Attacking the Tory Vanguard

Neither Daniel Hannan MEP nor Boris Johnson are particularly representative of the Cameron leadership. If anything, they provide Mr. Cameron with a degree of embarrassment. But they are hugely popular, for different reasons, amongst the Tory grassroots. Mr. Hannan's speech attacking Gordon Brown in the European Parliament received a huge number of hits - for a political speech - on youtube, and he has become something of a darling of the eurosceptic majority within the Conservative Party. Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, is a Tory favourite for simply being Boris Johnson, and having ousted Ken Livingstone from City Hall. Both are therefore fair game for left-wing opponents, and have both received a bit of a pasting for recent pronouncements.

Mr. Hannan wrote on the Daily Telegraph blog about the Georgian economic experience, claiming - in the headline no less - that "Libertarianism has made Georgia rich and free". A stirring article, no doubt, but comprehensively demolished by the Georgian opposition on their website. Mr. Johnson, meanwhile, comes in for attack from a Labour blogger who claims, in two posts here and here, that his attitude as Mayor of London has simply resulted in greater isolationism for Britain's capital city. Interesting reads all round.