[Omah]

Nick Robinson

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22604185

He was young. He was handsome. He said what they wanted to hear.

It was time, he told them, to show they cared, to move with the times. They needn't worry, though, because he shared their core beliefs.

David Cameron had reassured his party that he was a staunch believer in marriage but the coalition is proposing to promote marriages which many Tory activists do not regard as marriages at all - between two men or two women and not a man and a woman.

The proposal was not in the Tory manifesto and it was not in the coalition agreement. Many Tories suspect that it was unveiled to show the prime minister in a Clause Four style challenge to his own grassroots - or, as someone may or may not have said, the "swivel-eyed loons."

The prime minister convinced his party that he was a sceptic about another relationship - Britain's membership of the EU but many do not understand why he won't now take advantage of the crisis in the Euro-zone to sue for divorce.

And now he's being challenged by a man with a twinkle in his eye, a pint in his hand who says the things many Tories would dearly love to say - things that Nigel will say but David never would.

The match between Mr Cameron and the Conservative Party was never based on love or passion. It was a cold blooded political calculation. It's now in real trouble.

Taxi for Cameron .....