He has been hideously displayed by the second-order haters in the press. Yet he will survive, and may even be strengthened in the end. Partly, also, it is Mr Cook's good fortune to find mincingly reproaching him Michael Howard, a detested Home Secretary from whom he need take no lessons in competence, principle or the loyal handling of departmental officials. But the real basis of Mr Cook's continuance is that the Government is not vulnerable. Though the old premise of imminent disintegration infuses the coverage, it is quite unreal.
Government is no longer about making that kind of judgment.
The public refuse to be bothered, because they very sensibly know is that government must go on, and the present lot are the only people likely to be conducting it for a long time ahead. This may be tedious. It's partly to ward off the boredom of Labour's unbreakable domination that the politics of the personal holds such sway. But as a large truth, the furore about Cook, and for that matter Peter Mandelson, is anachronistic. It is misleading about modern times.