It is now a year since Iain Duncan Smith was elected leader of the Conservative Party yet he has made such little impact few people can say who the Tory leader is.

But we all should know him and what his policies are.

He is the man who called the £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners "cock-eyed" and once said "basic pension provision should become a function of the private sector".

His health spokesman, Liam Fox, said only last April: "We have a problem in this country where the NHS and healthcare have been synonymous. We are here to break that."

His education spokesman, Damian Green, has made the case that funding and standards in schools are unconnected.

David Willetts, his work and pensions spokesman, said in the House of Commons three years ago: "We believe the 'New Deal' is making no improvement."

Do the Tories still think that and are they still committed to scrapping it?

Iain Duncan Smith has failed to increase the Tory vote in two by-elections and did even worse in the local elections this year than William Hague did in 2000.

He has quietly dropped the Tory commitment to match Labour's plans to increase spending on health and education and plans instead to charge people to see their GP.

Eight months ago, he said that under a government led by him "people will have to pay less taxation but will have to spend more on the services they choose", as if getting a decent education or falling ill were some kind of "lifestyle option".

It is no wonder, as Michael Heseltine predicted, that the Conservative Party under Iain Duncan Smith is "interested only in talking to itself".

-Warren Morgan, Freshfield Street, Brighton