David Cameron’s apple-pie promises and feel-good rhetoric might sweep him to power in 2010, but there’s a yawning gap between the vagueness of his words and the likely consequences of his policies. Alex Nunns takes us on a trip into the future to see how Britain might look after four years of Tory rule.

Jonathan Rutherford discusses ‘compassionate Conservatism’.

Alex Salmond’s remark to Iain Dale that Scots ‘didn’t mind the economic side’ of Thatcherism, created a storm of hypocrisy and exposed a fundamental truth about Scottish politics, argues Gerry Hassan. Mainstream politicians are as united in tacitly accepting Thatcher’s legacy as in publicly abominating her policies.

Tory MP David Davis has been hailed by liberals and leftists for his apparently principled stand in defence of civil liberties. In the second of a two-part essay, Chris Marsden examines what he really stands for.

Tory MP David Davis has been hailed by liberals and leftists for his apparently principled stand in defence of civil liberties. In the first of a two-part essay, Chris Marsden examines what he really stands for.

Marcus Morgan and Paul Mitchell report on how Boris Johnson’s mayoralty is already showing signs of decay, as high-ranking members of his administration have resigned over accusations of financial and sexual misconduct and barely-veiled racism.

“I am against the war in Iraq, I don’t like big business and I think David Davis is mobilising right-wing policies in Britain”. So says Angela Morkos, a resident of David Davis’s former constituency who plans to vote for the Socialist Equity Party at the forthcoming by-election. Reporters from the World Socialist Website interviewed Angela and other local people to gauge the mood of the electorate before polling day.

Chris Marsden reflects on how the Haltemprice and Howden by-election illustrates the mainstream, and supposedly ‘liberal’, media’s obsession with party politics above substantive issues such as civil liberties.

It appears that good sense and original thinking are in scant supply in Downing Street argues the Morning Star, given the recent appointment of former CBI chief Adair Turner as the chairman of the alleged City regulator, the Financial Services Authority.

In a searing critique, George Monbiot argues that Blair and Brown have led the most rightwing government Britain has had since the Second World War.