Silly Season in London

...After some political soundings, however, neither Michael felt confident enough to enter the contest...

...The pattern persists down the line, with the same old faces running Whitehall...

...The logic is that until the Conservatives enjoy a sorely needed period of rest and recuperation from governing, they will be incapable of again providing Britain with inspired leadership...

...Currently 30 points behind Labor in the polls, they have alienated legions of formerly faithful middle-class voters by failing to confront concerns about taxes, job security, crime, health care, and a host of other matters...

...Insisting that only Labor can complete the social and economic revolution she set into motion, he has credited Thatcher (and U.S...

...When Blair declared as well that British trade unions will no longer dictate policy to the Labor Party, some Labor wags observed that he would make a better Conservative Prime Minister than Major...

...One publicly called him "useless," a description even the Labor leadership would spurn as uncouth...

...On a personal level, Major's bold move has given him a tougher, more complex image...

...Who the British Newt Gingrich might be no one knows...

...Comparatively new to the ancient sport of Tory infighting and with little personal following, Redwood was easily brushed aside in the balloting...

...Others, using less abusive language, left no doubt about their belief that with Major at the helm the Tories would be cast into the political wilderness...

...NEVERTHELESS, Major's silly season stunt almost certainly pre-empted a challenge later this year that appeared increasingly inevitable...

...His parliamentary party, as former Tory MP Frances Maud aptly observed, had come to resemble "a rabble of demented rats, nibbling at the hull of the ship until it starts to sink, then squeaking with rage at the captain for failing to keep it afloat...

...That he has adopted such a strategy was further indicated by his shifting Portillo, the outspoken standard-bearer of the Tory right wing, to the job of Defense Secretary...

...In due course the new Conservatives may provide the vision the Tories need to rebuild their public image...

...Simon Heffer, 34, deputy editor of the Daily Telegraph...

...This loosely organized network brings a probing, critical approach to Conservative thinking...

...The Prime Minister himself has lost the backing of almost all the Tory-leaning newspapers, including Rupert Murdoch's mass-circulation tabloid, the Sun, whose banner-headline assaults on Labor greatly contributed to the unexpected Conservative victory in April 1992...

...It also animated a party that, despite its internecine rivalries, had become numbingly boring...

...But there is another side to the Tory picture...

...The results demonstrated that a majority of Conservative MPs still deem Major the man most capable of meeting the threat posed by Labor under its dynamic new leader, Tony Blair...

...The appellation is a relic of the time when women responded to the short period of bright sunshine in these parts by donning flamboyant protective hats, while men rolled up their trouser legs and waded barefoot along Blackpool beach...

...Such once daring behavior is of course small potatoes compared to the year-round antics of some individuals now...

...After 16 years of uninterrupted rule, the Tories are widely perceived as having no purpose other than to cling to power...

...Another termed him "a loser...

...Preoccupied with military matters ranging from the Bosnian crisis to regimental dinners, Portillo will have little time to engage in the intraparty plotting for which he has clearly developed an appetite...

...Major's pre-emptive strike may have produced a measure of party unity, but probably only momentarily...

...William Waldegrave has gone from Agriculture to the Treasury...

...Even though it was clear the vote was meant to determine whether Major would remain Prime Minister, many Conservatives thought a no-holds-barred leadership battle among the Tory members of Parliament was sheer folly...

...and Matthew D'Ancona, 29, of the London Times editorial board...

...Blair has actually gone so far as to claim the mantle of Margaret Thatcher, the Tory Iron Lady...

...The London Times echoed the sentiment...

...Commenting on the Prime Minister's victory, it wrote: "Conservative MPs Norman Gelb reports regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...

...The two most likely contenders for Major's leadership post appeared to be Board of Trade President Michael Heseltine on the Tory left and Employment Secretary Michael Portillo on the right...

...Virginia Bottomley, much maligned for having run down the National Health Service as Health Minister, has been moved to the Ministry for National Heritage...

...Rewarding, not penalizing success...

...A spirited new Conservative intellectual movement has developed in Britain, made up mostly of young writers and journalists...

...A serious kink in Major's strategy may prove to be his failure to inject new, younger faces into his government...

...In that event...

...threw away their last best opportunity to win the next general election...

...A greater emphasis on enterprise...

...Major's summer silliness could translate into a genuine surprise...

...But Major felt it was a risk he had to take...

...The key question for the Tories is whether they can reclaim the political relevance Blair has been usurping...

...To date, in any case, he has mostly limited himself to playing musical chairs within his Cabinet...

...Moreover, the brief campaign afforded a number of Tories an opportunity to make known their low regard for the Prime Minister and for party unity generally...

...Kenneth Clarke is staying on as Chancellor of the Exchequer...

...Yet since fully one third of his colleagues voted against him, Major hardly scored a resounding victory...

...President Ronald Reagan) with getting "certain things right...

...His appointing the moderate, energetic Hesel-tine Deputy Prime Minister suggests that Major will make a strong pitch to regain control of the middle ground in British politics...

...Tony Blair also has a small brain trust of bright, imaginative thinkers, but they tend to be overshadowed by the youthful 42-year-old leader...

...It incudes such figures as historian Andrew Roberts, 32, author of the highly acclaimed Eminent Churehilli-ans...

...Besides the Heseltine and Portillo maneuvers, Malcolm Rifkind has been shifted from Defense to the Foreign Ministry...

...The direction he is likely to take can already be gleaned from his post-leadership contest Cabinet reshuffle...

...Indeed, it has become apparent that a number of influential Tories welcome the prospect of a Labor victory in the election now expected to be called next year...

...Why show the whole country how profoundly riven they were by bitter personal enmities and sharp policy differences (primarily over proposals for closer European unity and a single European currency...

...Thus on July 4 Major faced only his former Welsh Secretary, John Redwood...

...Possibly Por-tillo.Perhaps even the defeated Redwood, a humorless figure nicknamed "the Vulcan," admired by some for daring to take on the Prime Minister...

...Whatever popular interest it aroused in recent years was due largely to revelations of financial sleaze or sexual hanky-panky involving Tory figures...

...The Prime Minister's approach will put him head-to-head with Labor leader Blair, who has been sedulously and effectively trying to corner the same political middle ground—where most of the votes are...

...nonetheless, the tag endures...

...Meanwhile, the marginalized right wing of the party is intact, if sullen...

...Being keen observers of American politics, they contend that just as President Bill Clinton's missteps paved the way for the rise of Newt Gingrich—whom they find a fascinating phenomenon—Blair would soon stumble and pave the way for an emergent Conservative leader...

...But most important, it has positioned him to revitalize his doddering government at the upcoming annual Conservative Party conference...

...In fact, summer silliness is what John Major was seen to be indulging in with his June 22 announcement that he was quitting as Tory leader to run for the same office two weeks later—and thereby force his party critics to "put up or shut up...

...Anne Applebaum, 30, the American deputy editor of the Spectator...

...Robin Harris, former director of the Conservative Research Department, says the task before the Tory right "is to ensure it is ready to pick up the pieces" after Major has led the Conservatives to defeat...