From The Financial Times -
{quote}Discord stirs among Tory grass roots

By Jean Eaglesham, Chief Political Correspondent

David Cameron was urged to pay more attention to the “angry” grass roots of his party as recriminations flew in Tory ranks on Friday over what is seen as the failure of the leadership’s campaign.

Senior Conservatives were wheeled out to try to quash internal dissent over the prospect of an alliance with the Liberal Democrats.

Sir John Major, the former leader, said individual Tories “may not like” the leader’s overtures to the third party, but “that is absolutely subordinate to what is in the national interest”.

David Davis, a figurehead for the right and potential candidate to regain his old Home Office role, backed Mr Cameron’s “entirely right” initiative in a statement sent out by the party.

The public display of support reflected nervousness among the Tory high command about a possible rank-and-file backlash against the decision to seek common cause with the Lib Dems.

Any deal on proportional representation would be anathema to the Tory party, who would see it as a short-cut to political oblivion for the right. There are plenty of other Lib Dem policies that Tory MPs would reject outright, not least backing the euro, offering an amnesty to illegal immigrants and opposing a like-for-like replacement of Trident.

Mr Cameron sought to head off such concerns by setting out on Friday his red lines for any agreement. No government should give more powers to the European Union, be “weak or soft on the issue of immigration” or fail to keep the country’s defences strong, he said.

He also held back from making concrete promises to the Lib Dems on electoral reform, simply offering a cross-party committee – a mechanism past experience suggests is a recipe for kicking changes into the long grass.

But these assurances failed to quell dissent. “In entering coalition talks, Cameron tests his authority within the party. Inquiry into electoral reform? The Spectator cannot support this,” said Fraser Nelson, editor of the right-of-centre magazine. A month-long campaign that appeared to have reduced Tory support had left the party “looking very weak now”, he said.

The failure to gain a clear majority was seen as a vindication by traditionalists of their long-standing concerns over Mr Cameron’s modernising agenda of prioritising issues like the NHS over old-style Tory tax cut and immigration pledges.

Lord Tebbit, the Thatcherite former cabinet minister, said the failure to establish an election-winning lead was “the fault of the Conservatives themselves. I hope that if Mr Cameron becomes prime minister he will learn that lesson.”

“I told you so,” said one MP. “The party is angry. . . It’s all blame, blame, blame. The know-it-alls [Cameroons] haven’t delivered.”

Mr Cameron was under pressure on Friday night to reach beyond his inner circle of advisers and allies to consult with his party, particularly before signing any deal with the Lib Dems.

“It’s important he adopts a more collegiate style,” Tim Montgomerie, editor of the Conservativehome website for activists, said. “The grassroots wanted a very different campaign from the Tory leadership and the Tory leadership told us all they knew what they were doing.”

Mr Cameron sought on Friday to highlight the successes the Tories had achieved, pointing out that the gain of 97 seats – after 649 of 650 seats had declared – was the party’s best election result for 80 years, while its 36 per cent share of the vote was more than Labour achieved in winning the 2005 election.

But such context risked being lost on a party that expected to be wielding power, not locked in potentially messy negotiations with an old political rival.

Boris Johnson gave a characteristically succinct guide to the form of government the party expects to emerge from negotiations with the Lib Dems. “Whatever type of Walls sausage is contrived by this experiment, the dominant ingredient has got to be Conservativism,” the Tory mayor of London said. “The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative.”{/quote}

Torygraph has got a piece up on the website blaming Cameron (and supporters, of course) as well.

Interesting times... on the one hand, it must make striking a deal with the Lib Dems harder if he's not to suffer internal revolt while also making some sort of deal that gets him into No 10 more vital if he is to survive his moment of victory.