MIXED signals are coming from the top of the Tory party.

A couple of weeks ago, Julie Kirkbride voiced disquiet about the money being spent on adverts for public sector jobs in The Guardian's Society section.

The newspaper, traditionally considered left-wing, was read only by "a section of society that comes from a certain point of view", Julie complained.

The Tory culture spokesman started campaigning for the Government to stop advertising such a high percentage of jobs on its pages.

Yet party leader Michael Howard this week decided to blow a load of Tory cash on his own full-page advert in Society, calling on public sector workers to send in evidence of waste, bureaucracy and incompetent administration.

His spokesman said: "We are placing this advert in the Guardian and no other papers. We are very keen to get away from the idea of a Guardian-reading liberal elite. That is certainly not the way we see it here.

"The fact that you do have a high readership in the public sector means the Guardian is the natural place to advertise.

"We value public sector workers and we want their views.

"We don't want this to be seen as an attack on them. We want to work with them to make things better."

Most puzzling.