I hate Tories.

I fucking hate Tories.

Sometimes nowadays, when all parties vie to out 'Thatcher' each other, it is easy to lose track of this. But one look at Tory conference is enough to remind me.

No amount of cool spin and Cameron wearing a suit without a tie, can hide what they really are. For all their talk of being the party for the environment, the party of the NHS, and how the internet is the best example of how free enterprise naturally develops society, they are still the party of over-privileged, bigoted and reactionary old farts.

Just look around the faces at conference to reveal the bizarre coalition that forms their social base. The blue-rinse ladies from the shires, the chinless toffs in their barbours, the smug double-breasted suits from the chambers of commerce, the mean spirited little men who fly the union jack from their bungalows, and the occasional essex-man, self-made and as awkward amongst the middle classes he aspires to as he amongst the relations he left behind.

And as for the Young Conservatives - hooray young-fogeys and cringe making geeks all of whom would have been remorselessly bullied if they had attended a state school.

I first started hating Tories when I was about thirteen. Studying history O-Level it was apparent that there was always someone you could rely on to oppose the extension of the right to vote or to object to reforms that prevented young children being stuffed up chimneys - the Tories.

And as an adult this historical prejudice was only confirmed when I witnessed Thatcher systematically destroy everything that my parents' generation had fought for.

And the new cool Tories are no different. What has come out of the conference ? What does it all amount to? Tax cuts that in reality can only be paid for by cutting public spending and a 'tough love' proposal to deny benefits to claimants who won't work.

I despise the betrayal of New Labour - but I still fucking hate the Tories.