David Cameron's Young Britons Foundation has some views. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/may/05/young-britons-foundation-...

i always like to put a voice to a face and in laurie pennys case on friday she did appear on gabby logans show on 5 live strangely defending 9 year old girls wearing crop tops and mini skirts to the dismay of many hard line feminists,maybe my ears need cleaning but laurie penny sounded like one of these hooray henry toffs with a plum in her throat.

'Elly': "I suddenly feel very, very sorry for all of the women Tory MPs - not to mention Adam Afriye." [sic]

How very big-hearted of you. So if you're a woman or black you're de facto a victim deserving of pity? Probably best to just sit quietly in a corner and hope for a handout or maybe a job when a quota needs filling.

What annoys me so about most lefties is their closed minds. They never consider that they might be wrong because they have an impregnable mental armour of smugness forged from their good intentions.

I was the one that squeezed your arse.

Very bony. Most disappointing.

"People in politics being twats" shocker.

@me I'm sorry people feel offended and degraded by these descriptions.I felt offended and degraded simply by being present. There's a lot more I could have put in and didn't - the guy chatting to me outside about how he felt a lot of women lie about rape, for example.

Your version of David Dimbleby - whose hilarious nickname I was also informed about - said specifically that this event was under 'Chatham House Rules'. He claimed that CHR mean you'll be sued if you quote anything, but actually, CHR are quite specific: you can quote anything, as long as you don't officially attribute anyone. And you'll notice that I haven't named anyone at the hustings, and used pseudonyms or identifiers elsewhere. I've actually stuck to the rules of the evening extremely thoroughly in this piece.

Oh, and Pink Shirt - who I've seen since - actually asked very specifically if I'd include him and quote him in this piece. I doubt his reputation has been 'tarnished'.

I sense a Sgt Wilson moment, but I am too old for you Penny, I couldn't possibly shag you, honest my lovely,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuOZBCmfdOg

Irritatingly I feel I have to acknowledge that 'Clem the Gem' is being the fair and open minded exception to my characterisation of "most lefties". Curse his reasonable attitude.

Smoker? Ugh.

"Nice posh young conservatives..."
..and led by Cameron whose knowledge of English History can be written in a postage stamp!!

Posh but dim.. more like it.

@ laurie. people don't usually start up converations about rape. you must have started that conversation yourself. it all goes back to the twisting things around. he may even have been trying to start a debate and get your viewpoint, but somehow i dont think you would have caught on. i wasn't present so what you've said is just an allegation anyway.

i don't know the specifics, but from what you're saying even if it may not be against the rules per se, i think it is against the spirit of the rules.

you really should stop digging the hole for pink shirt. its fairly deep already. apparantly it's mostly that everyone feels he has low standards and is letting the side down. i'm going to leave this commentary alone now because i feel offended and degraded simply by being present.

see you later, i'm sure. :)

Thank you, Laurie, for an entertaining and informative article. The sense of entitlement - and attendant lack of worldliness - is certainly a common theme in my encounters with the right. Not exclusively - I know plenty of tories who are lovely. And god forbid one should work under the assumption apparently held by the poster who helpfully identified herself as "me," and decide that one's own experiences are the only ones which could possibly be valid for everyone else too. Nonetheless, as a working class individual (my father was a bus driver) who was awarded a scholarship to a grammar school, I have certainly encountered the kind of behaviour you describe here among conservatives, much moreso than members of the other major parties (who, of course, have their own faults).

To those of you discussing Laurie's physical appearance - not only does it make you look superficial, sexist (yes, even if you're female) and boorish, you're basing your opinion on an overexposed passport photo. Glad to know you can make absolute decisions based upon such little information. A successful career in the House of Commons awaits you!

Your piece pushed so many of my buttons, I feel like the cockpit of a 747. Delicious load of fuel for the fire. Many thanks.

more anti-tory music, by experience,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxHcx7FO8nI

@EhtchTee. Give me a break. The tory airheds are actually in government making decisions about society. The 'street wise' left are feeling smug because they think they are ripping the airheads apart in a NS blog post! The really street wise ultra left are even more smug because they don't even get anywhere near power but are able to shout really loud to each other in numerous protests on STREETS.

Aye lad, once more the airheads have got the better of you.

Well then, anyone for tennis?

James H: Sorry to upset the applecart :o)

I am quite left wing as well! I did the Tory hating thing when younger, but in the end, when you stop student politics, and start living in the real world, most people seem quite human.
In this country, one can fight the class war without having to shed blood on a daily basis.
If we are to beat our opponents, then we must understand them, and respect them - bile is fun, but gets us nowhere.

You seem quite a reasonable person, if so do you really think that the Conservative Party as it now stands is the best vehicle for your reasonableness?

Laurie, the ones that did are obviously old gays, but I would, shag you that is, but I would come over as a letcherous old man, so I won't say it. umm....

