These online ventures are a reminder that he is the party's sole internet visionary, a man who recognises that the power of the new medium is that information flows both ways. It is not one more pipe to send David's message down, but a means to raise, as Obama so effectively demonstrated, an army of like-minded Davids.

If Steve Hilton knows how to sell Cameron like a product, Montgomerie sees that the real need is to build a new community. For Britain to work properly, it needs the 21st century equivalent of Burke's little platoons: the armies of compassion. These internet-enabled groups, arising to solve their own problems, are the proof and guarantee not of Bush's discredited "Compassionate Conservatism", in which state agencies are dressed-up with a conservative agenda, but what Montgomerie calls "‘And" theory Conservatism: traditional, small-government conservatism that values gentleness, neighbourly behaviour and conservation through citizen action.

The irony of true conservatism - advocating as a political platform that the state should do less - today requires the demonstration that civil society can make the world a better place. Montgomerie understands this, and he understands the people and the technology that can make it happen. His columns express his frustration at a party that finally has a charismatic leader, but lacks the courage of its convictions and the tireless energy that victory requires. It is time that he brought both back to Conservative campaign headquarters.