Simon Heffer thinks the Tories are self hating and gloats about it

There is another hatchet job on the Conservative Party by Simon Heffer in the Telegraph. His position is that though he disagrees with Gordon Brown, the man is a fantastic politician who should use his spike in the polls to call an election sharpish before it all goes wrong. Meanwhile, David Cameron is a lefty who hates his own party. This last is based on Cameron supposedly disliking people who would ‘cut taxes, control immigration, and lock up criminals’. No actual evidence is presented for this, because actually there is none, and Heffer hilariously illustrates this later on in his column by criticising the Party for ‘talking tough on crime and immigration’. Which is it Simon? They can’t both be true. One substantive issue is that George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, has stated that an incoming Conservative government would maintain the same general level of spending as Labour. Simon froths at this, and pretends that this means that the Conservatives would spend the money on the same things, and perpetuate government waste. No-one has said that except, well, Simon, but he gets very excited about it all the same.

His big point is that apart from European Constitution issue, which he tries to play down, there is no reason to vote Conservative. Simon is not really exercised about the state of the country. He goes through the motions of criticising the Labour government, but he only gets really animated when bashing the Tories. The tactic is to supposedly position himself on the Right so that his criticism is even more telling, but where is he really coming from? Anyone who really cared for our country would be angry at soldiers returning in body bags for want of equipment, angry at a welfare system that makes it rational for poor families not to work or save, or even stay together, and angry that our once fully-funded pension system has been wrecked. These aren't just the fault of the Labour government they are the specific fault of Gordon Brown, but Simon glosses over details like that. For him David Cameron is the root of all evil and his successive columns have read like a broken record on the subject. Well, Simon isn't any kind of Conservative I recognise. We care. Simon is too impressed with Gordon Brown, and himself, for that.