In order to counter the rise of Ukip Cameron is going to have to listen to those on his right and move the party back to where it was. If he doesn't, he is going to face sniping from his right flank for the next two years.
Whereas radicalism once polarised society between left and right, perhaps it is now apathy which polarises a society from its political class.
This week, everyone believes in the hero theory of history. There are no great or pivotal moments, only great people moving the inert masses by force of personality.
Nick Clegg delivered a dig at David Cameron today for suggesting "we are all Thatcherites now". The Liberal Democrat leader said he was not clear w...
I understand why people are angry by the woman who favoured functional inequalities and believed it to be a necessity for a dynamic economy as she cared little for those consequently suffering.
The tributes to Margaret Thatcher have her endlessly depicted her as a conviction politician - but history will find the reality less consistent, more complex. Those who bother to drill down into the myth soon realise that she was as mutable and movable as any other politician, too often an empty vessel waiting to be told what to do and think, and always prepared to pretend the opposite of what she believed if it would get her to where she needed to go.
Awarding what amounts to a state funeral to Margaret Thatcher is an obscenity and an insult to the millions who suffered as a direct result of her time in office and afterwards under the ideology, Thatcherism, which bears her name.
Thatcher should be judged on how radically she sought to contract or privatise Britain's nationalised industries, on how she reacted to football violence, on her foreign policy, on her support for the awful Section 28. On her policies. Not on her apparent magical effect on all of us, as if she possessed quasi-spiritual powers to decide how we all feel.
What remains for all of us to face up to is her political and economic heritage, for Thatcher might be dead, but Thatcherism is alive and well. And its reach was never more ubiquitous as is it today. In her very own words, Thatcher affirmed individual gain above collective benefit when she said: "There is no such thing as society."
Getting rid of Cameron could be the shot in the arm that the blue team need, especially against an opposition that has the public ear after last year but has yet to summon up widespread enthusiasm for its own vision of where Britain should be headed.
The shadows of Margaret Thatcher are legion, but beyond the scarring left by her policies it is now relevant to consider why she was popular with anyone at all. The answer is exactly the same reason she was unpopular: her conviction. This mysterious quality could again be the forebear of radical change in British politics.
Unlike Cameron - unlike any other Conservative in the last 15 years - the Mayor of London is a winner. To get elected once in a Labour-leaning city is no mean feat. To do so twice is a very impressive achievement indeed (as is not totally cocking the job up in between).
As Tuesday's reshuffle made clear, a new generation of right-wing conservatives is coming to the fore in British politics. This (new) New Right -exemplified by the Free Enterprise Group MPs Liz Truss, Priti Patel and Dominic Raab - differs from the Thatcherites of the 1980s in some key respects. It is mostly liberal on social issues, largely uncluttered with baggage on family and faith, and interested in policy issues that concern modern parents, like childcare.
Whatever your politics, however much of a geek you are, you have to have faith that human beings can rise above technology and touch people with meaning and with soul. For, if not, what is there to live for?
