John Stuart Mill labelled the Conservatives 'the stupid party'. They have certainly been stupid since 1997, and one wonders if their stupidity will persist. But a related and more interesting question is: 'Are the Conservatives any longer a serious party?' A serious party can be one of two things. It can, like the Greens, be concerned with only one issue or one group of issues. Its members are not hoping to form a government - they know they are never going to do that - but they believe the presence of some Greens in Parliament, Brussels and local government will help them publicise the issues they believe to be the most important and induce the government to do something about them.

LRB 20 October 2005 | PDF Download