Donal Blaney: A Mature Blueprint Before Swine

This, from Donal Blaney, published at Conservative Home is Champions' League material compared to the non-league dross appearing in both posts and comments at some of the more excitable Tory blogs.

The whole thing is well thought through, well written and entirely sensible. The second commandment is as follows:

2. Remain on the offensive against Gordon Brown.

Brown's position as omnipotent leader is now less secure. Labour MPs, the media and other natural Brown allies will be looking at Brown in a different way after the past week, no longer reverential or intimidated. The Conservative Party needs to keep up the pressure but in such a way as not to provoke Labour to unite against the Tories - it was Brown's intimation of an early election that, of course, successfully reunited the Tories to such dramatic effect this past week.

He might have added that the continuing cascade of juvenile ad hominem attacks is not what he has in mind. And it gets better:

3. Do not underestimate Gordon Brown again.

Too many people convinced themselves that once Brown became Prime Minister, voters would see he was dour and ineffective and the Tories could coast to victory. They were wrong. While Brown may have decided not to call an early election, he can hardly be discounted as a busted flush. His ruthless streak, honed from his time as Chancellor when all challengers to his eventual succession of Tony Blair fell by the wayside to the "clunking fist", will be back on display as early as Tuesday with some undoubted sweeteners being offered to his backbenchers and to the electorate in the Comprehensive Spending Review. Tories need to remain united and to hold their collective nerve.

To see this standard of analysis - even lifted verbatim and re-published in full by some other bloggers - would be more worrying if any of them were really paying any attention! Even Conservative Home kicked off this less than 90 minutes later.

GRAPHIC: Based on Project Gutenberg. Stall of Carved Wood (15th century), representing the proverb, "Margaritas ante Porcos" from Rouen Cathedral.