Here I was sitting in a little studio in Broadcasting House awaiting the first sheets of the day to review the papers for the splendid Stephen Nolan. It was a pretty slow news day so the Swivel eyed loon story splashed in the Times caught our interest. To be be honest it really isn’t much of a story for those who don’t live and die by writing rebellion and division stories. It’s like the Mail splashing, “close aide to Cameron claims Bears shit in the Woods” or “Ex Cameron nanny says the Pope is a Catholic”, shock.

All these things are rather obvious.

So to be told that there is a non psychiatric theory as to why so many Conservative MPs behave in such a bizarre way over the EU and same sex marriage is rather cheering. And bloody obvious. Somebody selected these people knowing full well that there were rather a lot of bats flapping around their belfries.

So what sort of people select at local level? To be honest, the sort of people that all of us who have been involved in public life are pathetically grateful to. Those dwindling and ageing ranks who raise subscriptions, bang on doors and keep the whole local show on the road. It is a soul destroying job. Needing dedication and unwavering views.

The majority of Tory activists are thoroughly decent people who work damn hard for the party. However there are nests of zealots, as in every party. It is these zealots who attend every meeting and demand a return to the days of the fifties, where we didn’t need the bloody EEC, where criminals were sent to jails not holiday camps and out of control kids were caned. They dream of those halcyon times when the local bobby would cuff a young lad’s ear for not showing respect, where the rope was a deterrent to murder and the birch was a perfectly acceptable method of controlling unruly teenagers. And don’t get them started on immigration.

They are I am afraid to say mad, swivel eyed loons.

But are they any less swivel eyed than Dan Hannan or Simon Heffer? Probably not. But it is a fiction to say that they don’t exist within the ranks of the Conservative Party. These are the sort of people who will be saying to their MPs if you don’t support views similar to mine me and all my similarly bonkers mates will join up with Kippers.

It is a symbiotic relationship. Both feed off each others fears and prejudices. They eat together, drink together and bang on and on about Europe and how awful and posh Cameron and his upper class cronies are. How they are never listened to. How they must do anything at any price to get rid of him. And as for those yellow bastards? They don’t know their place. Why doesn’t Cameron just tell them to like it or leave it. If it means the end of a coalition tomorrow, so be it. We’d have an election which we would win. And then in three weeks time an In/Out referendum which we would also win.

Then Britain would be great again. We would trade with whom we want. The pound would soar.

If that isn’t mad swivel eyed loonery I don’t know what is. And you would be amazed to hear that these views either in full or in part are shared by activists and backbenchers alike. But only a minority. Not that you’d think it from the noise that is generated.

Don’t be lulled into the honeyed words of Cash and Redwood who pretend that they support Cameron’s negotiations. They don’t. They want out. Yesterday.

So day after day the Prime Minister is personally attacked, undermined and politically spat upon by members of his own party, who go totally berserk if there is a whiff or criticism of them or their eccentric views.

And after putting up with all this vitriol, abuse, misinformation and damage to the party some Cameroon tells a journalist off the record what the rest of the country and most of the press thinks.

They are all fucking mad.

Whoever is responsible for the mad swivel eyed remark should be exposed.

And given a pat on the back.