Britain really does need a debate this conference season. Shame it won’t get one

Leaders of failed coups either have to get out of town or abase themselves before their still-reigning targets. Gordon Brown, who feels his future career opportunities are greater in Britain than anywhere else, chose the latter course, trundling from television studio to television studio to profess his admiration for his long-time friend, Tony Blair.

Blair’s profession of surprise at the coup is just about as genuine as Brown’s professions of loyalty. He did, after all, play the matador, waving a red cape in front of the Brown bull by refusing, in his interview with the Times, to give a date for his retirement from the ring. Predictably, the impatient bull, already pricked by outriding picadors, charged — on to the waiting blade of the matador. But not before fatally goring his tormentor. Thus was the mutual suicide pact between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown consummated. Blair has to depart at a time and under circumstances not of his choosing. Brown, meanwhile, has reduced the probability of the orderly transition (aka, coronation) he desperately desires by ignoring Evita’s advice to Juan Peron — All we have to do is wait, and the country is ours.

This MAD — mutually assured destruction — has all but eliminated the possibility of a serious debate about the future of Britain any time soon. The chief beneficiary of this fiasco is David Cameron and his ‘policy-light’ — the phrase assigns more weight to his positions than they really deserve. He can now avoid serious policy battles, waiting until his focus groups tell him what he thinks, while Brown concentrates on repairing the damage he has done to himself, and that the enraged Blairites will continue to inflict on him.