Prospective Conservative MPs are being groomed by a disturbingly plain-spoken organisation called the Young Britons' Foundation, a self-proclaimed "Conservative madrasa" whose chief executive has called for environmental protestors to be "shot down" for violating the sanctity of private property. He also considers the NHS to be "the biggest waste of money in the UK", favours torture provided the circumstances are appropriate (i.e. if the US says it's all right), and has had his dear pupils entertained by the delightfully maladroit Conservative party chairman, Eric Pickles; by their Minister for Whig History, Michael Gove; and by Daveybloke's chief barker and blatherer on defence, Liam Fox; besides such predictable preachers of moderation as John Redwood and David Davis. The president of the Young Britons' Foundation is Daniel Hannan, another public health expert who is a Conservative MEP and thus a member of that charming European political grouping for whose tastes the likes of Silvio Berlusconi are too left-wing. The Young Britons' Foundation's idea of giving students experience of another culture is to fly them to Virginia to play with automatic weapons.On being asked about his involvement with these clean-limbed young builders of the future, Liam Fox said that just because he spoke to them doesn't mean he endorses them, which is fair enough. Let us hope he broke it gently that a nuclear attack on Iran followed by an invasion of China via the Churchillian underbelly of Russia may not be a realistic prospect, at least for the early years of the first Daveybloke administration. Eric Pickles didn't know anything about anything and then didn't return calls, which puts him in the unenviable plight of being less level-headed than Liam Fox. Conservative Central Office denied any official links with the group, but "strongly recommends" activists to attend the courses. The Young Britons' Foundation is a broad church, just like Conservative Central Office, and you never know when a firing squad might come in handy.