The Tories' authoritarian tendencies

Craig Murray has an interesting post today about 'The Deepest Split in the Tory Party' - that between libertarians and authoritarians. It reiterates the fear, widespread among civil libertarians, that the Conservative Party has deep-seated authoritarian tendencies which are disguised in opposition but will come out in full force should it win power at the next election. Murray gives two examples - one from the party's leadership (Chris Grayling urging Jacqui Smith to tighten visa checks), and one from its base (ConservativeHome's featuring of a critique of Obama's decision to rule certain forms of torture out of bounds). I have my doubts as to whether his first example is an issue of civil liberties narrowly defined, but there are plenty of other candidates, such as David Cameron's tepid backing for David Davis's stand against the '42 days' policy. We shall have to watch carefully for these rare signs of how a Conservative government would actually act.