Conservatives wanted to abandon Liverpool and the devil take the hindmost.

Of course up here we all new this already. The north of England was just an inconvenience to the Tories in the 80s. Think of that bit in the movie version of The Beach were the dying man is making too much noise so the other commune members just put him in another hut. Thatcherites will argue that the heavy industries prevelant in the north were outdated and innefficient and so needed to be removed like Christo's gangrenous leg but what was put in place by way of "post-operative care"? A Garden Festival? Really?

The documents released today show they thought about cutting their losses on the difficult places like Liverpool and put resources into regenerating areas that didn't need it so much but would show results more easily.

they record Geofrey Howe urging the government "not to over commit scarce resources to Liverpool. I fear that Merseyside is going to be much the hardest nut to crack,"

"We do not want to find ourselves concentrating all the limited cash that may have to be made available into Liverpool and having nothing left for possibly more promising areas such as the West Midlands or, even, the North East."

"It would be even more regrettable if some of the brighter ideas for renewing economic activity were to be sown only on relatively stony ground on the banks of the Mersey.

"I cannot help feeling that the option of managed decline is one which we should not forget altogether. We must not expend all our limited resources in trying to make water flow uphill."

I acknowledge that politicians do need to make tough decisions and discuss options but this confirms what we've always suspected...fundamentally and irrefutably the Conservatives will ALWAYS have the core attitude "The devil take the hindmost". This is in their DNA, it's why they get into politics. The welfare state is an anathema to them, they simply cannot understand the impact economic difficulties have on ordinary people. Think back to the "Get on your bike and look for work" quote...deep down they see being unemployed as a lifestyle choice and being poor as your inescapable station in life.

To them the working classes are just consumers and when times are hard you, like Christo in The Beach, are just an inconvenience and need to either shape up and look after yourself because, put simply, they don't see it as their job.

So there you go, that's the party Cameron and Osborne joined as teenagers...when traditionally you are at your most idealistic and want to go out and change the world...they chose that one.