Blair Setback Starts Purge, Could End as Hemorrhage.

Way back in the day, when I was living in London with wife and new-born daughter, I remember reading the FT on the platform of the Kingston Upon Thames British Rail station and coming upon the article that the resignation of the Home Secretary [if I recall correctly] would lead to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. It was just a matter of time, the FT said.

Today, seventeen years and two swings of the pendulum later [or a swing and a half], the FT notes that Tony Blair has purged his senior Cabinet to avoid Maggie's fate.

Will David Cameron be able to resuscitate the Conservatives enough to get them off the semi-permanent life support Blair has consigned them to over the best part of the last decade?

Blair's dazzling political skills are awesome during Question Time, but America's favorite Brit may not be able to withstand the Bolshies in his own Labour Party, who support Gordon Brown as a pure reincarnation of their past failures during the TUC ascendancy in the British left. It's more complicated than that, of course, but Tony faces a rebellion by the revolting ultra-left fringe of his own party, which predictably will lead to a Conservative victory in the next General Election.

Maybe I'm wrong, but a bit of the same thing is happening, mutatis mutandis, to GWB stateside.