Michael Moore Conservatives at large again

More on last night's vote on the Iraq war: Despite the Tories being unable to vote procedurally on their own Motion for an inquiry into the Iraq war AFTER British troops have left the country, they still trooped into the lobbies with the anti-war Liberal Democrats and SNP last night. This represented shallow opportunism at its worst and represented a clear move away from Cameron's promise not to oppose the Government for opposition's sake. In a small mitigation for the Tory Whips, senior Conservative sources have indicated that if they had not as a party voted with the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, a significant number of Conservative MPs (the Michael Moore variety - see Watlington's previous The New Tory Divide) would have gone into the Opposition lobbies anyway - thus splitting the party. Nevertheless, this was not a great evening for principled Conservatism. Whilst the Conservative high command may be thankful for a few plaudits from today's Guardian and the BBC, the long term effect to Anglo-American and Conservative-Republican relations could be highly damaging.

To read more by Watlington, see Watlington.