The "useful idiots"

Good comment piece by Rachel Sylvester in todays Telegraph on the recruitment by Gordon Brown of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to "consult" on policy.

The big clunking fist has not turned into an outstretched palm. The Conservative MPs recruited by the Labour leader are like Lenin's "useful idiots" - they are political puppets, summoned into the Government of all the talents, not to illuminate Mr Brown but to destabilise Mr Cameron.

To be fair, Cameron has been pretty good at destabilising himself - not surprising when he's shown all the resilience and solidity of a jelly - but Brown makes a good point about the principle of "consensus politics" which sounds all nice and lovely in theory, but is just another way of saying "one party state". The Soviet Union believed in consensus too - as long as the consensus was what the communist party wanted and so it is in Britain today.

The "useful idiots" might look a little different and might wear the blue ties of a Tory, but they're just as idiotic as ever.