Reading the letter from David Cameron's office posted here I can see absolutely nothing that suggests he has broken a promise:

"David Cameron has made clear that it is his firm policy that the Conservative Party under his leadership will not remain a member of the European Peoples Party-European Democrats Group (EPP-ED) in the European Parliament, and will aim to form a new grouping which reflects more closely our views on the way forward for Europe."

All that he said was that they would leave the EPP-ED under his leadership and seek to form new alliances. There was no mention of a particular date for this to happen and today we have just seen that they will not leave until 2009 because the leader of their major future alliance party, the Prime Minister designate of the Czech Republic is busy in talks to form a coalition government in the Czech parliament and wants to move forward into a new grouping with the Conservatives.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/5175708.stm

As yet no promises have been broken, on the contrary, he has taken steps to honouring the promise.

It really would be good if the whole picture could be viewed with some degree of objectivity rather than being engaged in what seems to me like cheap Lib Dem point scoring, central to a lot of their campaigns. Personally I think the Liberal Democrats are scared of a new Tory leader, a potential Prime Minister who granted is inexperienced and has yet to prove his worth completely but recent events have shown his election was followed by problems in both the Labour and the Lib Dem parties and a rise in the polls to a now consistent lead for the Tories that hasn't happened for over a decade.

I Suppose in a way David Cameron should be extremely happy with the sniping at him, it shows that his opponents really are worried that he is appealing with the voters and for the first time since 1997 a Conservative Government under his leadership after the next General Election looks like a real possibility.

Once again the Conservative membership have been lied to and mis-led. They seem to have a habit of selecting dishonest leaders. That was David Davis's fault in the leadership contest - being honest.

What I was pointing out was the fact that the entry I was replying to (me being the first anonymous replier) jumps to the conclusion that Cameron has broken a promise although there was no evidence given in the entry to substantiate this claim. As far as I know David Cameron promised during the leadership election that the Conservative party would leave the EPP under his leadership (fact) but no date or timetable was set (?) . It is up for debate wether or not he set a date and from the Times article we only seem to have annoyed Tory MEPs saying he made a "personal promise" for an immediate withdrawal to believe. Yesterday he said that they would not withdraw until 2009 because the leader of their czech partners in the European Parliament wanted to break off into a new group with the Conservatives but didnt want talks to interfere with his own domestic talks of forming a coalition government in the Czech Republic. I posted a link to the BBC site explaining this. As far as we can see as fact No date set when pullout promise was made = No promises broken thus far.

This just seems like petty old squabbles over Europe resurfacing in the party which needs to be put to bed and If Cameron deals with this effectively and decisively the electorate will either be not bothered about the whole issue (internal Tory thing) or will see that Cameron is changing the party wether the old guard and "further" right like it or not. This can only improve the Conservatives electoral chances. Lib Dem point scoring by juming to conclusions does not wash with those prepared to consider the facts.

That was not mentioned in the entry though was it? In anycase the Daily Telegraph now seem to be just as prone to sniping as the disgruntled old guard.