They don’t learn, do they? If the Tory leadership and journalists think that Tory long-term members who are deserting the party for UKIP – or indeed for the BNP – are doing so as a positive choice for those parties they are wrong – very wrong! They are deserting the Tory Party because it is no longer Conservative and refuses to do, or even talk about, any of the things that for many decades have made the Conservative Party the “natural party of government”. Things like the provision of grammar schools to enable the brightest children from the poorest families to break out from their families poverty and better themselves. Cameron rejects this. He will not contemplate radical reform of the NHS although it is quite clear that the service is failing. He will not condemn Blair’s callous disregard for the safety of our servicemen and women whom he has sent to war with inadequate equipment and, indeed. worse equipment than any of our allies. He will not talk about Europe, despite being subservient to Brussels and to whom we pay a crippling contribution. He will not confront the scandalous imposition of millions of immigrants flooding into our overcrowded island. He will not deal with the need to get the poorest members of society out of income tax altogether. Cameron has turned the party into a pale imitation of New Labour whose policies he frequently endorses and this is why long-term party members are determined that he shall not be rewarded with the keys to No:10. UKIP does now have a range of sensible policies but voting for that party is a vote against Cameron – to save the Conservative Party. But today the Sunday Telegraph* endorses Cameron in a leading article and their political editor, Matthew d’Ancona (who probably also wrote the leading article anyway! ) rubbishes those in UKIP who talk political commonsense. His article is entitled “Tories who would rather lose than change “ and it shows how concerned the establishment is at the Tory grassroots revolt. It isn’t change that the Tory grassroots object to. It is the wholesale adoption of socialist and liberal-democrat thinking. The change that is needed is in the direction of sound finance, radical changes to our festering social structure and robust government without spin. D’Ancona not so long ago after a private chat with Blair on a plane journey endorsed the prime minister’s thinking. Now he endorses that Blair-clone, Cameron. In between times, as Editor, he is dumbing-down a recently great political weekly – The Spectator. Christina