There will be relief in Tory circles this morning that today’s papers contain no further damaging revelations about George Osborne and Andrew Feldman’s holiday activities. The Tories can begin to hope that this story is on the wane or that the focus of attention will soon shift back to Mandelson; do see Melissa Kite’s revelations about Mandelson and Deripaska.
The greatest danger to Osborne now is an accidental recommencement of hostilities. For instance, if a Sunday tabloid designed to try and dig dirt on the Rothschilds, Nate might go nuclear even if the Tories had not played any role in encouraging the paper. He is clearly a man with a trip-wire temperament.
Lessons must be learned from this episode. Members of the shadow cabinet ministers should not be dealing with people without due diligence having been done on them first. The Tories also need to avoid, as Iain Martin notes, appearing interested in power for the trappings of power. Finally, they need to imagine how everything they do would look if splashed across the front-page of a newspaper.
PS The solidity of Tory support for Osborne is, ironically, illustrated by a Times piece headlined “Tory grassroots: ‘George Osborne should resign’”. Only two councillors, neither of whom have national reputations, are quoted on the record as saying Osborne should go now.
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