The dog ate my homework

David Cameron has been called the boy who leaves his homework to the last minute but always pulls it out of the bag and gets top marks.  On his watch, Scotland remained part of the Union and he undermined an attempted leadership coup by announcing an In/Out EU referendum in 2017 (though a leadership challenge would have drawn the sting - John Major's 1995 gauntlet were under vastly changed circumstances).  Cameron knows how close the 2015 General election will be and must try all kind of underhand tactics.  Hence the firecracker he threw into the Labour party conference on the morning of the Scottish referendum result with "English votes for English laws."  Subsequently, Labour were faced with questions about that rather than they wanted to talk about like the NHS and the deficit - maybe this partially the reason why Ed Miliband forgot to mention the latter in his conference speech.  Labour got a conference anti-bounce which is impressive in some ways.
But the Tories have had their own conference undermined on its opening weekend.  If you live by the sword, you die by the sword.  One MP had to resign as Minister for Civil Society with some decidedly uncivil behaviour in sending explicit imagery to what turned out to be an undercover journalist.  But more than that is the defection of a second Tory MP to UKIP.  Reckless by name and reckless by nature, Mark should be right at home in his new party with missing a Budget vote because he was too drunk.  However, unlike the impoverished Clacton-on-Sea, Rochester and Strood's patricians and burghers may not be so forgiving of Reckless and he may not win back his seat, despite taking roughly 50% of the vote in 2010.  The Conservative constituency chairman is 'furious and disgusted', not least because Reckless assured him just 48 hours previous to his defection that he had no intention of doing so.  Indeed, the ex-Tory may the mirror the General Election, splitting the right-wing vote and letting Labour in to win (the party of democratic socialism topped the poll in the constituency - then known as Medway - with Bob Marshall Andrews, QC, in 2001 and 2005).  The public may not be impressed with Labour but a united party will always triumph over one tearing itself apart.  David Cameron threw his irreconcilables red meat in an attempt to appease and Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless have come back to bite the hand that feeds them.  As the Polish foreign minister said, it was weak party management and he should have told them where to get off; it could well contribute to the end of Cameron's tenure as both prime minister and Conservative leader.  He did well in the mocks but when it came to the real exam, the schoolboy left his studying just too late.