Is there not something about that manic smile which makes one uneasy?
The Prime Minister has told confidantes (aka plotters) that he will put Ed Balls back in his box, and make the Cabinet more inclusive.
So then, this makes twenty-three apologies, seven plots, and forty-six promises. None of them meant anything before, so why should they now?
This is not the point, of course: for the Prime Minister must be contrite, shamed, humiliated and then weakened before the final coup de grace is applied. And this sword in the china-shop bull’s neck will be delivered by the electorate.
And when it is, Caliguson the Perverse will smile his unpleasant smile. For Brownite Old Labour wil be dead,and Blairite New Labour – Mandy’s pet project of some sixteen years dedication – will be triumphant.
In 1945, the Nazi bunker in Berlin contained a dozen similar delusions of life after the Fuhrer. And like the bizarre, fantasy aspirations of Himmler, Canaris, Goering and Bormann, those of Balls, Jowell and Mandelsod will look ridiculous in the era that follows.