A recent Yougov poll stating the Tories are now only 2 points clear of Labour shows that the PR man cannot close the deal. He is incapable of engendering the trust that his role model Blair conned the British public into giving.

David Cameron is the Cheshire Cat of politics. A huge grin with nothing behind it. He has no policies of substance and those policies he does represent are pointless or just plain rubbish. He plainly believes in nothing other than his destiny to be Prime Minister. Luckily enough the British public have seen through the smoky glass mirror.

The question now is whether the Conservative party is able to recover from this and become what its grassroots members, and those who have drifted away over the last 15 years, believe it should be. A party that espouses small government, nationhood and self-reliance rather than a Vichyist, big-government, party who have no real principles but merely sways in the breeze created by the hot air emanating from the fundaments of Guardian leader writers.

I suspect it will be unable to recover and that the time has finally come for a realignment in British politics. This coming election will be a watershed. Those members of the voting public who want to see the future of the British political scene should watch the forthcoming UKIP spring conference in Milton Keynes on March 19th.

Ray Finch http://my.telegraph.co.uk/garrincha