"When Troubles Come ..."

The Tory square is under pressure from all sides, with a fourth place in Hartlepool as UKIP peel away the votes from the right and the LDs from the left.

In the Spectator Peter Hitchens returns to the (in my view valid) charge that the Tories, while winning the economic wars of the 80s, lost the equally important cultural ones - and didn't even seem to be aware that they existed.

The slow-motion coup d’état which placed the state under the full authority of political commissars was the end of a process they had begun themselves with their platoons of special advisers. Their own long failure to defend the hereditary principle as a valued part of the constitution left them headless and gutless when New Labour turned on the Lords and began to jostle the monarchy. They had actively taken part in the egalitarian trashing of the education system. They had emasculated the police, destroyed the power of parents and teachers over children, undermined marriage, sought to attack juries and mused publicly about introducing identity cards. They had initiated the process leading to capitulation to the IRA, and so couldn’t oppose surrender when it took place. They were even more compromised on the European project.

Which education secretary closed down most grammar schools ?

The breakup of the Tories would mean, as Hartlepool shows, the fragmentation of their vote to a number of parties spread between the LDs and the BNP. So Labour could stay in power for another decade even with a disillusioned and cynical electorate.

Also in the Speccie we have Pat Buchanan arguing that 'Bush is not a conservative' (which might be his appeal to some) and suggesting that he too is losing the culture war.

Interesting thesis. By 1987 the Tories were all-powerful, and people were speculating Labour would never hold power again. Now look at the two parties. If Bush wins in 2004, will that be 1987 for US conservatives, a high tide followed by swift decline ?