The party faithful - who gives a s**t!

How callous do you have to be to screw your own party's base? Michael Gove, the UK Tories' schools wonk, has quite a few questions to answer.

The party has been parachuting candidates into safe seats to fill an internal quota for female, minority and gay MPs overriding local constituency associations. They are presented with a list of pre-approved candidates and asked to choose one, leaving any local challenger ostracised. This is grounds for a rebellion. Now we discover it's actually part of a planned cull of traditional Tories by the urban latte-sipping "I do my part to fight global warming" elite. The mastermind: Michael Gove.

The stealthy strategy to denude local party associations of their power to choose their candidates is a chilling read. Though the Daily Mail is, well, the Daily Mail, the document is very believable. It would certainly explain the latest candidate selection fiascos in Westminster North and South-West Norfolk. And it befits Gove's style. He is a member of Cameron's inside circle and a guaranteed cabinet shoo-in, but I get a bad vibe. 

I already criticized Gove in an earlier post. He has caused embarrassment to the Tory party in the islamic schools funding fiasco. If this document is indeed proven to be true, his head must roll faster than Louis XVI's. Otherwise David Cameron will have betrayed the trust of the very party that gave him the chance to become Prime Minister in 2010.