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 Alan Campbell,
As Home Office Minister, Alan Johnson will no doubt steal anything important that you might want to say and all you get left with are the issues that he doesn’t want to get involved in – and lapdancing appears to fall into this category.  You have announced that new powers to crack down [...]

Dear Lillian Ladele,
Your refusal to conduct civil partnership ceremonies because they were against your Christian beliefs has become one of the most intriguing court battles that I have ever seen.  Yesterday, Appeal Court judges ruled that your infamous refusal constituted a breach of equality laws and that the right to express a strong Christian faith [...]

Dear Alan Johnson,
Having presumably given up on any short-term leadership ambitions, you are now rejoining the fold by announcing that local councils are to get the power to seize the assets of minor offenders.  Home Office claims that seizing “ill-gotten gains” are a key part of the fight against all kinds of crime is misleading [...]

Dear David Cameron,
No doubt you will have read last week about the damning MG Rover report and the job losses at Diageo, the drinks manufacturer.  I wonder what you made of these two incidents because, despite being in very different industries, their respective situations pose a huge challenge to any government.  The question that I [...]

Dear Mark Allcock,
As a local councillor in Oldham, life must be extremely troubling.  In the first four months of this year, the city centre has seen a 200% increase in serious violent incidents.  That’s a stabbing or an assault with intention to kill on average every Friday and Saturday night.  It sounds as though you [...]

“The elected politicians responsible for destroying our shrubs must halt this destruction with immediate effect.”
- the note held up by a protestor who dresses himself as a 6ft human shrub.  He filled a planter with brightly coloured flowers in a campaign against a council decision to cut back on plants to save money during the credit crunch.  The man, [...]

Dear Rob Davies,
As a spokesman for Canterbury council, I’m sure you were delighted with the ruling of Local Government Ombudsman last week.  After a complaint from local gay rights activists that sparked a two-month investigation costing thousands of pounds, the council were told that it is ’sufficiently gay’ as it does enough to promote homosexual culture.  While [...]

“It is to have a go at political correctness”
- Conservative councillor David Taylor, explaining why he has a 2009 Sun Page 3 calendar on a wall at his authority’s HQ

Dear Local Government Association,
Seeing as local government has a habit of wasting phenomenal amounts of money, it’s not often that I have any sympathy for your plight.  Today I will make an exception.  The law of unintended consequences often strikes good-willed policies that find little or no political opposition.  The recent decision to give free [...]

Like many other people, I think Facebook and social networking in general is a great invention.  It can bring people together, join those with common interests and help them to share ideas and information.  The only problem is that uniting people with the same agenda isn’t always a good idea.

“One of the problems with younger people is that their lives are less settled”
- Russell Eagling, Liberal Democrat council leader in Kentish Town ward in Camden, responding to the news that one of his councillors had moved 5,200 miles away to Arizona but was still claiming his £700 a month council allowance

Dear Local Government Association,
Being a Conservative, I always err on the side of people taking responsibility for their lives.  However, when it comes to the well-being of children, my attitude is that the children must be protected and if this means protecting them from their parents, so be it.  On reading the news today that [...]

Dear local government workers,
As everyone knows, educational standards in this country have been falling for years but I would have hoped that between 600,000 of you someone would have a calculator to hand or at least be able to do some basic sums.  Civil service unions have already threatened to strike, which would disrupt benefits offices, museums, [...]

Dear readers,
As I sit here at my laptop this morning, I just can’t decide which of these three things amuses me more:
(a) The local elections results being the worst for the Labour Party since the 1960’s
(b) The utter humiliation the Labour Party must be feeling after coming third to the Lib Dems
(c) These hilarious and desperate [...]

I am very much a supporter of ‘localism’ and devolving power as close as possible to those who it affects.  The Labour government have made the dangers of centralising power perfectly clear on many occasions.  However, sometimes the idea of local councils having more power does make me a little nervous, as their use of [...]