Of course the old Tory hatreds are back. That’s referendums for you

Of course it’s vicious. It was always going to be. Sure, they’ve spent decades living peacefully side by side, but so did the Hutu and Tutsi. So did the Alawites and Sunnis, and so did every manner of former Yugoslavian. In politics, old hatreds do not die. They merely keep mum, so as to get selected and maybe become a junior minister. You will not find me dwelling upon the row in cabinet, this week, about whether pro-Brexit ministers are allowed to see government papers related to the EU referendum. Personally, I’d pay good money not to see government papers related to the EU referendum. I consider it a very real sign of sickness to want to. Although it was good to see Lord Mandelson weighing in, wasn’t it? Made me properly nostalgic. Because that’s what you want in an argument. An interjection from Lord Mandelson. You might as well try to calm two fighting dogs by throwing them a cat. More interesting than this spat is the relish — indeed, near relief — with which it is being conducted. Dimly, within the furthest reaches of their angry minds, pro-Brexit members of the government know that they cannot shout at the Prime Minister and hope to keep their jobs, not even if they’re shouting about Europe. They can, however, shout at the Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood. And so they do, thanking God they can. They have never really been on the same side, the two types of Tories. They have merely rubbed along. The Eurocides (for the broader ‘Eurosceptic’ no longer seems specific enough) have kept the faith, like a caste within. They have known each other by a special sense, eyes meeting across rooms, probably a bit like gaydar. For them, the wider party — at least in Parliament — has long been packed with wets and cowards.