""That being the case, there are one or two 'catters whom I would have expected to welcome Eric Pickles' initiative.""
All Tories think exactly alike, eh Fred? Do all socialists believe that everything Millipede says is divine gospel?
Use your head once in a while.
Just as there are New Labour, and old Socialist Labour, each having their own opinions, there are also Tories at the left and right wings of that party.
To think otherwise is to expose oneself as a political bigot, and there are a fair few of those about.