PAUL SYKES, the business tycoon, has made a substantial contribution to Ukip’s funds for he wants “…to free Britain from the European Union”. Fair enough. He has a right to do as he likes with his own money and there are many less welloff people in Britain who cherish the same wish.

It has been amusing to observe the reactions of the Tory press. The Daily Telegraph was positively peeved and took Mr Sykes’ gesture as a personal affront. Its leader writer sobbed: “Sykes’ backing for Ukip could put Labour in Number Ten.” Of course. The truth is that if there still existed a Conservative party there would be neither reason nor space for Ukip. But there isn’t. How could any true and traditional Tory vote for David Cameron and his gang – “modernisers” all of them, after the style of Tony Blair?

On every moral, social, political and economic issue, Mr Cameron’s gang are anti- Tory. They perverted the definition of the ancient institution of marriage out of an obsession with political-correctness and because their focus groups informed them that to do this will earn the party votes among homosexuals, and young people generally, at the next General Election. That is not an honourable reason for spoiling an institution which has been respected for thousands of years. It is a cynical ploy and betrays the historic Tory claim to frame its social policies on traditional moral principles.

Conservatism used to stand for maintaining the defence of the country against external aggressors. But Mr Cameron’s gang are ruthlessly running down the Armed Forces.

Even as I write, there is a campaign against this irresponsibility being mounted by a rump of real Tories. In 1982, at the time of the Falklands War, we deployed two aircraft carriers.

We no longer possess a single carrier and shall not do so for years. We should therefore be impotent in the face of similarly renewed aggression from any upstart anywhere.

Mr Cameron’s gang relentlessly blame the energy companies for the hike in fuel prices and thus attempt hypocritically to conceal the fact that it is their massive subsidies of so called “renewables” – solar power, useless and costly windmills and the like – which is making the real price of energy ever higher.

The country is beginning to emerge very slowly from a prolonged slump. But the only way to ensure increased prosperity is to relieve the productive and money-making sections of our industries and commerce from the burden of corporate and business taxes and bureaucratic legislation. But what we discover instead is that Mr Cameron’s gang are presiding over an economy with some of the highest taxes and regulations ever experienced.

This gang of pseudo-Tories continue to pour billions of tax-payers’ money into failed and expensive fiascos such as the NHS and state education and into a wasteful benefits system. Tories campaigned on the policy of restraining immigration, but they have not kept their promise.

As for Mr Sykes’ point about the EU, this is deliberately missed by Mr Cameron’s gang.

Our national sovereignty and ability to govern our own country is now about nil. The referendum Mr Cameron has promised is not planned until after the next election – by which time an extreme left wing Labour government will be in control. And, however hard the bleeding hearts in The Daily Telegraph try to put the blame on Ukip, the fault lies in the Tories’ refusal to be Tories.