One of the reasons that Scots largely don’t vote for the Tories is that there is always a fear that the old Conservative instinct of taking a big stick to the great unwashed can prove too tempting when the blues hold too much power. That old instinct has reared its ugly head this week with Tory councils across London stating that they intend to evict people who were involved in the rioting in recent days.

The move is so depressingly regressive and counter-productive that it almost defies belief. Even scumbags deserve a roof over their heads.

We have a legal system that serves to hand down appropriate sentences for crimes that have been committed, be it fines, community service or, at worst jail (though some right wingers would like to go even further than that). We don’t, or at least shouldn’t, seek to exercise revenge on wrong-doers just because we can and/or it makes us feel better. After all, what, precisely, are individuals and families supposed to do if they have nowhere to live?

My initial belief was that this was a threat handed out during the heat of the riots in order to disincentivise disorder and was not something that would ever see the light of day. It was a West Wing-style chess move, and nothing more. Indeed, it may well have proved to be an effective move for that purpose given the speed with which calmness descended on London since Thursday (the 16,000 tooled up, highly visible police officers may well have helped too). However, sadly, the threats have been followed through and eviction notices have been served, despite a pleasing level of arrests and sentences being handed down on the looters and fire-starters.

We can’t keep excluding people from the system and hope everything will magically get better. Closing down literacy and numeracy charities, increasing the number of homeless, increasing fuel poverty and slashing opportunities for various professions out there with seemingly no masterplan, no end game in sight other than just cross your fingers, it’s, well, it’s getting frustrating.

Cardboard City was created in 1983 in London, 4 years after the Conservatives came to power. With a new blue broom in Government, are we stepping ever closer towards a repeat dwelling being created a few years from now? Evicting people unnecessarily and for nothing more than spite surely won’t help.

So, I have a suggestion for the Conservative Party (though I suspect other parties are more likely to take me up on it), a move that can ensure that the top of the tree and those sleeping against the tree in dirty blankets can hammer out any differences that they have and find a combined solution to the country’s ills:

Homeless people and the unemployed are entitled to free membership of the Conservative Party.

It’s a policy that involves ‘we’re all in this together’ ‘compassionate Conservatism’ and ‘the Big Society’ rolled into one. I’m not holding my breath though. The Tories, as we’re seeing this week, just love that big stick option far too much.