By contrast, Montgomerie begins and ends down at the grassroots. It gives him the kind of connection to everyday British realities that the patrician Cameron sorely lacks. He sees the problems first-hand, and also the local ingenuity and compassion working to resolve them.

As early as 2002, it was Montgomerie who organised a tour of the inner cities for David Willetts. The vision Willetts spoke of there is shared by Montgomerie: a conservatism not of the lone individual or the nannying state, but of the "neighbourly society", enriched by citizen action. Montgomerie's work with Duncan Smith in founding the Centre for Social Justice in 2004 sought to "get government off the back of the armies of compassion" and provides the keystone for Cameron's social agenda today.

At the same time, in ConservativeHome.com, Montgomerie has created not just Britain's leading conservative blog, but a place outside the political party where all strands of Conservative opinion place their views before the nation's conservatives. It is characteristic of the man that what could have been a hobbyhorse for his own views provides such a broad forum, and that its greatest achievements have been to resist top-down control: Michael Howard's attempt to rig the electoral rules for the leadership, or David Cameron's attempt to keep a secret A-list of candidates. Nor are Montgomerie's interests merely national: he is deeply concerned with Britain's duties on the international stage, and particularly with maintaining the special relationship. He has established the AmericaInTheWorld website to counter anti-Americanism.