The broom, not the dust?

Francis Urquhart will be spinning in his fictional grave. Once Tory whips were the MI5 of the Commons. They put a bit of stick about, knew every skeleton in every closet – and provided the  best early-warning to the leadership. So Cameron should have been warned about the full horrors of the Conway crisis months ago – now he’s fire fighting. And today he’s taken a gamble – he’s saved the Sunday papers time and announced 70 of his MPs employ family members. He wants to take the initiative cleaning this mess up – and portray his party as the broom, not the dust. But he won’t know what lurks in that dust and I suspect his clueless whips won’t be able to help. Cameron will be calculating that all parties are up to their necks in this – so no one will cast the first stone. Remember the silence over Conway at PMQs on Wednesday. They’re all terrified.