HAS the high lead in the opinion polls let the fox out of the bag for the Tories?

First we hear that in this deep recession a top priority, according to Shadow Justice Minister, Edward Garnier QC, will be the repeal of the Hunting Act — as if more than 700 hundred hours of Parliamentary time was not enough. But Garnier — like so many other top ranking members of the Shadow Cabinet — is highly focused on traditional field sports activities more akin to a Victorian era.

But perhaps that's the direction in which this new caring Conservative party would like to take us.

The CEO of Royal Bank of Scotland, Stephen Hester is a fox hunter with the Warwickshire Hunt and has already scheduled his bank to lose nearly 10,000 banking jobs in this country, placing more work in the lower cost Indian sub continent.

And now we hear that Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is looking at pay deals for nurses, teachers, police and other public sector workers with the view that they could be redone to reflect low inflation levels.

It does look like the shine of the 'New Tories' is beginning to fade and the same old nasty party of old is beginning to emerge with a vengeance.

GRAHAM FORSYTH Fairway Rise (by email)