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.

“I find it quite unusual for people to criticise me for doing what I consider to be my duty. …This was nothing to do with partisan politics.”
- Gordon Brown, who said today that the criticism he received for visiting Afghanistan a day after giving evidence to the Iraq war inquiry was “incredibly unfair”. During his Chilcot inquiry [...]

Dear David Cameron,
There is no doubt in my mind that you will be watching the polls over the next few days with even more interest than usual.  Your spring conference in Brighton, which was considerably smaller than the main party conference in October, attracted some reasonably positive coverage but yet again your hand is being [...]

“I guess one of the reasons I did get quite upset with Andrew this morning, I feel sometimes we are treated in this media bubble… like somehow you are devoid of humanity”
- Tony Blair’s former communications chief Alastair Campbell on an emotionally charged interview with Andrew Marr.  Just to clarify, that’s Alistair Campbell accusing the [...]

“A fiasco, disgrace and utter failure”
- how Jackie Ashley, Jonathan Freedland, Martin Kettle, Seumas Milne and Henry Porter described Tony Blair’s day at the Chilcot Inquiry (full article HERE)

Dear Gordon Brown,
It wasn’t long after Kraft’s audacious takeover bid for Cadbury got the green light that the unions starting stomping their feet about potential job losses.  The deal ends more than more than 150 years of independence for the maker of Dairy Milk, which will now be subsumed within the world’s second-biggest food company.  [...]

Dear readers,
Unusually for me, I’m honestly a bit lost for words this morning because I am still dumbstruck by the astonishing things that have happened in the last 24 hours.  I keep telling myself I should feel angry, yet I appear to be completely paralysed by an overwhelming sense of “WTF?!”  from yesterday’s events, and [...]

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 – [...]

“I actually genuinely believe with a decision like this you’ve got to take it, you’ve got to work out what you think is right. What your faith does is it sustains you through what is then a very difficult time as you try to implement what you think is right.”
- Tony Blair, telling Fern Britton in [...]

…or so say the six doctors who have started legal action for a new inquest into his death.  I’ll let the Telegraph do the rest:
The action is being taken because six doctors are convinced that the original verdict of suicide is unsafe and should be overturned.  Some suspect that Dr Kelly, 59, was murdered shortly [...]

“When you’ve got the families of soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan saying they haven’t got the kit they need, collecting reports of funny lights seen in the sky can’t be seen as a priority”
- UFO expert Dr David Clarke, a lecturer in journalism at Sheffield Hallam University, on the Ministry of Defence’s decision to [...]

“What would Margaret Thatcher have done? I think she would have insisted on a coherent diplomatic and political strategy.”
- Sir Christopher Meyer, then British Ambassador to the US, speaking to the Iraq Inquiry about Tony Blair’s meeting with President Bush at his Texas ranch in 2002, which Sir Christopher claims was probably the turning point when [...]

Dear Tony Blair,
As your bid to become EU President stumbled in a very public fashion, I wondered whether European leaders were nervous about the impending inquiry into the Iraq War.  Yesterday’s revelations in the Sunday Telegraph that military commanders are expected to tell the inquiry that the invasion was ill-conceived and that preparations were sabotaged by [...]

Dear Robert Gates,
Having been appointed US Defence Secretary by George W Bush, it came as a surprise to some that you continued this role in Obama’s administration.  With Donald Rumsfeld as your predecessor, the American people and the international community needed someone who restored some trust and faith in the US government after the disgraceful record of [...]

Dear President Hamid Karzai,
As Afghanistan goes the polls, reports of bribery, corruption and fear are plentiful in the British media.  Whether the result of the Presidential election will be accepted by Western leaders remains to be seen.  However, the last few days have given me plenty of reason to doubt the honesty and warmth of [...]

Dear George Bush,
Watching your last ever press conference as President was a strange affair.  Coupled with the unbridled joy that in a few days time you will out of our lives forever was the nagging feeling that you still don’t get it.  After everything that you have said and done, you were there fighting to [...]

“Now look, I know you might be a little tincy wincy bit upset with Labour and the whole Iraq war and weapons of mass destruction thing……”

I don’t know about you but I thoroughly enjoyed watching journalist Durgham Zaidi lob both his shoes at George W Bush during his swansong press conference in Iraq.  If this incident brought a smile to your face as well, perhaps you would like to HAVE A GO YOURSELF?

Dear Barack Obama,
The last 24 hours must have given you a nice warm fuzzy feeling, having got the better of John McCain on two occasions.  In my opinion, the military and international relations are two areas where McCain must be desperate to score points over you due to his experience in this area, but it [...]

George Bush says: “…this is a fight Americans must win. Because we acted, the world is better and the United States of America is safer.”
Our survey says…

Dear Des Browne,
I know that you saw it – for a fleeting moment, the withdrawal of British troops from Basra after four and a half years gave you the chance to hope that the grass may be greener.  From what I read this morning, it seems that what you have left behind could turn out [...]

Dear Gordon Brown,
I thought you’d learned your lesson.  My mistake.  Having claimed to mark the beginning of a new era of spin-free politics, and then be caught spinning so spectacularly, I assumed that you wouldn’t be stupid enough to try it again.
Using people’s lives as a means of scoring political points is fairly disgusting behaviour for a [...]

Dear Simon Jenkins,
Congratulations on a superb piece in The Sunday Times.  A lot has been said and continues to be said about the war in Iraq, but your article was a very calm and collected evaluation of the ‘options’ left for America.  I very much agree with your belief that no comparisons can be drawn between Iraq and [...]

Dear Patrick Cockburn,
The complicated nature of the war in Iraq is not something that can be dealt with in a blog post.  Even so, I was unimpressed by your article in today’s Independent on the ‘withdrawal’ of British troops from Basra.  Your article seemed to focus on the negative aspects of our involvement in Iraq, and [...]