So. The question on everyone's lips this morning in the UK. No, not what did the Prime Minister actually do with the dead pig? Rather, why has Lord Ashcroft gone to war on David Cameron?
The answer has nothing to do with Ashcroft's self-serving whine in the Daily Mail. The truth is this.
In the Eighties, people very close to Margaret Thatcher, at her instruction, became involved in nefarious activities, the details of which are covered in my own book, Maggie's Hammer.
Those activities included, but were not limited to, profiteering from illicit arms deals. One of the characters involved in those activities, but deeply hidden until now, was Michael Ashcroft, who was, at the time, a close friend of Denis Thatcher, the then Prime Minister's husband.
I have a source who has told me that, upon Mrs Thatcher's ouster as Leader of the Conservative Party, Sir James Goldsmith initiated a secret plan to take over the Conservative Party, using the ill-gotten gains of the aforementioned arms activities.
When Goldsmith died in 1997, I am told, Ashcroft took over as caretaker of the plan. Since then, Ashcroft has exerted considerable influence within the Conservative Party, based not least on his access to very considerable funds.
It is my information that Ashcroft turned against his Prime Minister when that same Prime Minister, after the General Election of 2010, made it one of his primary ambitions to thwart what he saw as the toxic influence of Ashcroft and 'his' money on the British body politic generally, and the Conservative Party specifically.
Hence, Ashcroft's new book.
Which is not to say that Conservative Party interest in arms sales has waned. But that will have to be the subject of a different Daily Mail story ...
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