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The BBC reports on the fringe meetings at Bournemouth (well some of them anyway)

Apparently, the number of Tory MPs who want to withdraw from the EU is growing, thus claims Euro-sceptic MP Philip Davies and David Davies who is one of “six whole” Tory MP members of the Better Off Out group said: “There are now “10 whole” Tory MPs who will openly say that Britain should leave the European Union.

Davis also said David Cameron is also happy for MPs to advocate that policy without fear of any sanctions inside the party.

Whoopee!

Of course Cameron is happy to allow a few back benchers to advocate a policy of leaving the EU, but 10 Tories do not make party policy, and whilst the 10 make anti-EU noises the leadership takes the party in the opposite direction, no doubt hoping that the anti EU noises will keep a few on board and keep a few from deserting to UKIP.

Simon Heffer questions whether Dave Cameron and his friends are on the right road although the new approach might be attracting a few younger people to the not the Conservatives, it is doing so at the expense of the core voters, I suspect the Conservative leadership thinking is, that many will bury their concerns and vote not Conservative anyway.

Heffer says;

“people who have never in their lives been asked to confront the question of their general wellbeing, or the work-life balance, or any of the other little obsessions invented by the leadership’s gimmick mongers. Still, what ()the much-reviled “core vote” – think of all this is simply irrelevant to Mr Cameron and his friends. All that matters is that the Leftist press and their co-religionists in the BBC can be persuaded not to be horrid to the party, and victory (so they believe) will follow.”

Heffer thinks there could be problems ahead and Cameron and his friends should “savour his inevitably rapturous ovation after his keynote speech today “for there may well be fewer of them in the months ahead.”

However Daniel Finkelstein Is “WORRIED about David Cameron. I fear he will have too much policy. I am concerned that there will be too much substance and not enough style.”

He suggests that the political parties should not bother with manifestos or policies but just rely on branding. After all he argues “policies don’t win elections, inform voters or help with governing,” “why do the media keep asking for them, and why do politicians keep offering them? Simple. To keep us all entertained.”

He does have a point when most of our laws are made at the EU level and not even debated in parliament the political goings on at Westminster do seem to be mere entertainment.