Days, perhaps only hours away from the expected announcement of a Con-Lib deal, the Tory
party rank-and-file is getting increasingly restive. Many MPs and party activists do not feel that Team Cameron has been sufficiently attentive to them and their concerns. They look longingly at
the Lib Dems, whose democratic set-up enables MPs and party members to make their views known to Nick Clegg and the leadership.
In a Tory party that has always favoured single-minded leadership, the options for representing rank-and-file views are few, particularly as the chairmanship of the 1922 committee remains vacant. As a result, many senior MPs have been reduced to calling hacks to find out what is actually going on. The matter has not been helped by the fact that many do not trust the chief negotiators, William Hague, George Osborne and Oliver Letwin, to represent the party’s interest – and to tell David Cameron when he is wrong or willing to trade too much.
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