Day after day, I have watched with increasing sadness the Tory party tearing itself apart. Yet there is hope.

If only its members would reclaim their party. There is a lesson to be learned from the Labour party. In 1981 things looked bleak for them.

The traitorous Roy Jenkins and his Gang of Four left Labour and set up the SDP.

At a stroke, they split the anti-Tory vote and gave us 18 years of Thatcher/Major.

At the same time, the ultra-left seemed determined to make Labour unelectable.

But the sane majority in the party refused to accept this. We fought, fought and fought again to save our party.

We drove the wreckers out and slowly but surely things got better and we were rewarded with the landslide victories of 1997 and 2001.

Despairing Tories must take a similar route. They must re-group and never give up on their beliefs. Not only will they be doing themselves a favour, they will enhance our democracy.

Our parliament demands a responsible opposition. When a government of the left is in power, only the Tories can provide that.

-John Hodgson, Peacehaven