by Dan Hodges

Something isn’t right with the Tories. They are in government. They have been forced to share some of the spoils of their 2010 election victory, but victory was still theirs.

Their political position is sound. Having spent the past year trying to find some direction, Labour has dramatically struck out towards the electoral wilderness. The Liberal Democrats continue to passively fulfill their role as human shields. Cuts, riots, wars, economic stagnation; all come and go with the opinion polls registering concern, but little sign of open revolt.

And yet the Conservative party isn’t happy. Or rather, it is not content. It may no longer be the nasty party. But it is the greedy party. It wants it all. And it wants it now.

Standing in the queue to enter the Manchester arena, you could sense it. Impatience. Not directed at the diligent G4S security staff, but at the political gods. For a party whose members believe they were born to rule, being forced to share power is in some ways  a more cruel fate than not having power at all.

Actually, that is an unfair caricature. Looking at the Conservative delegates they did not look all that dissimilar to their Labour counterparts. Perhaps there were a few more blazers, a little more Laura Ashley and salmon pink. But these were not masters of the universe. Just fairly ordinary men and women imbued with a sense of destiny and self-importance.

They feel this should be their time. The global economy is in crisis. The international picture an unsettled one. There is unrest on our streets. The unions are mobilising. There is a overwhelming sense of a society in moral decline. But they are being hampered.

Hamstrung by an electorate that did not have the foresight to ensure the natural order was fully restored, and partners in government who lack the strength and courage to steer the ship of state through treacherous seas. (more…)