WITH US IT'S JUST LOVE : New Labour's hate-love relationship with Thatcher : Blair's MPs are bored of compromise and yearn for conviction politics (Alice Miles, March 20, 2002, Times of

The Tories are gearing up to relaunch themselves as a new, caring sharing Conservative Party (again) this weekend, without being sure whether to transplant new organs or simply buff up the old skin.

If Tony Blair is serious about this Third Way business--which, as Clinton showed, essentially means governing conservative while mouthing liberal platitudes--and the Tory Party is as intellectually moribund as it seems from across the pond, then how hard is it to imagine Blair bolting to the conservatives? If a Blair-led Tory Party recast itself as a party of free-markets, alliance with the US rather than with Europe, and significant reform of government services, they might remain in the wilderness for a while, but they'd be poised to pick up the pieces when old Labour screws up the country (even further). Posted by Orrin Judd at March 19, 2002 10:54 PM