Gorton and Denton is stony ground for the Conservatives. If we’re nowhere near to recovering the Red Wall, then this contest offers no hope at all. So, from our point of view, what would be the best of all realistic outcomes? The Greens?
The prospect of a hung parliament invites hard questions which the Liberal Democrats have avoided for too long – and any answer will alienate some of their voters.
While there are no guarantees that Starmer will go next year, Conservative strategists would be well-advised to make contingency plans.
To rebuild a winning electoral coalition means a complete transformation in the way that the Conservative Party is perceived.
Let’s calmly, but relentlessly, inform people what the Green Party actually stands for — because when voters find out they don’t like it at all.
If a Tory candidate is reckoned more capable of beating Reform — as is plausible in parts of the country that were, until recently, True Blue — then tactical voting could make all the difference.
We can’t just re-run the austerity messaging of the Cameron-Osborne years. This time the savings plan needs to go hand-in-hand with a growth plan. And as well reducing the size of the state, we need to be reducing demand for the state.
The good news is that there’s freedom in this situation. We’re not in government and we don’t have a general election to fight, so let’s experiment.
It might strike his critics as entirely beyond the realms of possibility. Then again, we’re going to need a miracle anyway – it might as well be that one?
Land-banking is the problem, and nationalising housebuilding is the answer.
If Reform has a fatal vulnerability then in it lies in Nigel Farage himself. That’s not because he’s a weak link but because the whole of the party’s success depends upon him and is because of him. Instead of Achilles and his heel, Farage is Atlas — holding up Reform’s entire world.
With our public finances buckling under the strain of out-of-control healthcare spending, the least that our citizens can do is not eat and drink themselves into chronic morbidity. If a tax helps with that, then fine.
Right now, it feels like we’re living through a time of extraordinary political disruption. But never forget the first rule of conservatism: things can always get worse.
A ‘lawful’ or ‘chaotic’ binary will shape the fraught relationship between the Conservatives and Reform UK. The reason why Reform is doing so well is that it is a party of pure, if controlled, chaos.
So, what of the future and purpose of the Conservative Party? When it comes to AI and what a true tech revolution might provide there’s a vacancy a slot for a cautiously optimistic pro-AI party. I wonder who might be willing to fill it?