Brown’s persona, to my mind resembles that of Edward Heath, big on centralising, jealousy of others who shine, appointing and attracting minnows who are no threat (Quentin Davies!), losing good people (in Brown’s case, Reid and Clark), expecting Unions to accept pay rises below inflation, lying about Europe, hoping growth will come from others taking risk, but not controlling money and allowing inflation to get a hold, and (looking likely) holding a general election, of which the main theme will be ‘who governs Britain?’

Cameron represents balance, common sense, willingness to address new issues and be open to new ideas. Brown’s machine power politics is a little scary to be honest - as was Ted Heath’s.

Apologies for the rant John! I also speak as a young man (22), which I only add because I am told that the young, even in the Conservative party, are all ‘europhiles’.

Because you are so very good in responding to our questions, may I ask, given as you say that the party is now mostly Eurosceptic, do you think CCHQ will do anything to reach out to UKIP? I confess I don’t know much about UKIP, but I understand that even the ultra-eurosceptic Bruges group approves of inter-European free trade and argues rather against political intergration (as dichotomised above). Surely this is a strong, sensible and appealing argument, and better than a situation wherein, as James Delingpole wrote in ‘How to be Right’, that to most people the term “anti-Europe” or “eurosceptic” suggets that you hate French wine, Italian food and the sight of donkeys standing under olive trees in southern Greece, while the blue mediterranean softly laps against the shore…

Reply: No I don’t think the leadership will do anything more to reach out to UKIP. UKIP keeps shifting the goalposts whatever the Conservatives say about the EU. We are now committed to opposing the Constitution, never joining the Euro, repatriating powers, rejecting federalism and opposing a common foreign and security policy. That’s not a bad start.

But Mr Cameron has already stated that in HIS party (David Cameron’s Conservatives) he will not allow views that don’t fit his agenda. Him putting his name on the ballot paper just showed the arrogance that many people perceive he has. This reminds people too much of Mr Blair.
I do not believe he would have got 2/3rds of the members’ vote had he stated more of his planned agenda for the party while he was canvassing support.
I agree the party must move forward but, in my view riding roughshod over all the things we Conservatives held dear and moving ever closer to the centre is not the way. We need to distant ourselves from Blair type politics, spin and image driven policies and get back to the basics of what made us Conservatives different. After all, we governed for nineteen years and left Mr Brown with one of the healthiest economies on the planet. It must have been good as it has taken him ten years to ruin….usually Labour achieve this much faster!

Reply: I agree we need to show we are post spin - people are sick and tired of politics based on a series of PR stunts the Blair way.

Reply: Exactly! I want to belong to a party where there is political debate about how and when, within the context of agreement about the general principles and direction.