This looks like it could be good news

Tory membership numbers have started rising dramatically since Michael Howard was elected party leader.

Since Michael Howard took over the Conservative Party 17 days ago, 6,000 members have been recruited, party officials said yesterday. The surge in membership was the biggest since the early days of Margaret Thatcher's government, they claimed.

Liam Fox, the party's joint chairman, said: "We are beginning to experience the kind of increase in membership we haven't seen since the early 1980s. People are saying that at last there is an alternative party that has got its act together."

Tory membership had fallen by more than 20,000 to about 300,000 under Iain Duncan Smith. The influx, some of whom are former members, comes as Labour's membership is believed to have slumped from a peak of more than 400,000 in 1997 to below 280,000, close to where it stood when Tony Blair became leader with the promise to create a mass party.

Now as long as the Conservatives remember that they're supposed to be, well, conservative we might be seeing the dawning of a brighter day across the pond.