Effing Tories give themselves a kick | Michael White

The derogatory party nickname has a long and noble history. On past form, David Camerons epithet might well stick

When David Cameron referred to those effiing Tories in his save-the-union speech in Scotland he combined Etonian faux-self-deprecation with a personal tendency to push at the boundaries of the acceptable which may be Etonian too. It is hard to imagine Harold Wilson or Ted Heath likening his postponement of a major speech on Europe to tantric sex on the grounds that having to wait will make it better. The PM also made a twits-and-twats joke, of which Mrs T would not have approved.

But colourful language, even without risque overtones, is risky as Theresa May found during her brief tenure as Tory party chair (2002-3). She bravely told her party conference activists that they must change in order to shed the taint of being the nasty party. Many activists rejected her offer and sloped off to Ukip, but her opponents pocketed the soundbite and trot it out regularly. Not helpful.

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