In response to, “Laura Perrins: Orders from the State. Prepare your children for pornography, drugs, binge-drinking and transgendering”, Earthenware wrote:

“This Conservative Party has led on every single one of these changes, sometimes instigated by stealth, hoping we would not notice. We have.”

So Laura, we have to conclude from this that the Modern Tories are not conservative at all, but rather, in your words, ultra left. We must judge them on their actions, not on their words.

Peter Hitchens of the Mail on Sunday has pointed out many times that the Modern Tories are just New Labour with blue rosettes. It’s one of those things that people don’t want to accept – if both parties in a binary system are left wing, who can conservatives vote for?

Even if one accepts that  Michael Gove was taming the educational establishment (which I don’t), it’s clear that Cameron opposed any such changes. The same with the environment, as soon as Owen Paterson challenged the Green Blob, Cameron removed him.

This leftward shift (the Maude/Letwin strategy to appeal to “centrist” voters) seems to be more than just an electoral tactic. I’m not aware of any public demand to adopt ultra-left policies on transgender issues.

Like gay marriage (for which there was also no public demand) it looks more like a demonstration of Modern Tory values than an attempt to woo the centrist vote.

As I’ve said before, this is less about policy details than it is about values. As you have listed above, the Modern Tories take their values from liberal metropolitan elites and not from the people. At present, only Ukip appear to hold what some would call conservative (and I would call traditional) values.