When Groucho Marx was elected President Rufus T Firefly in the film Duck Soup, his policy was, "Whatever it is, I'm against it".

This policy appears to have been adopted by Jonathan Shepperd (Letters, July 13), who wrote opposing Gordon Brown's Comprehensive Spending Review.

Of course, he has a perfect right to do this but criticising it four days before it actually appeared is a bit rich.

The sad fact is the Conservative Party, locally and nationally, has lost any sense of vision and has turned into a bunch of "againsters".

There are no sensible positive policies on taxation, the NHS or education - in fact, nothing.

What we have instead is an obsession with underground car parks on the seafront.

Many of us, myself included, loathed Margaret Thatcher's politics but there was a sense of purpose and direction that the current nonentities just do not have.

Who knows when leadership will emerge in this fragmented party? It's enough to make Ann Widdecombe go blonde.

-Michael Fisher, Kings Road, Brighton