So asked Ted Heath in 1974. The answer was, "Well, not you, Ted. If you have to ask, and all that."
But 41 years after his defenestration as Leader of the Conservative Party, his own pre-Cameroon, non-Cameroon, and in some ways even anti-Cameroon Conservative Left, which most people had either forgotten existed or never knew, emerged effortlessly to take back control.
It gave itself the positions of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Home Secretary, as well as most of the major spending Departments. The Lord Chancellorship was given to a Radical Liberal who had come up through the Lib Dems.
And the Foreign Secretaryship was split in three, with each part given to a man who would resign soon enough. David Davis on principle. Liam Fox because of scandal. Boris Johnson by being Boris Johnson. The old position will then be revived, and given to a stalwart of the Very Old New Order.
They, as such, had not won the General Election, which might as well never have been held, for all the impact that it now has on the government of this country.
They had positively lost the EU referendum, which is to result in the incorporation of the entire acquis communautaire directly into the law of the United Kingdom, with an absolute veto on any "final" deal, both for the implacably pro-Single Market House of Commons, and for the implacably pro-EU House of Lords.
This is beyond mere Heathism, as surely as is the requirement of private companies to have trade unions representatives (and who else are they going to be?) on their Boards of Directors.
Do not, by the way, get hung up about the return of grammar schools. There will never be a majority for that in either House of Parliament.
But speaking of the unions, the pre-Blairite, non-Blairite, and in some ways even anti-Blairite Labour Right has retained a certain amount of clout in some of them, especially Community, USDAW and the GMB, all of which, like Unite, will have much to gain from the scheme to put their reps on the Board.
That Right has also maintained a very strong base in local government. Yet for 20 years, between the death of John Smith and the election of Tom Watson, it held neither of its party's top positions.
It was therefore as dispossessed as the Left was, and it is therefore now as determined as the Left is to keep its man in post. Bear in mind that the votes that elected them both must have been cast in very large part by the same people.
Meanwhile, the General Election-winning Cameroons, in the person of their principal strategist, are about to assume the Editorship of the Evening Standard. Look out for further inroads into the media. The Editor of The Times is 65. The Editor of the Daily Mail is 68.
It is possible that George Osborne intends to be the Mayor of London and the Editor of the Evening Standard simultaneously. It is certain that Ruth Davidson intends to be First Minister of Scotland. Her party has more seats in the current Scottish Parliament than the SNP had in the first one.
All in all, the shape is becoming clear. Politics itself is for the Labour Left and everyone who comes with it, for the traditional Labour Right, and for the traditional Conservative Left. Commentary is for the globalist, socially ultra-liberal, pro-EU, internationally interventionist, and mostly very posh wing of the Conservative Party.
With a few of their Blairite mates let in as a favour. But Blairism in general is now peculiar to hobbyists, dilettantes and cranks. As is the Conservative Right. And as is however many UKIPs there are in any given week.
Of course, there will always be the Daily Telegraph. But unless it adapts to the New Order, then it can expect a circulation comparable to that of the Morning Star, and vastly less influence than the only newspaper that is permitted in the office of the Leader of the Opposition, the only newspaper for which MPs write several times per week, the newspaper on which their Leader has a column.
For that last reason, especially, no one seriously doubts that, like Margaret Thatcher during the Miners' Strike, Theresa May reads the Morning Star every day. But for how much longer will either she or Jeremy Corbyn read the Telegraph? Do they, even now?
This is beyond mere Heathism, as surely as is the requirement of private companies to have trade unions representatives (and who else are they going to be?) on their Boards of Directors.
Do not, by the way, get hung up about the return of grammar schools. There will never be a majority for that in either House of Parliament.
But speaking of the unions, the pre-Blairite, non-Blairite, and in some ways even anti-Blairite Labour Right has retained a certain amount of clout in some of them, especially Community, USDAW and the GMB, all of which, like Unite, will have much to gain from the scheme to put their reps on the Board.
That Right has also maintained a very strong base in local government. Yet for 20 years, between the death of John Smith and the election of Tom Watson, it held neither of its party's top positions.
It was therefore as dispossessed as the Left was, and it is therefore now as determined as the Left is to keep its man in post. Bear in mind that the votes that elected them both must have been cast in very large part by the same people.
Meanwhile, the General Election-winning Cameroons, in the person of their principal strategist, are about to assume the Editorship of the Evening Standard. Look out for further inroads into the media. The Editor of The Times is 65. The Editor of the Daily Mail is 68.
It is possible that George Osborne intends to be the Mayor of London and the Editor of the Evening Standard simultaneously. It is certain that Ruth Davidson intends to be First Minister of Scotland. Her party has more seats in the current Scottish Parliament than the SNP had in the first one.
All in all, the shape is becoming clear. Politics itself is for the Labour Left and everyone who comes with it, for the traditional Labour Right, and for the traditional Conservative Left. Commentary is for the globalist, socially ultra-liberal, pro-EU, internationally interventionist, and mostly very posh wing of the Conservative Party.
With a few of their Blairite mates let in as a favour. But Blairism in general is now peculiar to hobbyists, dilettantes and cranks. As is the Conservative Right. And as is however many UKIPs there are in any given week.
Of course, there will always be the Daily Telegraph. But unless it adapts to the New Order, then it can expect a circulation comparable to that of the Morning Star, and vastly less influence than the only newspaper that is permitted in the office of the Leader of the Opposition, the only newspaper for which MPs write several times per week, the newspaper on which their Leader has a column.
For that last reason, especially, no one seriously doubts that, like Margaret Thatcher during the Miners' Strike, Theresa May reads the Morning Star every day. But for how much longer will either she or Jeremy Corbyn read the Telegraph? Do they, even now?
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