This is Peter Hitchens's Mail on Sunday column

It is now just a matter of time before the Tory Party dies. This is not a moment too soon. For far too long this futile and fraudulent body has stolen the votes of conservative patriots.

For far too long Tory leaders have secretly despised their own supporters.

When David Cameron described UKIP voters as ‘fruitcakes and closet racists’, he was actually giving his true opinion of the men and women who have kept his own party alive.

Since then, he has shown by his every action that he loathes what is left of conservative Britain, and that none of his promises is worth anything.

If there is ever a monument to him, it should be made of cast-iron, brittle and prone to rust away, like his broken pledges.

Now that Tory voters have at last realised that he hates them, they are deserting him.

Some may come back, in the vain belief that the Tories can win the next General Election – or indeed, any General Election, ever again. But plenty more are gone for good.

As I wrote here three years ago: ‘I beg and plead with you not to fall for the shimmering, greasy, cynical fraud which is the Cameron project. You will hate yourself for it in time if you do.’

Of his various promises, I wrote: ‘These “guarantees” fly from his lips whenever he needs to please a crowd, but they are less valuable than Greek junk bonds.’

At that time, shockingly biased and misleading media reporting had suggested falsely that the Tories might win the 2010 Election. Anyone who read the actual poll figures knew they hadn’t a hope.

And a savage campaign of personal denigration had been directed against Gordon Brown, as a substitute for anything resembling a conservative manifesto.

So there was some excuse for continuing to vote Tory. Now there is none. Tory stalwarts have not voted for UKIP because they love Nigel Farage – I think he is a charming charlatan myself, and his party a rickety jalopy bolted together in a garden shed. They have voted UKIP to punish the Tories for many years of betrayal and deceit.

But it goes much deeper than that. Tory voters were, until now, deeply loyal. They thought it was part of their creed. They would flock to the colours at the trumpet’s call, however little they liked it, because it was their duty.

But the Tory leaders have been disloyal to their rank and file, and that old, deep magic has finally failed. That is why the Tories are done for. Once loyalty is gone, it is all too easy to see that the party machine is wretched, decrepit, exhausted and broke; and to see that the party leadership is dishonest, cynical and careerist.

I do not know how many elections it will take, but the chance will soon be here to build something much better. Let us hope we take it, for if we do not save ourselves, nobody else will do it for us.

I wouldn't dare to hug lovely Diana

Where does reasonable feminism stop, and where do mad man-hating wimmin’s rights begin? The

Still-lovely Diana Rigg says the frontier runs somewhere between putting your arm round a woman (Dame Diana seems to think this is just about OK, though dangerous) and patting her bottom, for which she recommends a slap.

I wouldn’t dare attempt either without prior written permission. But I’ve never understood why a sensible equality, in education, property, work and elsewhere, should stop men giving up their seats or opening doors to women. To me it’s so deep it feels like an instinct, and it hurts nobody.

Taxes need rescuing from their sad fate

I had hoped that mine would be the only household in the country to be getting child benefit, a free bus pass and winter fuel allowance all at the same time.

Alas, we have had to give up the child benefit, so it will never come to pass. But I am not at all ashamed of seeking to get every penny I can back from the State.

I regard taxes as an absolute legal duty, but a cold one. I certainly don’t regard them as a moral obligation. Most of the money I have given the State (for which they have never once said ‘thank you’) is spent on things I don’t like.

There are the bad schools, whose primary purpose is to force compulsory equality down our throats, with education a very poor second. There are the increasingly frightening hospitals, whose main job is to employ people.

There are the motorways I hate, and the European Union I want to leave, and the police who won’t do the job we pay them for. And there are the subsidies for fatherless families which condemn so many children to blighted lives.

So if I can rescue any of my money from these purposes, I am glad. For me, it isn’t a free bus-ride, or a free prescription, or a winter fuel allowance. It is unhappy, abused money, rescued from a sad fate and given a good home.

I knew when I first heard of ‘restorative justice’ that it was a scam of some kind. Since then, its semi-secret onward march has been rapid and decisive.

As we discovered last week when it was revealed 34,000 offenders were dealt with using ‘community resolutions’, it means that quite severe violence now goes completely unpunished.

What reformers need to understand is that before we had criminal law, we had blood-feuds and chaos. A grudging insincere apology or a trivial payment are no substitute for justice.

Who really wants to privatise the Royal Mail? Who, after BT, the private water companies and the private power companies, thinks it will be better as a result?

It can only be done because we, the taxpayers, have taken on the Post Office pension fund. And how can the company be both private and Royal? Dogma once again overrides common sense.

Given that the police now seem to be mainly concerned with crimes (or alleged crimes) committed 40 or more years ago, can we expect, around 2053, a great nationwide mass arrest of elderly, white-haired muggers, burglars, shoplifters, vandals and GBH merchants?

I do wonder just how many of the planned ‘tough’ prison rule changes will actually happen. I’ve been studying the summary, issued by the ‘Ministry of Justice’, and parts of it seem a bit vague. I think we should monitor it carefully once it comes into force, remembering that it was announced in an election week.

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