I think this is all a load of tripe. Its not what the guy was saying in the first place.

When I was a kid growing up in in England in the 1950's we had Conservative governments - okay they weren't the red in claw and wild in rhetoric chappies that you seem to admire. But they were conservative. they stood for capital over labour. there was a lot of talk about 13 years of conservative misrule.

I remember reading a book about charles dickens around that time. I was twelve. Dickens despised politicians. he said it mattered little who ruled as long as all people - not just politicians - but all of us behave decently towards each other.

I was 12, and I thought Dickens was naive.

then came a period of Labour government. There were changes of emphasis, but they were still in the same morally compromised business of running a country in a world full of completely horrible bastards. The starving kids with arms missing seem to be a constant in this equation.

I've been a socialist all my life. I believe in socialised medicine, a regulated economy, a strong trade union movement and I should prefer a to live in a republic.

But the guy who came and visited me most when my wife became disabled and lifted my spirits was a card carrying conservative.

It really doesn't matter how you think things should be organised. Most systems would work if could just behave ourselves better. All of them would work better.

Your opinion about a set of abstractions like society is not worth insulting or hurting another human being over.

Its that second commandment thats the killer - you must love your fellow man.

Even if he's a republican and a sinner.