Kemi Badenoch isn’t just playing defence here. By decisively frustrating Farage’s attempt to kill us off, she might just force Reform to rethink its entire strategy. And once both parties realise they’ve got more important things to worry about than each another, anything is possible.
There are no easy solutions. When you hear someone urging the country to get real about the vulnerabilities of renewable energy, but without also acknowledging the fragilities of a hydrocarbon-based economy, the argument is either blinkered or made in bad faith.
Whilst all rather extreme situations there are certainly possible scenarios for an election in 2027, none of which are impossible, despite the fact constitutionally Labour could, and might want to, hold out until August 2029
If voters are ready to give the Conservative leader a hearing it is because no one else is better able to articulate the country’s contempt for this disgrace of a government. This being our most powerful weapon, it makes perfect sense to deploy it at every opportunity.
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.