There seems to be a vogue for left-of-centre think tanks giving right-of-centre Tory leadership candidates a platform. IPPR is a Blairite union-backed operation that has a revolving front door for SpAds to go into Whitehall and come out as spin merchants, New Labour MPs or back again as older but wiser wonks. So its strange that they are giving Basher Davis a platform for his Compassionate Conservatism message – either he is calling in a favour or do they want him to win?

David Cameron gave his “tough on terror” speech at the leftish Foreign Policy Centre. Remember the FPC? It was established to promote an ethical foreign policy away from those Chatham House lot. Backed by Robin Cook when he was foreign secretary, it ended up taking dubious money from Russkis and almost collapsed before Stephen Twigg was brought in to resuscitate it. Its success can be judged by the fact that Britain’s ethical foreign policy now includes going to war without a UN mandate in breach of international law on the basis of lies put about by our Prime Minister.