Last night I was a part of a select group of Tory bloggers invited to a drinks party. A great amount of free booze was drunk, a lot of chatting went on, and plenty of fun was had. There were as many differing views as bloggers, and I very much enjoyed meeting in person and chatting to so many.

Just a few of those I had a chance to talk to (in no particular order):

• A Very British Dude
• Byrne Toffering
• Guy The Mac
• John Medway
• Man in a Shed
• Oberon Houston
• Terrible Tory Girl
• Oliver Cromwell
• Tory Aardvark
• Tory Rascal
• Tory Totty Online
• Steve Green
• Dave Facts
• Mike Rouse

One common thread that ran through all of our discussions was that even as much as we were Conervatives, we wouldn’t say anything just because we were told to. We differed on many issues, but all want to get rid of Labour and rescue this country.

We even got a brief speech from Party Chairman Eric Pickles, where he said the line that has made it all over the internet now:

This is going to one of the nastiest, most brutal election campaigns in recent history. And that’s where you come in: for rebuttal

Of course, this line has been jumped on a deliberately misquoted by Labour, not least by their “Twitter Tsar” Kerry McCarthy. Alongside even more ridiculous claims, such as bloggers will be getting 7am briefing emails and be expected to parrot them – despite nothing of the sort ever being mentioned. In fact, the opposite was true – Tory bloggers were encouraged to continue being independent. Only Labour needs to control everything from the center; the Conservative Party is happy for us to continue as we are, writing what we want and as we think.

Yes we spent all last night making secret plans, rather than enjoying the free booze and good company. Right.