Come In Nadine, Your Time Is Up

There have been many column inches devoted recently to the attacks on Young Dave and the Rt Hon Gideon George Oliver Osborne, heir to the Seventeenth Baronet, by (yes, it’s her again) Tory MP for Mid Bedfordshire Nadine Dorries. The characterisation of the PM and Chancellor as “arrogant posh boys”, with the debate even covering the cost of a pint of milk, has got pundits interested.

I want a weeerd with yew!

And the interest level has been high among the obedient hackery of the legendarily foul mouthed Paul Dacre, where Ms Dorries has enjoyed significant approval. Sonia Poulton has enthusiastically agreed “It's true, Ms Dorries: Cameron and Osborne are out of touch. When will they also be out of office?” as she pretends to have been won round by the former nurse (and soon to be former MP).

Ms Poulton is clearly unhappy that the PM and his sidekick appear out of touch, although her grasp of detail is imperfect – no good calling Osborne “Dave’s Bullingdon chum” when they weren’t at Oxford at the same time – and they aren’t the only two MPs out of the 650 or so in the Commons who have little or no work experience elsewhere (or appreciate what “doing without” means).

Elsewhere, Janice Atkinson Small has joined in, telling “Nadine Dorries has put her finger on the reason Brits no longer feel like part of a great nation”, although that may be news to the MP. This piece of punditry rambles on about a supposed sense of national decline, quotes Margaret Thatcher (at length), rails against the EU (obligatory at the Mail), and says Dave isn’t a real Conservative.

But the overall tone is very pro-Dorries, which is not the case over at the Maily Telegraph. Now we know there is previous between the paper – not least its owners, the Barclay twins aka The Fabulous Bingo Brothers – and the Mid Bedfordshire MP, but the latest criticism has come from Bryony Gordon, not one of the management and not known for participating in attack hackery.

Moreover, Ms Gordon is close to the Telegraph’s political editor Benedict Brogan (how close? Read your Private Eye), and her opinion may be considered to reflect the more thoughtful point of view at the paper. And that point of view is that “I’ve really tried to like Nadine Dorries, in much the same way that I have really tried to like green tea and lentils”, to which I say Mee-oww!!

Ms Gordon continues “She is the queen of self-promotion” (true) and notes that Mid Bedfordshire is set to disappear, suggesting “all this rather smacks of a disgruntled politician whose ambitions have been thwarted” (also true), and noting how Ms Dorries demeaned the military service of her Labour opponent at the last election. And by the end of the piece, there is a very clear message.

That message is that Nadine Dorries is out of favour and out of time with her party.