The Tory party has lost the plot – and could be bad news for Labour | John Harris

This paranoid, belligerent rabble will never offer the effective opposition Britain needs. They could even come staggering back into power

For many people reading this, the analogy will seem ludicrous, but hear me out: if the Conservative party was one of your friends, you'd be very worried about them.

You can maybe imagine it: a privately educated pal from university, perhaps, who seems to have fallen on hard times and bad company. Ten or 15 years ago, they seemed urbane, clever and super-confident. Even if some of it went only skin deep, they professed to be green, socially liberal and culturally switched on. Now, though, they tend to look dishevelled and saggy-eyed. After a few drinks - and sometimes before - they speak an increasingly hysterical language of conspiracy theory and political paranoia. They also seem to be furtively spending some of their time with thugs and bigots: the kind of people whom that great English social commentator Paul Weller once associated with the smell of pubs, and Wormwood Scrubs, and too many rightwing meetings".