In an intriguing report in the Times, Sam Coates writes that:

David Cameron is spoiling for a fight with his party, amid signs of growing frustration among the Conservative high command that the rank and file does not share his vision for Britain.

No one who has come across the Tory party will be surprised to find that Mercer (our poll winner) is a hero to them, nor that they don't like green taxes. But the breadth of the leadership attack on the party is quite stunning:

those close to Mr Cameron responded by pointing out that the Conservative membership was not representative of the country as a whole. “A quarter of a million people are members of the Tory party. The important point is that’s less than one per cent of the electorate,” said a party source.

Not that this "quarter of a million" is all that energised. Only four stood for three posts on a policy-making committee.

Unsurprisingly, ConservativeHome (where the comments sound like the sort of thing one hears from Tory members and councillors up down the country, is in the firing line too. Rumours abound that the Conservative Central Office is monitoring it to find who is politically-incorrect, and off message. The answer is surely much more than the "thirty people" they claim.