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 [...]

“Whichever party have the strongest mandate from the British people, it seems to me that they have the first right to try and govern, either on their own or with others.”
- Nick Clegg, who has finally made his mind up and declared that he will support whoever is the largest party in the event of [...]

From the BBC:
More people think Tory leader David Cameron will make the right cuts in public spending than Gordon Brown, a poll for BBC Two’s Newsnight suggests.
Of the 1,050 adults canvassed for the programme, 39% said they trusted the Conservatives to make the right choices when it came to spending decisions. This compared with 24% [...]

Dear Pirate Party,
As of 30th July 2009, you have become an official political party in the UK after registering with the electoral commission.  This means that you can now have Pirate Party candidates standing at the next general election.  I doubt that this will attract any attention at a local level, but I wonder if [...]

“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 [...]

“I hereby launch a new campaign called “If you don’t know – don’t vote”. This gives us all the opportunity to decide whether or not we’re prepared to do the research necessary to produce a worthwhile vote. Those who aren’t can walk away with their heads held high. They don’t know enough to vote wisely, [...]

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 [...]

On the right, we have the Conservatives.  On the left, we have Labour.

Dear Greater London Assembly,
I’m glad that you have realised the potential for fraud in the postal voting system for the Mayoral elections and are trying to rectify this by training officials to spot fake signatures and votes, but I fear that you are climbing an impossibly steep hill.
Postal voting is so open to fraud that [...]

As the Northern Rock crisis and the EU Treaty look like dominating the headlines for the next week or so, I suppose this was a good time for Gordon Brown to start panicking and sneak this through without anyone noticing.