But that's life, no one seems to win comment-wise. How about another old man, Tom, and his moves in the day,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UxU8s7Au0A

@ Louise Williams: "I joined a programme designed to use the experience of old entrepreneurs aiding people such as I to build and develop our businesses"

Presumably you meant such as me (not 'I').

Even as someone of a right-wing disposition, i highly agree with you Laurie. Purely because im not from a wealthy background at all and i find all braying people of all dispositions to be annoying.

Real right-wingers are sociopaths who just want to be left alone :D

Aw Bwoo bwoo bwoo hwoo. Ickle Bwoois Bwilliams in his effort to set up his small business, has come up against frustrating state bureaucracy , and he thinks it's a product of the left. Woohis, these obstacles. These barriers to entry, they're put in place by the bloated lazy fat pigs of your own class.

You'll find as you get older, and you're gently shoe horned into a nice paying job, or you get helped out setting up your own business, under a gentleman's agreement, to make sure you have a period of definite easy trade while you get things going, and even when you've got things going. Woohis think - barriers to entry. Imagine if any old oik could get a business started.

Think Woohis, think. Who's got money in their pockets to navigate these bureaucratic expenses? Why do you think they're there? Do you seriously think someone has pulled them out of thin air. They're there to keep the ignorant fat retards you see at your daddy's golf club in clover.

Rentiers seek to create barriers to entry so they can keep more, or even all, the cake to themselves.

Bwoohis, don't work so hard or get your knickers in a twist. It's not how the world works. Follow your parents advice. Get them to set you up with some wart faced Mathilda daughter from the golf club. You'll get set up in trade easily then. You won't even have the chance of failing - your kind never are even allowed that experience.

And Woohis - don't try and be the intellectual. It's not appreciated among your kind. You'll get caste out and then you'll come to us. And we don't really want you.

Woohis, we don't want you - stick to your own kind.

Interesting article, but very poorly written. It is more colloquial than anything I have read, then again I do not read this, and actually quite wooly as an article. For instance, the misogyny shown by some members may be true, but I highly doubt, given the age that we live in that members are overtly sexist. Similarly, the discourse on the cuts needs to be seen in the right context, if someone says that they are good, you simply cannot quote that. You need to say why they think it's a good thing and more often than not they will use a deal of reason to explain that. Also, your point about the cuts affecting the poor, and women the most. We are trying to get a 'universal credit' to simplify the tax/benefits system. Yes we are taking away many benefits so that we can simplify it and so that people can keep their own money. It is just folly to say that it will affect women and the poor most, it is just feminist and socialistic flim-flam. Then again, you describe yourself as a feminist.

On the Thatcher point, I do think that she was a good Prime Minister and a strong force on the world stage. I do not think that she was perfect and nor would I be 'privileged to lick her boots.' The problem with the Tory Party and the Young Conservative (and actually the YBF) is that we need to move on from Thatcher. The Party has, but the Young Conservatives have not and they need to. I agree that there are some ideological idiots within the young conservatives who are, I believe, no better than many of the Palin loving Neocons in America. But many of us are quite moderate and pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

Similarly, I have see some rubbish being posted online. Someone said that all Tories are 'posh'. What crap. I am a Tory, many do describe me as 'posh', but I received EMA when I was at school and only got to a boarding school thanks to a scholarship and the good fortune of my grandmother.

Overall quite a poorly written article with some interesting points that Conservative Future need to look at.

Not a prig EhtchTee, just dont think proposing to "shag" Laurie was going to help win the battle of ideas.
More likely to be quoted by CF as proof that we are worse than them.
Also am a little worried that this is becoming a boys only stream. we could be dragging our knuckles around here for ages at this rate.
come on women1 show us the error of our ways!

Ouite right you are, penny, just leave out all the discussion of policies and arguments. Don't report any of those facts - those make my head hurt - just report inuendo instead. Don't describe policies, just tell us what they where drinking and what way they tied their ties. They wore ties and didn't dirnk pints, why those inconcievible middle class b*******!

If a man wrote an article about a feminists confrence that spent the whole time focusing on what the women wore and what pasteries they where eating it would be sexist, but this it certainly can't considered sexist, because, this is important journalsim.

We, in-our-naivety, never imagined that tory party members where mostly middle class and liked thacher. These two nuggets of information you've discovered are more than worth your paycheck, and expenses. Thank you for bringing this vital new information to light.

Oh, and that nice girl, who tried to help you and give you advice; well don't dare demean her by using her real name, or indeed a human name - just refer to her as 'posh frock' instead.

And most of all, thankyou, for writing this article without a hint of class envy. Just a i wrote this comment without a hint of sarcasim.

Soon you'll marry that nice boy, you're so desprately envious of, join the horsey set, and go to live with his mamma, pappa, and nanna in the country. Then you'll be able to put all your envy asside, secretly vote tory, and write for the Guardian, and demonstrate irrational hatred of the middle classes is based on a deep Freudian desire to join them. A bally hurra!

In ten or fifteen years' time these wastes of space will be the government unless we get a party that can, and wants to, fight them. No sign of that yet.