The Carlton Club – the so called “spiritual home” of the Conservative Party – has finally opened its doors to female members, 80 years after women first gained equal voting rights, says Atticus.

It might be an irrelevance to the majority of the population (membership can cost up to £1,125 per year), but the fact that the Club is such a Conservative stronghold means that we should still be wary of a resurgent Tory party.

Can they fully shed their “nasty party” skin and genuinely prove themselves to be a champions of progress and of male–female (amongst other things) equality? Moderniser David Cameron does seem to be doing his best to pull the party into the twenty-first century (that is, “do a Blair”) but though he’s refused to become a member of the Carlton Club, he’s a member of another gentlemen-only club, White’s. And it must be remembered that of the 192 Conservative members of parliament, just 17 are women.