How left wing is David Cameron? Just ask Chris Perry. It appears that Cameron’s charm offensive and policy contortions are paying off. That is if the defection of Labour veteran Chris Perry in Hampshire is anything to go by.

“Perry is so disillusioned with the party that he has decided to lend his support to the Conservatives,” writes The Hampshire Chronicle. Sounds good for Cameron so far, but it all starts to go down hill. Mr Perry it seems has been invigorated by the promise to feed the bloat that is the NHS. He is also old Labour, and I mean very old Labour, and pompous to boot, “politics is about changing your views to meet changing circumstances, as the late Bertrand Russell once said to me in a letter about nuclear weapons.”

The fellow stood for Labour in Winchester in 1970, so I suppose he fits the Tory age profile.