After Bob Spink

So that's three MPs elected as Tories who no longer are. And there weren't all that many to begin with. Who will be next? And come the end of this Parliament, will there by anyone other than David Cameron himself in receipt of the Conservative Whip?

Some people are talking about John Bercow. But he voted in favour of the Temporary and Agency Workers Bill. It really has come to something when the Labour Party is too right-wing for an old Federation of Conservative Students hand, an erstwhile Secretary of the Race and Repatriation Committee of the Monday Club. With a Labour Party like that, who needs the Tories?

Well, it needs the Tories. The Tory bogeyman does not in fact exist (only eleven of them, plus two tellers, turned up to vote against that Bill), but the fear of it is the only reason why anybody is still a Labour MP, a Labour activist, a Labour member, or a Labour voter.

Meanwhile, good luck to Cameron at the Spring Conference in Gateshead. Perhaps he can explain to anyone who turns up why opponents of European federalism, unrestricted immigration, abortion and corruption are no longer welcome in the Conservative Party?