When you are not a part of the Tory tribe there are certain subjects you worry about mentioning as journalist, whether it’s at a Conservative Party conference, or indeed, on a blog for the Spectator. One is Europe, another is immigration and a third is multiculturalism. These three interlocking bogies drive the Tory grassroots and emerge, from time to time, to trouble the party leadership. The views of constituency activists on these issues (and people who like to comment on the Spectator site) can be fruity, but I have been talking to Tories for long enough to know that they can be genuinely passionate about this stuff.
It was once a mantra of the Tory modernisers that dog-whistle politics was a mug’s game, as most people knew what the Conservatives thought on subjects such as crime and immigration. The process of detoxification led these issues to slip out of polite conversation during the early years of the Cameron era.
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