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ALLOWEEN's horrors this year featured the scary Michael Howard, stepping over the barely-warm political corpse of lain DuncanSmith to seize the uncontested leadership of the main opposition party.
Yet the absence of any challengers, and the Tory sense of relief at disposing of the hopeless Duncan Smith (described by former Daily Telegraph hack Max Hastings as "a turnip who makes Michael Foot look like Spartacus") seems to have opened up the prospect of a period of relatively united Tory leadership - even if this can only hope to ensure that they lose the next election with dignity rather than ridicule.
Even that may prove a challenge for Mr Howard, who came bottom of the poll when he challenged William Hague for the leadership post in 1997: a Guardian opinion poll found that 26 percent of voters were even less likely to vote for the Tories under him than IDS.
The lack of any optimistic prospect for the Tories is perhaps best summed up by the departure from politics of Michael Terry Conway ance Winter 2003 Portillo, once seen as a "big beast" contender for the Party's leadership - despite having been offered a shadow cabinet post by Michael Howard.
The threadbare, anonymous appearance of the new Tory team makes a mockery of Howard's promise to bring together "a front bench of all the talents" and to lead "from the centre". The "centre" of today's Tory party is at the far right end of the political spectrum.
The reason? New Labour. Tony Blair's reactionary ministers have stolen many of the Tories' former policies, meaning that the Tories in opposition have been forced to travel much further to the right in order to outflank New Labour and project any independent line.
This process began under William Hague and culminated under Dunc year's Conservative Conference, where delegates responded with rapturous applause to barbaric plans to ship asylum seekers to an island "far, far away".
Crazy, uncosted and unworkable plans to offer NHS patients up to 60% of the cost of private treatment, and a claim that "no more will parents have to send their As the National Coalition of Antiresult of cutting "waste". expansion. the party behind the spooky Mr Howard. the death penalty, and was a key supporter abortion rights. Smith at this Secretary, and unleashed a barrage of reacstoked up numbers in Britain's jails. conian laws against asylum seekers. And he thousands of people who have been children to failing schools" ran alongside Michael Howard's promise of tax cuts as a
Opportunist proposals to scrap student tuition fees without offering alternative funding would mean a halt to university
These are among the "splendid new policies" which Tories now feel can unite
But even if he may have something of a future, Howard is also a man with a past. His record in government certainly has more than a hint of the night about it. He is two-fold came into Parliament voicing support for of the Poll Tax. He has voted to restrict
Howard's two years as Employment Secretary saw unemployment jacked up by a million. But then he became Home tionary policies, including the homophobic Clause 28, and - using the famous phrase "prison works!" - measures that massively
He brought in repeated, ever more draIDS (left) was right wing enough - but not as scary as Howard is still as reactionary on this issue as he ever was: on October 31 he told The Sun that he wants to "lock up asylum seekers". He was prominent in the campaign for the release of Chilean dictator General Pinochet.
The danger of a Howard-led Tory Party
On the one hand, with the benefit of a period of relative party unity, and a consistent hard-line stance against Europe and asylum seekers, Tories hope that Howard may be able to regain some of the Party's lost links with Rupert Murdoch and The Sun, while a more effective elaboration of tax-cutting policies may entice back some of the big business backers that have deserted the Tories since 1992
On the other, any resurgence of the Tory right is likely to drag even New Labour further to the right, especially on issues such as asylum and law and order - where David these measures as financial, claiming Blunkett as Home Secretary is already well to the right of Howard in office and any of his Tory predecessors.
This will in turn fuel the right wing press, inflame frustrations and social tension, and help boost support for the racism and vio lence of far right and fascist elements such as the BNP
Meanwhile a major question mark must hang over the future of the Conservative Party, facing its worst crisis in 100 years and no serious prospect of regaining office in even the medium term future
Its average age is 65, with 90 percent of members living in rural parts of South East England. Tories hold no constituencies in any big city outside London. Big business donations have dwindled from €5m a year in 1992 to just £360,000 in |998
It will take more than a few incantations from Mr Howard to put that right over the weeks and months ahead.