EMERGING as a backer of Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo in the looming contest for the Tory leadership, Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans tells us he believes the party needs to find a way to appeal to people alienated from it -- and that Mr Portillo is the man to do just that.

Given that Mr Evans was previously a supporter of the man who signally failed to appeal to the disaffected, a certain Mr William Hague now falling on his sword, I think it is fair to question the judgment of East Lancashire's sole Conservative MP, but not on these grounds alone.

Those of us with memories of that singular night a little over ten years ago when Mr Evans was seen by millions of TV viewers looking mightily miffed when, in a by-election, he failed to win one of the safest Tory seats in the country will recall why this was -- because of the huge backlash against the hated poll tax the Tories introduced. It was killed off by the Ribble Valley vote.

Yet, the man whom Mr Evans now champions, the bumptious Mr Portillo, is the very same erstwhile Thatcher groupie who declared that the poll tax was a vote winner!

Remember?

As someone who suffered sorely in that 1991 by-election because of such stupidity, in his support for Mr Portillo, Mr Evans, I think, is either strangely forgetful -- or opportunistically grabbing at the coat-tails of this new 'man-of-the-people' contender.