A WEEK is a long time in politics. But this one must seem like an agonising aeon for John Major.

For look at the mess the Tories are in.

There is civil war in the Cabinet over the single European currency.

Backbenchers are also in revolt over the future of the pound.

The government lands in a huge row over $50million Scrooge-style cuts in war pensions.

And the latest opinion poll has them trailing an amazing 37 points behind Labour.

So much for the popularity that a penny off income tax buys!

At this rate, it looks like all that Labour needs to do to win the next election is to keep quiet, twiddle their thumbs and let the Tories lose it with their self-destruct tactics.

And the wounds that the government has suffered in this hellish week for them are self-inflicted.

It was John Major who began the turmoil by proclaiming - albeit in the unattributed fashion that let Fleet Street say it for him - that he would fight the next election on a policy of saving the pound from the single currency for the lifetime of the next parliament.

For Westminster-watchers this was a clear shift from the government's "wait and see" stance and evidently a bid to humour the Tories' ever-fractious Euro-sceptic wing.

But it backfired badly when the next day Mr Major backtracked amid rumour that Chancellor Kenneth Clarke had threatened to resign.

There was also gossip that if he did go, he would take a large number of junior and middle-rank ministers with him, splitting the Conservatives from top to bottom and killing any chance at all of winning the next election.

Is it any wonder that, with their leaders at each other's throats, despite the public denials and protestations of unity, backbenchers are in uproar with the anti-Europe wing demanding a change of policy on the single currency - even though that might blow the party apart?

Rub in the revolt of Tory backbenchers over the mean and furtive benefits cuts for deafened war veterans, slipped into the small print of the last month's Budget, and the pile of self-inflicted misery grows even higher.

And goodness knows what the voters' verdict on all this will be - for the opinion poll that gave Labour that astonishing 37-point lead was held before this week's damaging brouhaha blew up in the government's face.

Certainly, it shows that Mr Clarke's budget has not done the Tories any great favours.

But nor has Mr Major in crossing swords with his Chancellor.

He should remember how Margaret Thatcher, even in a far stronger position than he is, was toppled after clashing with her Chancellor and deputy Prime Minister over Europe.

History does repeat itself - as John Major may find if he presides over a few more weeks like this.

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