The Spectator’s Notes | 22 January 2005

Having been brought up in a family of active Liberals, I am well acquainted with the category of ‘civilised Tory’. He was easily recognised. He was anti-hanging, pro-Europe, anti-Enoch, anti-Rhodesia. At his zenith (roughly 1972), he tended to wear his hair quite long and swept back, curling over the collar of a shirt which had very wide blue stripes. He was usually fond of good food and wine and preferred the company of non-Tories, attracting friendly profiles in the Observer. He liked it to be known that he read books. He was very public-schooly, though quite often he had not been to a public school. He had charm, but his main vice was vanity, both physical and intellectual. He was an object of admiration in our household — because of his ‘courage’ in opposing his ‘bigoted’ colleagues — but also of puzzlement, because Conservatives were, by definition, morally defective, so why would a decent and intelligent person get mixed up with them? The category of civilised Tory included Nigel Fisher, Nick Scott and Anthony Meyer (both of whom have died in the last month), and, more recently, Chris Patten. It also included Robert Jackson, until last week Conservative and now Labour Member for Wantage, on the more cerebral, less louche wing of the movement. I have always felt sorry for Robert because his political career began just as the glory days of Tory goody-goodyism were ending. So this defection, I suppose, is the revenge for his disappointment. I fear, though, that he has picked the wrong moment once again. He is right, unfortunately, that Tony Blair (despite having introduced the most divisive law of modern times) is a more effective embodiment of moderate politics than Michael Howard, but is this what the next election will really be about? Robert has clearly expressed his preference for Mr Blair, not for the Labour party.