Letters From A Tory Daily views on British politics and the Conservative Party from a centre-right thinker who writes letters on his blog to politicians, journalists and many others.

Dear Jack Straw,
It never fails to amaze me how Labour can reinvigorate their interest in a topic when faced with electoral defeat after almost completing ignoring it for 13 years.  After the hilarious decision to keenly introduce Alternative Vote into our democracy, having completely ignored the issue for 13 years, you have now been struck [...]

BBC News, 2nd February 2010: Britain’s “first past the post” voting system could be scrapped if Labour wins the general election, under plans which have been outlined by Gordon Brown. The prime minister wants a referendum on changing to an “alternative vote” system, where candidates are ranked in order of voters’ preference. MPs will vote [...]

Dear environmental campaigners,
Apparently you are feeling hard done by this morning after you were labelled as ‘extremists’ and listed alongside al-Qaeda inspired terrorists and dissident Irish republican groups by the Government.  The new guidance on extremism, produced by the Ministry of Justice, was sent to probation staff in charge of writing court reports or supervising a range [...]

Dear John Bercow,
As reported yesterday in the papers, the final recommendations of the Speaker’s Conference on Parliamentary Representation were announced.  Rather than shout and yell at what I read in the papers, I thought I would do the honourable thing and read through your recommendations myself to ensure that there was no misunderstanding or misinterpretation.  Unfortunately, [...]

Dear readers,
It’s turning out to be a very bad weekend for Islam.  Yesterday, we had the shocking news that the Danish cartoonist who drew a picture of the Prophet Muhammed was almost murdered in his own home by an Islamist nutjob, and now Islam4UK – which calls itself a “platform” for extremist movement al-Muhajiroun – [...]

Dear John Bercow,
Now that your wife is making headlines for all the wrong reasons, it is clear that you’re feeling a bit left out so you’ve decided to start making headlines for the wrong reasons too.  Your latest wheeze is to force political parties to declare how many women, ethnic minority and disabled applicants they reject as [...]

Dear moronic protestors,
Yet again I find myself compelled to write to you on the basis of your climate change demonstrations.  Not only has your behaviour annoyed me intensely, the excuses that you put forward to justify your actions just compound my irritation.
More than 1,000 demonstrators converged on the coal-powered Ratcliffe-on-Soar site in Nottinghamshire over the weekend under the [...]

Dear Nick Clegg,
What a hilarious show.  Gaffe after gaffe after gaffe.  First came the accusation that David Cameron was a “conman”, which everyone ignored.  Then came talk of “savage cuts”, which you backtracked on yesterday.  Then came the possibility of dropping your pledge to scrap tuition fees, which was quickly left to one side.  Then [...]

“I gave the order for it to be not 93%, but something around 80, I can’t remember how much. Because when you get over 90, this is not accepted psychologically. But it was the truth.”
- Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has admitted rigging the country’s last presidential election because, he says, his popularity is so vast that [...]

Dear climate activists,
Goodness me.  I honestly thought that I had reached the point where I could ignore you without any difficulty.  Sadly, this morning you have discovered new and even more ridiculous ways to make idiots out of yourselves with your new week-long protest against climate change in London.
The Climate Camp is a loose affiliation [...]

“Suppose it catches on, and all candidates for all major parties are chosen by all the voters? Won’t we wind up with a collection of bland, acceptable, uncontroversial, middle-of-the-road, white bread MPs, holding no very strong opinions about anything?”
- Simon Hoggart, beautifully summarising my concerns about open primaries in today’s Guardian

Dear Dr Sarah Wollaston,
Several media outlets, including some Conservative blogs, have been falling over themselves to praise the way in which you have been selected as a PPC for the Conservative Party in Totnes.  Unfortunately, I find it very hard to share their enthusiasm.  While I agree that Totnes was a fascinating experiment from a democratic perspective, I [...]

Dear Mike Smithson,
As an avid reader of www.politicalbetting.com, I enjoy your insights into the political world through betting markets.  On top of betting commentary, you also add a layer of your own analysis that I agree with more often than not.  However, yesterday you might have missed something rather crucial about the proposed move towards using [...]

Dear Donna Guthrie,
As a key member of Unite Against Facism, you must have been pleased to receive the backing of David Cameron, Tony Benn and other leading politicians over recent weeks.  However, your little stunt yesterday has totally undermined any credibility you might have had and emphasised the disgraceful hypocrisy that surrounds the Left’s attitude towards [...]

Dear David Cameron,
In all honesty I was tempted to write a letter to Alan Johnson this morning, thanking him for at least trying to start a debate on where Parliament goes from here with regards to democracy, accountability and openness.  However, after reading your plans for giving more power to the British people and giving [...]

Dear Lefty bloggers,
Here is an excerpt from the Times newspaper yesterday morning, that I felt beared repeating:
“Anti-capitalist protesters brought Bank Holiday chaos to Brighton yesterday. Mounted police were forced to retreat as masked demonstrators among a 2,000-strong crowd hurled bricks and bottles. Several missiles were seen to hit police officers and their horses. Three officers [...]

“They’ve eaten them. This is an electoral crime.”
- General Jesus Gonzalez, telling reporters that voters in regional elections in November tore, balled up, threw away and in some cases ate the papers printed by electronic voting machines. In Venezuela, it’s illegal to eat your vote and rebellious voters face going to jail if they protest against [...]

Dear Harriet Harman,
Your popularity ratings must be going through the floor right now.  After reigniting class warfare earlier this week with your plans to force public sector bodies to reject job applications from anyone who has received a decent education (a terrible sin, indeed), you are now heaping shame on Parliament itself by introducing new [...]

Dear Dominic Grieve,
Being relatively new to the role of Shadow Home Secretary and presumably being desperate not to damage the Conservative’s poll ratings, I accept that sparking a debate on gay marriage and gay adoption is not high on your priority list.  That said, there is something genuinely useful that can be gleaned by you [...]

In a democracy, everyone should have the right to protest against the government, but in some circumstances being angry at the government can easily give you indigestion.

Dear David Miliband,
Your naivety and arrogance is really starting to test my patience.  How on earth can someone with such a weak understanding of international relations be Foreign Secretary?  The whole of the UK is already in fear of what catastrophes await us with Gordon Brown as Prime Minister, but now we have to be afraid [...]

Dear David Miliband,
Like Alan Johnson, you are clearly detached from the reality of what Labour’s foreign policy has done to this country and many others, hence the need for me to write this letter to you.
For you to stand there in front of the conference and the media and state that “every citizen of every nation deserves [...]