I haven’t thrown in the towel

I would like to reach across cyberspace to reassure the great Anne Applebaum. She says in Slate that “the Spectator magazine—the Conservatives’ once-faithful house organ—was ready to throw in the towel” with my cover story a fortnight ago ‘All bets are off.’ Yes, we did indeed declare that Brown is surprising the Conservatives (and us) but our principles haven’t changed one iota.

We remain a cheerleader for conservatism and common sense in general, which is why I feel under no compulsion to cheer Cameron as he moves so far to the left that he actually overtakes Brown. On several issues: flag waving, private equity, the environment, house building and tax Brown can reasonably claim to be to the right of the New Tories. It’s truly bizarre, but there we are. So the Tories may move leftwards and Brown rightwards, but The Spectator stays proudly where we have stood pretty much since 1828.