Harman

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. What fantastic news for the Conservative Party. What a catastrophe for the Labour Party. Ms Harman, put forward as a representative of Southern Middle England has a completely tin ear for it. Why shouldn't people buy expensive handbags? What's it to you? Were you lying when you said you thought Labour should apologise for the Iraq War, or when you now say you don't nad never have thought so?

As important is what Harman means to Gordon Brown's anti-Tory strategy. Prime angle has been that, as an Old Etonian scion of the aristocracy (actually landed gentry...) Cameron is hopelessly unrepresentative of modern Britain. This attack gets harder when the deputy leader of the Labour Party is an Old Pauline and the niece of the Countess of Longford. Keen to attack the Tories for their policy of making it easier to opt out of state provision? Good luck when your deputy famously sent her children to independent grammar schools. Not only is she a talented vote-loser in her own right, she also scuppers her party's anti-Tory policy. result huh?