Britain needs tough love from the Tories

Cameron's "compassionate conservatism" is working, like a veritable charm, for winning elections. But will it work as a philosophy of government?

As an old-fashioned Tory I can hardly believe so since government consists essentially of doing the nation's dirty work; of doing, that is, all the nasty things in the national interest which we, the citizens, are too nice to want to do ourselves, like ­ lie, restrain, punish, and even kill.

In good times governments can afford to act like Father Christmas. But once the rest of the world turns predatory and dangerous ­ - as is about to happen - what the people will look for is government as protective shield rather than tender conscience.

An awareness of this coercive potential ­ in times of crisis ­ was historically conservatism's ace. Short on dreams and ideals, ­ equality, social justice, even

freedom, ­ it was long on patriotic realism; on stopping at nothing to serve the national interest.

With all the recent talk of "the end of history", this blessed realism came to seem anachronistic. But in two years' time ­ when the next election falls ­ the climate could be very different. For the truth is that there can be no compassionate answer to crime, for example, or to the other curses which afflict our permissive society; or even to climate change, for that matter.

So nice conservatism is in danger of getting its chance just when nasty conservatism may well be the kind which matches the public mood.

If Gordon Brown was sagacious he would give up his futile attempts at ingratiation and get in first by giving the public what it is beginning to want: a smack of very firm government.