If the spending levels and reforms are not making a tangible difference by the time of the next election, the Conservatives are theoretically well-placed to benefit. They are also well-placed to claim vindication if Mr Blair does not dare to hold a referendum on the euro.But the Conservatives have a curious deathwish. They are not fighting each other over deeply held principles or policies. They are fighting each other out of personal animosity or hatred Hague did not like Portillo Portillo was disdainful of Hague Widdecombe loathed Portillo Half the Shadow Cabinet loathed Widdecombe Duncan Smith was wary of Davis Davis is livid with Duncan Smith Half the Shadow Cabinet despises Davis. They are still consuming their own vomit, nearly choking their party to death Yet their sound and fury signify nothing More from Steve Richards. The end of the world has arrived early this year.

"Are we doing a deal, or are we doing a deal?" the creature says.It's one of those lines that'll ring in a certain kind of head for ever (And be popping out of a certain kind of mouth for ever. The voiceover comes from the Pepperoni/Pot Noodle bit-of-an-animal world, nasal and manic. The branded packaged blobs with their cartoony graphics hit the black background with a bang straight from the factory and sit there smoking while they play a sort of Trumpet Voluntary. It has lost its general director, Nicholas Payne, amid rows over falling box-office revenues, widespread criticism of its artistic standards and questions over the future. Audiences have been averaging just 60 per cent this season, at a time when ENO needs to fill seats to cope with an alarming £500,000 deficit. So far it has failed to find its form, despite efforts to produce innovative interpretations of classic operas, as well as new work. Payne left just weeks after ENO's production of A Masked Ball was rubbished as a distortion of Verdi's masterpiece.

One tenor walked out after refusing to appear naked in a production which included homosexual rape and opened with a dozen men sitting on lavatories.The company is also due to leave its London home, the 2,300-seat Coliseum in St Martin's Lane, in the heart of the West End, while a £41m refurbishment takes place. ENO's chairman, Martin Smith, is thought to be considering using the Coliseum for ENO opera for just six months a year, so that it would no longer need permanent staff. Technicians – wig-makers, costumiers, lighting engineers, carpenters and electricians – would become casual workers. And the singers on the ENO's books would see their once-safe jobs disappear, too.That would not only be a blow to the individual singers concerned, and the ENO audience, but to the world of opera. For the past 30 years, ENO has been a vital testing ground for opera in this country.