As today's Peter Brookes cartoon brilliantly portrays, Cameron is trying to be all things to all men without realising he is upsetting his lumpertorial. A good analogy is the recent demise of the mighty Marks and Spencer and it took 10 years to find a leader, Stuart Rose, who could see the obvious, why his loyal customers stayed away and corrected the situation accordingly..
Similarly,The problems of the nation are equally obvious, and if Cameron cannot see them and correct them without pandering to the lowest common denominator at the expense of his traditional support, in order to win popularity, then he does not deserve the keys to no.10. The debate on Grammar schools should not be a major problem,, but raising standards at all levels in the public sector, without taxing the electorate into oblivion, is. If there is to be a choice, let us have one, if there is to be a change, let it be one for the better, not more of the same.

M Fishman, London UK,

Interesting stuff, but I think you're missing the point. How many people do you actually think are remotely interested in/supportive of either Cameron, Blair, the Tories or Labour? People are switching off politics in their droves, and I don't blame them.

So it seems a bit silly to sit around discussing the intricacies of party reform when no one's listening apart from the political obsessives such as myself.. the problems with british democracy go far, far deeper. But the politicians are still playing the same game, thinking everythings fine.

Owen, London, UK

"The grammar-school storm, ridiculously unimportant as it ought to be ..." Really? We have a poor education system; one option for change and improvement - reintroducing academic selection for secondary schools - is arbitrarily closed off for no good reason, while a far more questionable and even sinister idea - selection on the grounds of race - is floated; and all this is "ridiculously unimportant"?

Denis Cooper, Maidenhead, England

I think that Matthew's opimism about Cameron is the same as Iain Dale's last week. I am far from convinced that Cameron's 'insticts are surely right'.

The two most important facets of the coming intellectual revolution are as follows:

1. A reassertion of the value of equality between all people, irrespective of creed or colour etc. This will mean a rejection of multiculturalist's policy of special favours to minorities to correct perceived past injustices (e.g. party lists biassed away from white men) and so breeding more prejudice. It will also mean a re-establishment of the right of free speech, even if it offends people.

2. A revoltuion in localism, where powers stolen since the second world war from local communities (such as the right to choose their own type of schools and hospitals, or even whether to have them) are given back.

Although Cameron talks about these things, the evidence suggests that his instincts are on the wrong side of both these issues.

Scary, Windsor,

MP's modern policy shift: Cuddle core conservatives, "a slow and sometimes grumpy audience." But in this column he promotes atheism, opposite to conservative principles.

Hermann Burchard, Stillwater, OK , U.S.A.

Big mistake of Cameron and crew to think that the Conservative Party wants to follow the example of Blair. Cameron may be, but most of us are not in slightest bit content in Blair's Britain.

David Scott, Chester,

>>they’d like to hear him talk more about wasted taxes<<
Yes indeed. What I want from the next government is a good deal more inaction. Stop running advertising campaigns at our expense to nag us about things we do not need or wish to know. Stop throwing money at the Health Service for it to hire more middle-managers to compile charts and presentations for one another. Stop hiring consultants.
Correction: sack all the existing consultants and hire just one more: somebody capable of writing a contract under which the government DOES NOT PAY ANYTHING for schemes that do not succeed.

Ross, Bristol,

The language of the U-Turn is rather like looking for a quote in Charlie Parker's sax playing, they are there but if you spend your time listening for them you will miss what the great instrumentalist is offering. The U-Turn has always been emblematic of indecisiveness in the political arena. Where a Labour Government would employ a focus group and metrics to fashion policy, and still get it wrong, the news that we have a Conservative leader who is not so brittle, defensive and deaf must be great news to a country that has suffered so many false dawns under Labour.

Think what blunders have been committed through the centuries by men that stubbornly pursued policy despite circumstances changing, men who were peddling infallibility. Think on Canute, who, sick of the fawning of his obsequious entourage, tired of his 'flawlessness', committed the waves to cease. Our leaders are human and posses earthly powers. Better a man that recognises such things than some closet messiah.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

I could forgive the Tories almost everything. But Mr Parris
please explain to me why it was a Tory Chief Whip that tried to exempt MPs from the FOI.
That was a far worse move than anything David Willets made.
Incidentially has he really got two brains ?

Peter Bolt, Redditch, UK

Well this sort of Cambridge University educated drivel may play well to the tofu eating chatterati in N London but it isn't going to bring me back to the Consrvatives.

P Holden, Northants, UK

There is a need for Mathew to look north to Scotland where a very interesting political change is happening in the Scottish Parliament. Traditional political wonks see it as minority government and based on the Westminster model is surely doomed. All last week the Scottish Media have been trumpeting that Salmond was a goner before he started. The reality was the first climb down was by the Labour leadership as they realised their own back benchers were going to vote for the proposal to drop tolls on the Forth and Tay bridges.

