And another thing…

I KNOW that after recent events, it might be seen as a bit rich for a Labour MP to accuse the Tories of fighting like ferrets in a sack. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The real story behind the Channel 4 News revelation about Steve Hilton’s arrest in 2008 is: who dobbed him in?

Shadow Cabinet members are known to have been briefing against Hilton ever since the Tories’ opinion poll lead over Labour dropped into single figures. You’ve got to understand the mentality here: leading Tories feel they’ve had to sacrifice too much – including pretending in public that they think David Cameron is a substantial figure – for defeat even to be contemplated. So they’ve turned on one of the two men they feel is responsible for this setback.

Today we had Tory Bear pointing out that the Hilton story is, in fact, the result of briefing by a Shadow Cabinet member.

And Tim Montgomerie of conservativehome agrees:

That Hilton was ignorant and arrogant enough to abuse a member of staff aboard a train will not surprise anyone. What’s far more interesting is the identity of his (presumably gleeful) enemy within.

DAMN that Tory Bear… Damn him!

That’s it – that blue bear’s really had it now…

IT’S ALREADY a well-established fact that there are no Tory bloggers who accept the scientiic consensus on climate change. Having read Tory Bear’s blog today – in praise (predictably) of Dan (“I’m not mad”) Hannan and the Taxpayers’ Alliance (which isn’t at all a Tory front, no way, no how) – another similar question springs to mind: where are all the pro-EU Tory bloggers?

Cameron wants us all to believe that he’s successfully detoxified the Tory brand, that it is now the very model of moderation. Yet on climate change and on Europe, he seems out of step with the vast majority of his own party, who would, it seems, much rather continue spewing out limitless tonnes of CO2 from an isolated Britain.

Tory strategists are no doubt aware, and are concerned by the fact, that no anti-EU party has ever won a UK general election.

Sure, there are plenty of the “I love Europe – I holiday in Provence every year” sort of Tory, just as there are plenty “I’m not anti-American – I love The West Wing” types in the Labour Party. But where are the Ken Clarke-supporting Tory bloggers, those who are actually enthusiastic about the EU and its benefits to the UK?

Was that a tumbleweed I just saw going past…?

WHENEVER I’ve been in Washington, DC, I’ve always paid close attention to whatever protests are taking place near the Whitehouse at the time.

I say “whatever protests”; what I really mean is “whatever protests against income tax”. Americans like to boast they are a “low tax” economy. That is achieved through classifying large health insurance bills as separate from taxation – “voluntary contributions”, if you will. But there’s still a huge amount of resentment by some who see anything the federal government does as an intrusion into their lives. And that usually includes federal income tax.

One protest march I witnessed cast doubt on the government’s constitutional right to impose income tax in the first place. To a certain type of American, there really is only one subject that merits an effort to travel to the national capital and march holding a placard, and it’s not war or poverty or minority rights or homelessness or unemployment. It’s tax, specifically protesting against paying any of it.

Tory Bear (whose excellent blog I read regularly, incidentally) has a report about an alleged “two million march” on the capital by (it seems from the picture) some very nice respectable white collar workers. Tory Bear seems to want to draw some kind of parallel with the UK.

There are quite a few Tory politicians these days who seem to believe that importing American political traditions into Britain would be a good thing, and I don’t just mean the idea of primaries. Making abortion a party political issue, for example, or denigrating state-provided healthcare as evil. Or protesting at the (in European terms) relatively low levels of tax we pay here in the UK. Because tax, after all, is A Bad Thing that should be resisted, right?

Wrong.

Next we’ll be asked to approve a right to bear arms. Now, arming bears, that would be fine…

ON THE day that the Conservatives launch a new campaign trying to convince the electorate that they are a historically “progressive” force (no, seriously), a number of prominent Tory blogs have helpfully blown the gaffe.

While Dave waxes lyrical about how spiffing these wind farm thingies are, and how paying proles less than the minimum wage is…well, it’s just not cricket, is it?… along comes this from Tory Bear, slamming Ed Miliband for having the temerity to believe that global warming is man-made. Last time I checked, Tory Bear’s leader claimed to believe the same thing.

And then there’s Douglas Carswell, Daniel Hannan’s straight man, singing the praises of Ian Plimer, the Right’s latest climate change sceptic hero.

And then we have some wistful musings from Letters From a Tory, clearly annoyed that more Tory MPs aren’t following Christopher Chope’s example by trying to undermine the national minimum wage.

And let’s not even mention Nadine’s cheeky introductory sentence to her latest post:

I have returned home from holiday to a diary as full as a state grammar school.

Hmm? Should I have said that?

Why shouldn’t she? After all, if she was hinting that she’s in favour of moving backwards from the state comprehensive system to the eleven-plus, then there’s no reason to obscure her views, especially if , as I strongly suspect is the case, they are supported by the majority of her party.

And that’s the point: Tory Bear, Douglas Carswell, Letters From A Tory and Nadine are all mainstream Tory bloggers. It’s fair to assume, therefore, that their views are fairly mainstream (in Tory terms) too.

Conservative? Absolutely. Progressive? Nowehere near.