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 Ed Balls,
We all know that the Darling/Mandelson double-act has made you something of a peripheral figure, and the re-emergence of Charlie Whelan could see you slip even further down the pecking order.  However, I would urge you not to be discouraged because you still have so much to offer.  This was demonstrated yesterday as [...]

*yawn*
Yes, it’s still going.  Last night, Mandelson said that David Cameron’s failure to confront his billionaire deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft over his tax status exposes the “fundamental weakness” of the Conservative leader and undermines his claim to be a moderniser.  In an interview with the Guardian, he said that Ashcroft had Cameron “by the balls”, the affair [...]

“Lord Mandelson remains crucial to the fate of Labour – but his allegiance, as he argued yesterday, and has done for months, is to New Labour, not Old. Everything he does now is aimed at protecting the political project he nurtured into being. His sole aim is to ensure that New Labour is able to [...]

Let’s recap on the last few days:
Tessa Jowell, in an interview with the Telegraph, had this to say about class warfare:  “I hope that our campaign, and I believe it will be, will be a decent campaign which is engaging the British people in a conversation, not a hideous to and fro of personality attack.  [...]

Dear Peter Mandelson,
As we approach Christmas, there is plenty to be happy about – not least having a few days off work and reading about more Labour infighting in the press.  Rumours are flying around yet again, not only about whether Brown will survive until the election but whether you will survive as well.
First we had signs [...]

“The business secretary was by turns coy, kittenish, camp and crazed. Occasionally his voice rose to a squeak, his facial expressions were frankly weird, and now and again he slowed alarmingly as if his carburettor had cut out. Half the time he was like one of those people who shout at strangers on buses; the [...]

Dear readers,
I’ve finally figured out why Labour’s election manifesto is going to be absolutely amazing.  Even after all this talk of a financial crisis, rising debt, rising unemployment and political chaos, they’re still going to put together a really enticing package.  How is this possible, you say?  Simple – they don’t care.  Nothing that they [...]

Dear Lord Mandelson,
Yesterday, I felt a mixture of disbelief and raging fury at your reaction to the MG Rover report.  In response to the news that the Phoenix Four had supposedly pocketed an “unreasonable” £42 million in pay and perks, you said ministers had been faultless.  You added: “We’ve not seen an ounce of humility [...]

Dear Lord Mandelson,
After your meteroic re-rise to the top of the Labour Party, I was hoping that you would have learned the lessons of the past.  Apparently not.  Despite surviving the expenses scandal relatively unscathed, your reputation for sleaze and corruption remains unshaken as demonstrated by your increasingly dubious behaviour over the past ten days.
Last [...]

Dear Alistair Darling,
When will this end?  It seems that you cannot go for more than a few weeks without having to fight for your credibility and even your job.  One can only imagine what it is like to be on the receiving end of such regular interference from senior Cabinet colleagues, seeing as every attempt [...]

Dear readers,
Yet again, this Labour meltdown produces correspondence that tops anything I can produce on this blog.  The Mail on Sunday has published emails sent by Peter Mandelson to Derek Draper last year before Mandy returned to the Cabinet, explaining what he really thinks about Gordon Brown.  Sit back and enjoy the article….
“Peter Mandelson’s claim [...]

Dear Lord Mandelson,
After being heralded by Gordon Brown as a powerful figure in European circles when you returned to the Cabinet, one would expect you to be able to successfully negotiate with other EU countries when it came to industrial matters.  Unfortunately for you and the British car industry, it looks like you have seriously [...]

“The only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the slime coursing through his veins”
- Plane Stupid campaigner Leila Deen after throwing “what looked like green soup” over the Business Secretary

Dear Peter Mandelson,
What a feeling.  What a wonderful feeling.  I bet you can’t get enough of this.  After being cast into the political wilderness for so many years as EU Trade Commissioner (and failing miserably at that), your dramatic return to British politics has put both your hands firmly on the levers of the British [...]

Dear Peter Mandelson,
On your return to ministerial office, I remember Gordon Brown eulogising about your time as EU Trade Commissioner.  He said that he needed “serious people for serious times” and commented on your ”unrivalled” experience in global trade.  Brown even said it was in the “national interest” to bring in people like yourself because you [...]

Dear Peter Mandelson,
No doubt you are trying to keep a low profile at the moment while George Osborne inadvertently deflects attention from your own meetings with the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska.  The fact that you allegedly “dripped pure poison” about Gordon Brown at the dinner table with Osborne and Rothschild seems long-forgotten (at least, for [...]

Sarkozy says: ““A child dies of starvation every 30 seconds and the Commission wanted to reduce European agriculture production by 21% during World Trade Organisation talks. This was really counter-productive.  …It would be highly unrealistic to keep wanting to negotiate a deal . . . which would cut farm output by 20 per cent while [...]