Up Yours, Delors

Now that power is within their reach, Daveybloke's Cuddly Conservatives have decided they can afford to drop the mask a bit more on the way to redefining their redefinition of their definition as the other Out with Wogs, Down with Frogs party. Their Europe spokesbeing, Mark Francois (I wonder if he pronounces it Frank-oyce, and if not, how long he can expect to last), and the shadow Minister for Lesser Breeds have been to Strasbourg in order to sever their formal connection with the mainstream right-wing bloc in the European parliament. Among the parties who are either too foreign or too left-wing for Daveybloke's Cuddly Conservatives is that of the Vicar of Downing Street's very dear chum, Silvio Berlusconi, which Britain's leading liberal newspaper refers to as "mainstream centre-right". Opponents of Hague's UDI policy see it as "a move voluntarily pushing the party to the fringes of European politics", as though the party had ever been, or had ever wished to be, anywhere else.