A former Labour official is to defect to the Conservative Party today amid a growing debate over Ed Miliband's effectiveness as leader.

The apparent favourite for the leadership of Scottish New Labour is a Blairite named Iain Gray. He has come out in his true blue true colours by suggesting that Scottish New Labour need to cooperate with the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament. It says volumes for the despair of the numptie party that they think being associated with the Scottish Conservatives would actually increase...

Chris Dillow thinks that that lefties may actually be more conservative than Conservatives: I suspect a reverence for English traditions is more common on the Left than amongst the Conservative Party. Neil Clark’s tastes border on the reactionary; Francis Sedgemore is a Morrisman; you’ll struggle to find a Conservative voter at a meeting of CAMRA or at a Martin Carthy gig. And when Shuggy wr...

The formal join-up of the Conservatives and Ulster Unionists was announced yesterday (ConservativeHome: David Cameron hails Ulster Unionist alliance with the Conservatives as a "new political force") and so far most of the reaction has been good. I'll repeat my comments from four months ago (A Conservative-Ulster Unionist merger?): But it's also a good move for not only both parties but ...

... in Canada. While Stephen Harper may not get the majority he wanted, his party has increased its number of seats, which would indicate, despite the National Post sour comments that more Canadians want to press forward with conservative reforms than otherwise. Could it be that our own Conservative Party, not to mention John McCain and other Republican Representatives and Senators are playing it ...

In 2008 the Conservative Party suspended one of their candidates, Philip Lardner for praising Rhodesian leader Ian Smith. Now he’s been suspended by the Conservatives again, this time for homophobic comments, although given where we are in the electoral timetable his name will remain on the ballot in North Ayrshire and Arran and there will be

This is a question for all those people who kept telling me that Cameron really was a proper conservative and that we'd all see his true colours once he was Prime Minister. Well, he's Prime Minister and we've already seen him sell out to the Liberal Democrats. So what now? Do you still think Cameron is a conservative or have you now realised that he really is the "heir to Blair"? An...

We are Conservatives now; we will be Conservatives in May 2015, and at every election in between, says deputy chairman of the Conservative Party.

Following on from his earlier replies to Conservative Home readers' questions, Eric Pickles has provided the following reply, which I think is one of the most significant statements yet from the Shadow Cabinet on the future of Spatial Strategies. I'll add my comments at the end. You may also be interested to read the article I wrote for Conservative Home this Autumn which touches on similar

A City high flier claims she was forced out of her job after becoming the target of sexist comments from a government minister and a Conservative Party official.