Damn, I was going to post this.

I think this needs further comment too… as I bet Heffer will say something about it too.

Peter Hitchens has already responded:

http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2010/03/loyalty-to-what-the-rise-of-comrade-camilsung-the-modernising-centraliser.html

I can’t more than that as the Mail’s blog doesn’t work properly in Firefox, so I can’t see anything other than the title, in which he dubs Cameron ‘Cam-Il-Song”

Amusing. I’d never seen a blog written in green ink before.

Another misleading headline though. I think it should probably be “Strange man shouts incoherently”.

Actually, that was one of the best attacks on a blog I’ve read in some time. Normally, when old media people attack blogs, they give every impression of simply not understanding what they’re all about, and probably of never having read them. However, his parodies of ConHome commenters are spot-on, which suggests that he does actually read the site he’s criticising.

This, from the original Montgomerie piece, is hilarious:

‘The Cameron-led Conservative Party isn’t perfect but this election isn’t a choice between a perfect and an imperfect Toryism but between Brown’s big state interventionism and David Cameron’s alternative.’

How many words do we reckon he wrote and deleted before he settled on “alternative”?

Sour old reactionary bastard that he is, Gerald Warner is certainly good on the invective.

Works okay for me in Firefox, Unity.

From the P Hitchens column:

“I like Tim, and suspect that he has to spend a lot of his strength keeping quiet about his own differences with the Cameron leadership, which has little time for his thoughtful but genuinely conservative position. ”

I love that “thoughtful but genuinely conservative”.

Simple really.

A straight in/out referendum on EU membership, repeal or drastically reform the CJA and they’d win by landslide that would Aberfan look like a minor incident in a sandpit.

I’ll take a deep breath and say it’s looking increasingly like it’s your shower again, but perhaps that’s what we need before we finally come to our senses.

Either that or an armed insurrection.

At last, something they can both get behind. Both the ConHome commenters and the Tebbit fans can surely agree that the number one priority on immigration policy should be to keep out the clamouring hordes of “aids-ridden gay Africans”. http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2010/03/cameron-must-use-the-debates-to-hammer-labour-on-immigration.html

He’s Spartacus @ 8:
Do you really think that the average voter cares about a referendum of EU membership or even knows what the CJA is? The only real issue at this election is the economy, how bad it is and who you trust to sort it out without making you a) jobless and b) homeless. Unless Cameron can work a nice easy message about the EU and the economy it’s just not going to work.

The Tories have lost the last three elections banging on about Europe and no-one is interested.

Damian Thompson piles in too, basically affirms the view that CCHQ are as Stalinist as they accuse NewLabour of being:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100032340/tim-montgomerie-please-note-cchq-is-too-scared-to-allow-its-candidates-to-blog/

It looks like this one is going to rumble on as the right of the Tory Party does a tag team on the Cameroons.

http://redrag1.blogspot.com/2010/03/red-rag-its-all-going-off-on-rights.html

@Gaf the Horse

I know that 70+% want a referendum.

McRuin thought Europe was sufficiently interesting to voters for him to promise a referendum on the EU Constitution, which we know was the Lisbon Treaty in all but name (or so its authors were at pains to tell us, not that anyone’s actually read it).

But we’re painfully familiar with his flexible approach to manifesto pledges.

wow – Gerald Warner, eh? When I used to read him in the Hootsmon on Sunday it was an even bet he’d been invented by the staff to see who could come out with the daftest idea, carefully cloaked in traditional conservatism.

Glad to see he’s an awful lot better at insulting his fellow-travellers than he is at producing coherent, evidence-based arguments

You know the Tories are onto a losing streak if they’re being attacked for not being right-wing enough.

This should be good. Cameron is trying to appeal to the mainstream with his vagueness because he knows he won’t win unless he brings the centre on board. The hard right-wing of the conservative movement (from Telegraph bloggers to borderline UKIPpers like Tebbit) is throwing its toys out of the pram because he isn’t right-wing enough. If he caves into them, then it makes him more unelectable.

Suits me. Have at it, hoss.

He’s Spartacus @ 13:

If you *know* that 70% want a referendum of EU membership then please post a link to the poll, survey or whatever that provides evidence of your claim. I’d be very interested to see it. Like all scientists I’m always happy to be proved wrong by proper evidence.

I do love it when they fight amongst themselves like this, although what actual impact it will have upon the party as a whole and the election result is arguable but fun while it lasts.

How many polls do you want, Gaf?

Sorry for being so far south of the mark with my 70+%.

@ Unity

Only worked for me when I switched AdBlock off.

So, we’ll consider our little tête à tête closed then, shall we, Gaf?

The point is not I think the criticism in itself. Warner is of course a swivel-eyed nutter of the first order and criticism from his ilk is hardly likely to dent Lightweight. What harms him I think is his lack of backbone when faced with flak from the right. Tebbit in particular has been daring him to expel him since the Euros. It just looks like cowardice rather than tolerance on his part to let it go. Kicking him out would have been an obvious votewinner but it’s probably too late now