Howard's Lost It

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? Whatever else it may have done the Blair project has actually sent the Tories spinning towards oblivion.

Never has this been more obvious than tonight when C4 Jon Snow tackles Michael Howard. The Tory smirk-in-chief is boarish, talks over the questions, and is probably as good an advert for NOT TORY as the now haunted Mr Fox.

All of a sudden the Tory Terrets Syndrome - Lower Tax, Controlled Immigration, £35 Billion Cuts (And That's Just For Starters), More Police, School Discipline, Clean Hospitals and Accountability - gets a new ingredient. Aside that is from the one I've already smuggled in! Did you spot it?

The new one is "No Stalinist Targets" and Howard can't seem to stop himself saying the word 'Stalin' over and over again.

Now to me targets make a lot of sense but if Michael wants to offer anecdote and spin instead of carefully monitored progress towards desired results (ditto those Lib Dems) then so be it.

But it does leave the question of how should we refer to Mr Howard's own targets for the first day in government, first week and so on. Are these also Stalinist? By his own definition? Or do we need to find their own dirigiste regime to slam Tories with?