The Secret Tories

In the past the Conservative Party was known as the "nasty party", a fact acknowleged by the present Home secretary, Theresa May, among others.

With his talk of "National Wellbeing" and the soggy idea of "The Big Society", David Cameron has gained a lot of kudos for supposedly "de-toxifying" the Conservative Party's image. But it seems that the party's image resists detoxification, Mr Cameron has an ongoing battle and it hasn't actually been won yet.

Last week I pointed out that Lord Young had been sacked when he said that this was a "so-called" recession and that most people "never had it so good". Lord Young was sacked, not for what he said, but because he spoke a truth that many Tories feel in their bones and that David Cameron doesn't want you to hear.

Today, someone called Howard Flight, (who has apparently been a Tory MP and a Conservative Party Vice Chair, not that I had heard of him, but so what? and has now been made a peer by David Cameron), has said that government policy is encouraging the poor to breed too much. Again, Mr Flight is only saying what many Tories say in their own company, in their clubs and in private conversations. His crime is to say it in public and with a recording device in close proximity.

Mr Flight has previous. He was sacked as a Parliamentary candidate in 2005, but it seems that he is still held in high enough regard by David Cameron to be appointed to the House of Lords on the Tory ticket.

In my experience his opinions (and similar neandethal nonsense) are not uncommon among Tory supporters and representatives. David Cameron has tried to change (or more accurately disguise) that fact, but it seems that changing the "image" is a far cry from changing the reality of the nasty party.

That's the Tories secret.....