sell marmalade to the Japanese, just thought I'd mention it.

Jeremy dear, united your lot are not. Just as they were not united on gay marriage, that charming "mad, swivel-eyed loons" comment about loyal party activists, they are certainly not united on Europe.

But the spectre in the corner, UKIP, is. And that's what appeals to those who, for right or wrong, want to leave the European Union and regain the British Nation.

It may never work. But pretending all is well in the ranks when even a fool can see that it's not, will as sure as heck divide but neither conquer nor rule!