... but keep your enemies closer.

One of the most unpleasant features of the New Labour Project (and there were plenty to choose from) was the croneyism around the Leadership. Getting sacked by Blair was almost impossible, whether it was for incompetence (Charles Clarke) or shady dealings (Blunkett, Mandelson) it was usually a case of resignation under duress rather than the axe falling which finally did for them. Loyalty is all well and good, but when it is stretched beyond credibility it is foolish.

As with so many things New Labour, the Blair-lite David Cameron seems to adopt the New Labour model characteristics whether they are good or bad. So too with the croneyism around his inner circle. Simon Heffer in The Telegraph:

The cooling-off of relations has nothing to do with the party's lack of policies, or with Dave's charm-free attitude to some of his foot soldiers; it is because of the perception of cronyism around the leader, no better than that for which the Tories have condemned the last two Labour prime ministers. It started with the expenses scandal. It is now widely felt that mates of Dave had preferential treatment, not just from the party committee that investigated them, but from the party machine itself. Spin doctors and parliamentary colleagues were sent out to prop up certain key mates who had done unethical things with the public's money. People who were not key mates were hung out to dry. In an atmosphere already fraught with self-pity, over-emotionalism and blame-shifting, the perception of Dave as having been partisan in the recent conduct of the affairs of his party is now festering nicely.