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It's worth considering both the @AmberRuddHR and @JoJohnsonUK resignation tweets in the context of the most famous and devastating Tory resignation in recent memory, Geoffrey Howe's quitting Margaret Thatcher's cabinet: 1/
Compare and contrast (wonderfully, Howe's speech can now be found in the music lyrics website formerly known as Rap Genius): genius.com/Geoffrey-howe-… 2/ 
In all three that theme of the national interest vs. loyalty to current leadership comes through very strongly. I half-suspect Jo Johnson had a copy of the Howe speech to hand when he wrote that tweet.
There's also in Amber Rudd's letter that theme of being undermined or treated duplicitously by a Prime Minister concealing his true policy. This is incredibly reminiscent of perhaps the most famous passage of Howe's speech, the cricketer metaphor:
Remember as well what Howe resigned over: Tory policy towards the then-European Community!
The entire speech he's promoting an idea of Britain at the heart of Europe that he thinks (rightly, as it turned out) Thatcher is turning her back on.
genius.com/Geoffrey-howe-…
The entire speech he's promoting an idea of Britain at the heart of Europe that he thinks (rightly, as it turned out) Thatcher is turning her back on.
genius.com/Geoffrey-howe-…
As @liamdenning says, it's astonishing the extent to which the civil war over Europe playing out in the Tory party now was already in full swing 30 years ago:
Re-reading Howe's speech it's like nothing has changed since 1990:
Howe, like Rudd, was a former front-line minister who'd been recently demoted.
He's been Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary; she'd been Home Secretary (the three jobs, with Prime Minister, make up the UK's great offices of state, the most important Cabinet jobs)
He's been Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary; she'd been Home Secretary (the three jobs, with Prime Minister, make up the UK's great offices of state, the most important Cabinet jobs)
A few days after Howe spoke to the Commons another pro-European Tory, Michael Heseltine, challenged Thatcher for the party leadership. She won the first round but quit nine days later.
It feels like the aftermath of that bloodletting, along with the civil war over Europe, is still playing out.
