John Hayes is that rare thing - a Tory minister brave enough to voice conservative opinions

John Hayes, Tory hero

I know I may be going a bit soft in my old age, but when I heard the comments about the need to halt the spread of wind farms from the new Tory energy minister John Hayes – because, as he put it,  “enough is enough” - I was so shocked I actually let out an approving roar which combined delight and gratitude. To be honest, I felt as pathetically grateful as a starving dog whose cruel owner has unexpectedly tossed it a Bonio. That’s how sad it is being a right-winger these days!

Of course, Hayes’s boss, Ed Davey, a standard-issue meaningless tit of a Libdem Energy Secretary, has “slapped him down”, and our spineless pseudo-Prime Minister – whose daddy-in-law, as James Delingpole keeps pointing out (here), earns £1,000 a day from wind turbines on his estates – has taken Davey’s side, but has called for a “debate” on the issue (at least he didn’t call for a mass debate, which is exactly what it would be).

Actually, don’t bother, Dave – we know you don’t have the guts or the inclination to do anything about the destruction of Britain’s gloriously beautiful countryside. One only has to stand on top of Alex Tor on Bodmin Moor and witness the destruction greedy vandals have wrought in North Cornwall to know that you and your clique have abandoned us to the sort of unprincipled swine who take advantage of deranged government policies to accumulate vast profits from the public purse. The thought that you have allowed my taxes to fill the coffers of these vile, latter-day Huns is truly sickening.

The reason for my excess of gratitude towards John Hayes is that it’s so rare for Conservative members of the politico-media elite to say anything which suggests they inhabit the same planet as their natural supporters, let alone which implies they actually share our views! Back-benchers do it fairly regularly, of course, but they’re not part of the elite – John Hayes and Environment Secretary Owen Paterson (who’s also been making anti-climate change noises) are actually inside the tent, and keeping us all amused by leaving whoopee cushions on their Libdem colleagues' chairs and smearing glue on their staplers.

This just isn’t the way modern European politics - which is all about the deliberate disenfranchisement of the electorate – works. That's why Hayes’s outburst was such a surprise.

Of course, there are other exceptions – balancing the majority of wet, pseudo-Libdem Tory “centrist” ministers (i.e. adherents of Europe’s prevailing – ruinous - soft-left orthodoxy) there are the likes of Michael Gove, Eric Pickles and, to a lesser extent, Ian Duncan Smith, who all occasionally say things that give one hope.

For all of us starving conservative dogs, that’ll have to do. For now.