No dispute is too trivial for ministers to ignore, an obsession that will harm them
When Napoleon marched on Moscow in 1812, the Russian general Mikhail Kutuzov ordered his forces to sit back. They abandoned their capital and conserved their energies until Napoleon, his supply lines fatally extended, had to retreat and see winter, disease and guerrilla attacks destroy his army and his reputation for invincibility.
The Tories might have sat back and let a vicious left destroy itself. Instead, they have gone on the offensive. No dispute is too trivial to ignore now. No scab too small to pick. Like all swaggering hard cases, they look for fights and if a real conflict isn’t on offer they will pick one with any passerby.
