The OP is about Tory party disunity, and the New Labour under the “stranglehold” of Alistair Campbell was then mentioned, which is well known to also include his bullying of the press – clearly at the moment the party can rely on a whole movement within to make the parliamentary party stay on message - but in general, frankly I’d rather MP’s with half a brain have their own opinions, rather than be told by the ‘dark arts’ of spin within, or nowadays other types of persuasion, to get behind the leadership’s mantras.
As in an attempt to add further ‘balance’ to possible selective memory, re the rather curious thought the Conservatives control the press, in 1997, when Blair and Brown were buddies with Mr Murdock whose Sun said their influence was ‘wot won it’ (didn’t his wife later have a childrens ‘sleepover’ at the Browns at #11?) - how many newspaper supported the Conservative Party from 1997?
Obviously, the Daily Mail and increasing based on Labour’s policies, the Telegraph, but which others out of several – and what about the BBC’s left wing bias e.g. who later even apologised for burying the effects of immigration on every day services etc in the UK – when the press and posters on their sites were told just mentioning immigration was RACIST, I wonder who was behind that.
It was due to the attempts of the then government and media that gave oxygen to a UKIP listening to those believing that the Single Market wasn’t working for them, and more recently, resulting in Brexit – so while Tory cabinet members should grow up or get a big slap/sacking, as a party, I’d rather Conservative MP’s in government speak their mind, and when they sometimes vote against the government – I THEN get to watch our opposition parties without a majority, curiously then taking the credit.