Skipper

Oh Lor! Poor old Dave's ongoing 'moderisation' process took a turn for the worse last night as, whilst the second reading of the bill was passed 400-175 some 136 Tory MPs rebelled against his wishes while the 129 who voted as he wished proved to be substantially made up of the 'payroll' vote of ministers, junior ministers and the like. Given that 40 others abstained, well over half the Conservatives' 307 MPs refused to back their leader. That explains why the news stories on this issue ignored Dave's advancement of a liberal agenda and focused on the fact his leadership had been made to look weak and his party to be desperately divided.

The size of the revolt is explained firstly by the fact that his aprty is not happy with Cameron- he is seen as haughty, detached and apart from the rank and file of his MPs, many ofd whose names he does not even know, so unlike his heroine, the Lady, who knew not only their names but their spouses and chiuldrens' names as well. On top of that Dave is seen by many on his party's right-wing as too close to the Lib Dems and believe he uses them as a reason not to pursue genuine true blue Tory policies.

The second reason, alas! is that the Tory Party's 'modernisation' has only gone so far; there is a substantial chunk of it which remains unreconstructed and, well, nasty