By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter A few months ago when I started arguing that the next election might be difficult to win it was an unpopular argument. Many in the party thought that Ed Miliband was easily beatable. Things have moved on since then with dark clouds descending across the party. My view hasn't changed […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Stephan Shakespeare, CEO of YouGov and ConservativeHome columnist, was one of three speakers at last Wednesday evening's How Can The Conservatives Win The Next Election? panel event. I have already briefly reviewed the contributions from Chris Grayling and Matthew Elliott. Stephan began by arguing that, while there was much uncertainty, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter On Wednesday evening ConservativeHome held an event to discuss how the Conservative Party might win the next election. Yesterday I blogged the contribution from Chris Grayling. Tomorrow I'll reflect on the contribution of the third panellist, Stephan Shakespeare. Today here's a summary of what Matthew Elliott, CEO of the TaxPayers' […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The best joke of the London Mayoral election count – with its several-hour delay – came from the Evening Standard's Joe Murphy. "Let's put Tower Hamlets in charge of count next time," he tweeted. "They'll get it done the day before." The second best was: "We have the result […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter On ConHome yesterday Paul Goodman dug deeply into Lord Ashcroft's new research and its insights into the Tory challenge among ethnic minority Britons. Today I offer a summary of research undertaken by Policy Exchange (PX) on the North/South divide (one of Majority Conservatism's big themes). Throughout this blog the page […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The dismal illustration above is taken from the biggest-ever study of the attitude of ethnic and religious minorities to the Conservative Party – Degrees of separation, commissioned by Lord Ashcroft and published today. It is a word cloud of associations the party's brand provoked when tested on those who […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter This Building A Majority section of ConHome has five component parts: Majority – a belief in the need for a Tory majority, not continuing coalition; Mountain – it's not going to be easy to win a majority without game-changers; Message – the party needs a compelling story to tell the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The raising of the income tax threshold may not have been the policy of the Conservative Party at the last election but it's been the policy of the Conservative movement for a long time. Lord Forsyth advocated it when he chaired a tax commission for George Osborne at the beginning […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The title of this blog was an observation reportedly made by Andrew Cooper – the PM's polling and strategy adviser – at a recent meeting of Tory MPs. A major survey by the TNS-BMRB polling organisation for the Runnymede Trust (PDF) found that just 16% of Britain's ethnic minority population […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In today's Times I reflect on the enormous power of George Osborne: "Mr Cameron is the coalition’s chairman and public spokesman. Mr Osborne is its chief executive. This is as much Osborne’s Government as Cameron’s. He isn’t just Chancellor of the Exchequer, masterminding the coalition’s deficit and growth strategy. He […]