Professor Tim Congdon has announced in today's Telegraph that he has had enough of David Cameron and will henceforth transfer his support to UKIP. It is a pretty withering assessment of Cameron's vacuity:

An article in The Spectator was enough for me. "Time for a completely new party" contained several hundred words of flannel ("the need for fundamental change", "the problem is our culture", etc.) and one possibly substantive proposal. This was an "exciting new policy direction", with his "proposal for a national school-leaver programme — involving schools, businesses, community organisations, charities and the Armed Forces — to prepare young people for their adult responsibilities and to create a greater sense of national cohesion".

What sense is to be made of all this? No doubt "schools, businesses etc." do many wonderful things, but it is sadly true that their hands are full. They cannot just drop what they are doing and suddenly commit themselves to one of Mr Cameron's pet initiatives. If Mr Cameron were prime minister, he could — I suppose — give orders to "the Armed Forces" to return from Afghanistan and Iraq, and to help in his new "national school-leaver programme" in order to advance "social cohesion". But I don't think that is what he meant.

Mr Cameron's supporters might tell me that the sort of phrases used in the Spectator article, and reproduced on many subsequent occasions, are part of a rebranding exercise. They might say that the politically correct and socially acceptable phrases are necessary to shift the party's "culture" towards the centre and capture more votes. I might also be reassured that the phrases have no implications for actual policy.

But I think this is unfair and dishonest. Mr Cameron should be taken at his word. When he says he is in favour of "national school-leaver programmes", "social action zones" and suchlike, and when he says that the Tories should become "the champions of social action", he really does mean what he says. Whether his words have any genuine meaning is another topic, but of his sincerity in uttering them there should be no doubt.

It seems that the Tory Party's in-house journal is still at odds with the Blue-Labour Cameroonies after all.

It seems to be the season for defections. After Peter's story about a councillor joining the Lib Dems we get news that two Tory peers have defected to UKIP:

Two Tory peers have joined the UK Independence Party in protest at the Conservatives' lack of a "sufficiently Eurosceptic policy".
Lord Pearson of Rannoch, who switched with Lord Willoughby de Broke, said UKIP was the "only party telling the truth" about Europe.

He also said they had given up hope that the Tories would "toughen up on immigration, tax, education and so on".

The defections give UKIP its first Westminster representation.

Lord Pearson described the Conservative leadership of David Cameron as "going in the wrong direction".

Presumably the Cameroonies will wheel this out as further evidence that "the party has changed". However, given this is before Dave has even begun to put actual policies on the table, who's to say what future departures might occur?

One thing's for certain though. I'm sure Iain Dale won't be using the words "turmoil, crisis, or meltdown" in conjunction with this news!

Hot on the heels of the news that over 40% of Conservative members identify most closely with UKIP, comes the revelation that Nigel Farage, the UKIP leader, was offered a very safe Conservative seat shortly before the last election. According to the BBC

Mr Farage, elected UKIP leader in September, said: "There was a pretty strong approach made to me about a very safe seat that had come up, more or less at the last minute."

Presumably, a very safe seat at the last minute would probably be Howard Flight's Arundel and South Down seat, and the local party must have made the approach in a fit of pique.

Interestingly, there has been no denial from the Conservatives; their comment that "It is probably significant that Mr Farage has given the most tenuous details of this story. Anybody who is not a member of the Conservative Party can not stand as a Conservative MP" not being a denial.

THe BBC report adds that Mr Farage has

been targeting the small band of MPs currently campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union.

"If a couple of serving members came over, it would make a hell of a difference. We are trying within the House of Commons and within the House of Lords to get this to happen.

"But I do understand, sometimes, why it doesn't. It is quite difficult as a sitting MP to take the huge risk of defection to UKIP and I totally understand and respect that.

"But what I would say to sitting members is this - thank goodness at least in this parliament we have got some MPs, both Labour and Tory, that are standing up and saying we would be better off outside the European Union."

The Better Off Out campaign was launched earlier this year by Tory MP Philip Davies, and has attracted support from other sitting Tory members, including Douglas Carswell, Philip Hollobone, Bob Spink, Ann Winterton, Sir Nicholas Winterton and Labour MP Austin Mitchell.

Just when they thought it was safe to pitch for the centre, along comes ConservativeHome's latest survey to reaffirm the old sterotypes.

This is what they are in favour of.