A perturbing hint on how next year's general election campaign might pan out emerged this week when David Cameron attempted to outsmart Gordon Brown on the funding of two Islamic schools.
The Conservative Party leader's allegations - that taxpayers' money was being used, in effect, to fund Muslim extremism and on whether the schools were Ofsted-registered - were proven to be false.
Someone somewhere had confused the two Pathway funding pots - the one to pay for nursery places and the one to combat extremism; and someone somewhere had failed to check with Ofsted - its inspectors had commended the school in Slough.
Right now, the Tories are playing pass the parcel of blame. Was Cameron to blame, or was education spokesperson Michael Gove the guilty party or was it the research team? Cameron may have to get used to the principle of collective responsibility.
Certainly, David Cameron was in a rush to get these allegations out into the open, albeit under the protection of parliamentary privilege. Fools rush in, Dave.
How much of the mud has stuck is difficult to judge. Whether it is a sign of things to come, as the Tories woo prospective BNP voters (most of whom, apparently, are not at all racist) we will find out next year.
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