The 7,006th best-selling book on Amazon as I write this review is Dylan Jones's set of "conversations with David Cameron". It has had some glittering endorsements that suggest the work can only soar ever higher in the charts. Mr Jones's friend the editor of the Spectator says on the back of the dust-wrapper that the author brings to his subject "formidable writing talent, wit and wisdom". As if that is [...]

The careerist wing of the Conservative Party, which for the past few weeks made itself indiscernible from the camp supporting Michael Portillo for the Tory leadership, has just had one of the nastiest shocks in its long and revolting history. Never have so many men of such little principle been so gravely disappointed. It said a great deal about the collective judgement of the upper reaches of the Tory party [...]

The first round of the Tory leadership contest seemed to sum it all up: they can't even organise one of those. I write between round 1 and the unscheduled, make-up-the-rules-as-you-go-along round 1(a), the rerun of the first round after the tie for last place. Although both Michael Ancram and David Davis have done better than predicted, neither is going to lead the party. Their staying in the race is evidence [...]

Brace yourselves, for we are about to see the Conservative Party at its most disgusting. There will be no aspect of human behaviour - short, perhaps, of murder and incest - so degrading that it will not (usually by accident) be exhibited in the weeks ahead. These days, the party has leadership contests more often than Liz Taylor changes husbands. As in Dame Elizabeth's case, practice does not, regrettably, make [...]

There were two reasons why some in the Tory party were dismayed by the postponement of the general election. The first was that they believed the Prime Minister would look callous, uncaring and divisive if he went on 3 May, and that this perception could be exploited to their benefit. The second, however, was that the state of internal party discipline is so shaky that no one would like to [...]

My faint memories of the 1967 foot-and-mouth outbreak are monochrome, but digitally enhanced by the events of recent days. There was a cattle farm up the lane from our house, and the warning signs went up and we kept our distance. A dog off the lead would have been shot. Although we were then outside the main area of infection, we heard daily of whole herds being put down. It [...]

For a party used to splashing out to the point of extravagance when it comes to elections, the Tories have long feared that the next campaign would have to be like none they have ever fought. The cupboard was not quite bare - thanks to Lord Ashcroft - but there seemed no hope of raising anything approaching the £22m that funded the monumentally unsuccessful 1997 campaign.

Now Stuart Wheeler has [...]

For all the glories of the English musical renaissance ushered in by Parry and Elgar a little more than a century ago, hardly any composer who emerged during that period deserved the title of genius. Benjamin Britten, writing the sort of innovative, mature music in his late teens and early twenties that most composers struggle for decades to produce - and still fail - is generally agreed to be the [...]

As the Tory party had its convulsion over the future - or otherwise - of Michael Portillo, it was difficult to avoid colleagues of the afflicted man eager to offer their personal take on the shadow chancellor's mental health. Several professed their certainty that he had had a breakdown of some sort. It seemed unfair to single him out. As the hysteria about him suggests, the whole party has had [...]

The Tories could not have wished for a better time to launch their draft manifesto, Believing in Britain, at the start of this month. The latest humiliation wreaked by the Dome was showing the Labour government in a helpfully bad light. The euro was falling to record lows on the foreign exchanges. Seething resentment about the price of petrol was starting to boil over into direct action. Two new books [...]