I guess I'm out on something of a limb here, and I rarely disagree with Matt, but I'm not sure how a swell party for the Tory beautiful people helps. Surely it reinforces the image of the Conservative Party as the party of the better off.

Hmmm. Much as I loathe Gordon, I've yet to be convinced by Mr C and his merry crew. The only area of Conservative policy yet enunciated which I find appealing is Michael Gove's voucher scheme. And yes, I might well vote for them just for that. But their health policy is - so far - much, much worse than Labour's, and will retrench producer capture rather than maintain, let alone extend, the consumer focussed reforms - albeit far too limited - of the government.

But there's something about the images from last night's ball which reignites everything I have always loathed about the Conservative Party - that self-satisfied, smug, born-to-rule, superiority which needs to be fought against, not embraced.

(It's an issue writ small in the London Mayoral vote. Much as I loathe Ken Livingstone - for whom I voted last time, because I idiotically put all concerns other than the congestion charge out of my mind - I can't bring myself to vote for a buffoon as Mayor. Boris Johnson is a very funny writer, but I'm not even sure he's of sufficient calibre to be a front bencher, let alone Mayor of London. So I'm sort of stuck.)

UPDATE: This has been (slightly) edited.