(and this is what has been annoying me about loads of usually intelligent people): it is unfair to judge a modern party based on what the party with the same name did in the past. 13 years mightn't seem like a long time, but it is these days, and the Conservatives are currently lead by a chap who is only 43. Young(er) people tend to be more ... liberal.

Mrs Thatcher was very much her own person - so much so, in fact, that she was ultimately brought down by a party rebellion. There's therefore no reason to suppose that the modern Tories will follow her footsteps. And I've seen that pundits are calling some of the younger chaps Thatcherites: based on what? They've not had any power at all. Comparisons are ridiculous at this point.

I'd be perfectly fine with you being this negative etc if they had given you reason to be recently. They haven't. They've been in Opposition. You actually cannot accurately gauge a party's policies and standards on their Opposition years because their job is to Oppose. That doesn't necessarily show their true colours.

Give it a year and come back to me then.