Conservative leader says he wants people with no background in Tory politics to consider standing as candidates for parliament David Cameron today hinted at a desire to clear out the Conservative old guard when he said he wanted people with no background in Tory politics to consider standing for parliament as Conservative MPs. In a move that suggests he feels the modernisation of the Conservative ...

Staggering stuff From Conservative Home: Writing in the Local Government Chronicle the outgoing Tory MP, David Curry, concedes that the election of a Tory Government increases the chances of the Union breaking up: "For Cameron now looks like the next prime minister. And if there is one thing [Alex] Salmond wants, it is a Conservative government looking and feeling culturally and politically wholly...

Early reactions to David Cameron's speech have been very positive. Members of the Tory leader's inner circle are delighted with the results. I have described it for the paper as Cameron coming out as a conservative. This was a genuinely philosophical speech and potentially a classic conservative text. The interlocking of traditional  conservative themes - sound money, low tax, famil...

Anyone old than 30 years of age will remember how in the period from 1993-1997 the word "sleaze" became almost permanently attached to the word "Tory" as the Tory party lurched from one self inflicted wound to another. When I read some young Conservative blogs I just wonder how keen they would be to be Conservative if they could actually remember what a Tory government was like. However, Labour se...

Conservative Home has surveyed its Tory loyalist audience, and headlined the results of a 'grassroots' poll. Amazingly, 86% of ConHome readers (they headline this as 86% of Tory members, which is a nice bit of assimilation) would prefer a minority Conservative government to a coalition. Next contestant Conservative Home, special subject the bleeding obvious. And probably an equally large number of...

I have been saying for some time that if Conservative Eurosceptics are taken in by the Tory front bench hostility to Europe in opposition, they must be delusional. There is nothing in the history of the Conservative Party to show that this is anything other than the rhetoric of opposition and that it will melt away like snow in the spring sunshine should they ever get into office. Heath took us in...

Earlier this week a Tory blogger published the name of the person behind the anonymously written anti-conservative ‘Conservative and Unionist blog’ and the website ‘Hate My Tory’, the justification for which rightly ridiculed by Labour blogger Bob Piper. A day later, that same Tory blogger crowed about the sites being taken offline. Today The Times

According to Iain Dale, David Cameron’s Conservative HQ people have thrown three of the most prominent Tory bloggers, including the rather impressive Conservative Home, from their website.

Conservative voters across Wales are up in arms following the publication of a letter penned by serial Welsh Secretary Peter Hain in the Guardian today. What has incensed Tory voters is the following sentence in Hain's letter: "Anyone who votes for Plaid Cymru will get the Tories." A spokesman for Conservative voters said: "This is an empty promise and one Hain has used in the past to cheat Tory v...

It is endearing that many people googling for "How to become a Conservative MP" are landing on my post entitled:How to become a Tory MP: "Lick up" to Central Office and "hold your nose" . The article also carries a quote from a Tory insider saying "Prepare to lose a lot of money". So, if any poor googler gets past reading that post and is still interested in being a Tory MP, then they have passed ...