The Tory MP trying to save Labour

I gather there is a Conservative MP of a certain age who has taken to grabbing stray Labour MPs in the back corridors of the Palace and pressing into their hands a slim volume. “Read this,” he whispers, “before it’s too late.” The volume in question is Norman Fowler’s under-appreciated A Political Suicide, his eyewitness account published last year of the disasters that led to the rout of 1997.

It’s a word of mouth phenomenon rather than a chart-buster but it’s packed full of vignettes that should send a shudder of self-recognition through Labour ranks. His nine lessons should be printed out and passed to Number 10, in particular Nos 1 (”A party which appears disunited, quarrelsome and frankly unpleasant will never win an election”), 2 (”Politicians must tell the truth”), 6 (”Never exploit the personal”), 9 (”The party should stay on the centre ground and should avoid propounding policies which simply appeal to paid-up members”).

No, I don’t know who he is.