Quite right Tory T. Redwood not only should but does know better.

The idea of 30 or even 65 as arbitrary cut off dates is absurd; that said TomTom has a point in so much as experience counts for a great deal.

601 I am interested in your petition. Do you know if it still is (ever was?) the case that Job Seekers Allowance is only paid to people who have paid sufficient NI contributions (in the relevant tax years), and that it is only payable for 26 weeks? If so I suspect you are looking at the wrong target. If people have paid in to the system and are actively looking for work why tether them. Perhaps I am mistaken but if not perhaps your should be looking at means tested benefits?

As a self confessed wrinkly SJM may be happy with ageism but I am not. Public and private pensions are in a problematic state (to say the least), a situation only made worse by an ageing population. We should therefore be encouraging and facilitating lifetime working.

Quelle surprise? I am at one with Graeme's scepticism regarding New Labour's crazy policy re Casino's and I can only concur with Mark Wadsworth that thoughts of China and memories of Heath make me queasy.

FWIW, I was at Oxford when the SDP first kicked off. It was very popular amongst the sons and daughters of our country's privileged elite. If twenty odd years on modern caring compassionate Conservatism is simply just another version of social democracy, God help us.

I must admit I feel I have detected a slight and positive change in Cameron's tone over the least few weeks. He did perform well today but then he should do. I still remain unconvinced.

Cameron is being interviewed on talksport at 11.00 am today.

Notwithstanding the pro and anti grammar school argument (and I accept their decline has denied upward mobility to the less well off), I believe real detriment has been caused to the state educational system through indisicpline and for want of a better word "trendy" educational theories.

Simon I think Heffer is correct about the Economist which in turn was wrong about the ERM. I used to get it for free and read it for work at mega bank but it became increasingly clear to me that its politics just like the FT's were moving wishy washy leftwards. Its all very well indulging your (I don't mean your's Simon) conscience by reading and going along with third way centrist views whilst waiting for your annual or quarterly bonus as my colleagues did but sometimes a little light has to be let in on realtiy. PS I think "bien pensant" was quite aposite. As might be "insulated" from the real world.

There are probably too many reasons (known and unknown to paraphrase a certain American) for the armed forces current condition. Labour's historic pacifist and internationalist influences meant they never felt comfortable with the maintenance let alone the use of the armed forces. I think Blair's wars will in time be viewed as a bizarre aberration. The wars do not seem congruent with Labour's historic approach to foreign policy approach or even a traditional policy based on pure national self-interest. There are of course more specific factors at play. The Treasury under Gordon Brown have not been helpful. The MOD have not made a bad situation better, particularly with regard to procurement. Perhaps more importantly I do not think the armed forces resonate with our post modern electorate in the way they used to. Just look at the paucity of posts on this thread.

Ted I registered that. I was commenting on the speeches Cameron does.

Ted I am sorry. Maybe I don't do speeches or something like that although I have found others' both illuminating and stirring in the past. But I have to say I find Cameron's speeches limp and meaningless and suspect that is what they are meant to be.

Andy He is accountable if people don't buy his owner's paper.

Sorry, Labour Party should read Labour MPs.

On the subject of Marx, does anyone have any idea how many members of the Labour Party or the cabinet are former Commies?

If Brown has read all of Marx's works it may explain his dour demeanour.

The first time Cameron came to my attention must have been at least a year before the election. The BBC reported him as making a speech which was at the least critical of Thatcher.

Yes, I think it is fair to say it was the chat although the latter can often be balanced by the music which from memory for me, it did not do.

Unrelated perhaps, but I found Mr Dacre's peformance on Desert Island Discs one of the least satisfying of any guest I have ever heard on that programme.

The BBC is a major problem, in fact one of the greatest in terms of getting a right of centre message across to the electorate. However abolishing the BBC (or at least making it impartial) would only be a first step. The culturally marxist metropolitan pc weltanschaung is embedded throughout the establishment and the taxpayer funded strata of the economy. It could take a generation to change all that. The country needs someone of Sir Winston Churchill's or Lady Thatcher's calibre to even contemplate that task let alone start on it.

Well done for a public figure like Mr Dacre pointing out what so many of us feel. The shame is it is unlikely to make any difference to the Beeb. Abolition is all they will understand.

Scotty Although I don't think you proved your point, I agree with your general sentiment that most of us want a good debate. I agree slagging your fellow debaters off is not a good idea generally and I was highlighting how quickly I think some do it. So I am with you a long way except that I do think the idea we should refrain from criticising individual politicians (if that is what you are suggesting) is a bit absurd. But thanks for your polite contribution (and Ted's).

There seems to be a far too frequent pattern to these threads. Disagreement by long standing conservative supporters with Cameron, his style, his policies (such as they are), his acolytes, or any of their shibboleths may first (if you are lucky) be countered by argument but far too often falls into name calling and if that does not work the pathetic cry of "please sir, I don't like that post" or even worse as has been the case a request for a thread to be removed. It is absolutely pathetic.

Deborah Ditto.