There are a number of councils in Scotland now run with coalitions of SNP and Scottish Conservatives or Liberal's and Conservatives. A Conservative was unanimously voted presiding officer. Maybe Cameron's legacy is to change Westminster for the good - proportional representation - the voters are sick of the set piece opposition it is not how things actually are done - consensus is the norm.

Peter Thomson, Kirkcudbright, Scotland

Matthew Parris is spot on as usual - I wish he would become part of the Cameron inner circle so he could give his excellent advice in person. I was dismayed by the policy announcement on grammar schools, even though I can see the logic of the case made by Willetts. Cameron needs to do more to persuade us traditional party members and rather less to browbeat us.

Richard Marriott, Kidderminster, England

Michael Murphy is right about the tax / benefit traps Gordon has set. Someone on working tax credit has a marginal tax rate of 66%. What incentive do they have to work harder or longer when they get to keep one pound in three of what they earn?

Raise the thresholds for tax and NI to £11,000 and put a penny on the standard and upper rates to compensate. If Brown stopped taking £1,500 in tax and NI off someone warning £10k, he wouldn't have to give it back so they can afford to live. Then we could do away with huge volumes of paperwork, the ridiculous overpayments, and the beaurocracy to administer it all.

Peter Dunford, Bournemouth, UK

Until he comes up with some popular, distinctive policies, Cameron will continue to be an irrelevance. It's all "brand positioning" and no product.

Janet, London,

MATTHEW please help me to understand this the BLUE
PARTY IS NOW THE GREEN PARTY the red PARTY IS
NOW THE BLUE PARTY the YELLOW party is green and
red ,ps wheres MR BROWN GONE and PM MR BLAIR
thinks our country is the size of the USA very confused
is it me as terry would say.

george william taylor, hull, uk

If you say that Britain has become more relaxed and tolerant in the last decade he to must be out of touch.Relaxed how can I be,more of my money is going in taxes with very little to show for it,everything I look at seems to be in decline and as for tolerance just look around you.I see the opposite,there seems to be a general selfishness throughout .
If this is the view of the Party then they are missing the point,Blair has changed the country for the worse and it is a reintroduction of some old core values that have stood the test of time which are needed.

Nigel Wheatcroft, Wimbledon, UK

Every so often a 'sea change' in mood occurs in the political mood of the nation.

Blair got in in 1997 because the country was fed up with the Tories for all sorts of reasons. A similar discontent is evident now: immigration, housing, public services, taxation and crime to mention a few. People want a change. The recent Scottish and Welsh elections confirm this thesis.

The opportunity for opposition parties now is to offer something new that echoes the mood of the day. So moving into the policy space occupied by the failing incumbents is absurd.

MarkS, Leeds,

No amount of special pleading on Matthew Parris's part will alter the fact that the Tory Party does not have a 'divine right' to rule this country as it used to think it did, and probably still does. And the notion that David Cameron is the one MP destined to lead it back into government becomes ever more risible by the day. That the Tories will one day return to power seems feasible since we have a two-party system in which changes of government do occur from time to time. But that doesn't mean it's a sure bet that Gordon Brown will lose the next election, nor that David Cameron will still be the Tories' leader for the one after that. Talking of which, whatever happened to John Redwood?

K Philips, London,

It's not just politicians who are out of touch... such condescending drivel.

Ed, London,

Cameron was right to study Balir's revamp of Labour but he has an inescapable problem.
Brown has us locked in to the benefit/tax arrangements he has spent (and I mean spent) a decade putting in place. Weaning us off the State teat is going to be painful.
So Cameron's shift must come through education and health being 'improved' through the people paying privately for the more sophisticated curricula and treatments.
This 'free at the point of delivery' mantra has to be dropped, and soon.
Conservatives don't like parting with money, period.

michael murphy, brightlingsea, england

Almost too late for Cameron to pretend he values the 'lumpenproletariat' (as M.P. calls them) iin the party, Certainly in my case it has been; I understood the Cameroon animosity and dislike and have left. But it does seem odd for the Conservative Party associations to work for and fund a machione dedicated to its make-over into a new, 'New Labour' party.

Dr J Findlater, Carnforth,

Mr Parris may well be right about the Conservative party, but the idea that Great Britain has become more relaxed or tolerant or confident in the last decade or decades is preposterous. The reality is more tense, more priggish and suffering a nervous and emotional breakdown, making her very wearing to live with.

john, london, england

From what Matthew Parris says in this article it looks as if we will get a clone of Tony Blair should Cameron become Prime Minister. As for Conservative principles is that the one where you keep increasing indirect taxes and then claiming that taxes are going down. Well not much change from Labour there nor from the previous Tory administrations.

Alan Lewis, Bangkok, Thailand