Reconstructing May 4) Fixing social care
After last June’s manifesto debacle, the temptation is to abandon all hope of reform altogether. But doing nothing is not an option.
Reconstructing May 3) She must show that she is on the side of younger people who need homes to buy
Politicians are most effective when they are being themselves. Does part of May’s “irreducable core” really yearn for more housing?
Reconstructing May 2) No panic announcement on tuition fees. But a proper medium-term plan.
Our take is that what matters to students at least as much as their finances in the future is their finances now. Miinisters should mull a universal maintenance loan.
Reconstructing May 1) She won’t win the battle for the future if Corbyn defines the battles of the past.
The Prime Minister has a long story of progressive toryism to tell. Moral authority must not be conceded to Labour.
Our CCHQ election audit: the rusty machine, part three: What can be done to fix it?
After exposing the flaws in the Conservative campaign operation, we propose 12 reforms to help to avoid repeating such failings in future.
Our CCHQ election audit: the rusty machine, part two. How and why the ground campaign failed.
Activists were asked to trust in a targeting analysis that proved to be based on flawed data and assumptions that were overturned by the manifesto.
Our CCHQ election audit: the rusty machine, part one. Why the operation that succeeded in 2015 failed in 2017.
One senior official put it to me starkly: “We should ask a question of the team – are you ready to fight another election in two years? If the answer is yes, then it’s a lie.”
42 per cent and no majority 7) Leaving the EU offers an opportunity to reduce energy bills
Rather than price caps and nationalisations, there is a chance to help consumers with tax cuts and regulatory reform.
42 per cent and no majority 6) Use leaving the EU to deliver lower food prices
Doing so would be a concrete and welcome improvement to the lives of millions of people.
42 per cent and no majority 5) Five steps towards a post-Brexit immigration policy
It is unlikely that the mass of such voters in those crucial northern and midlands marginals would welcome a permissive approach.
42 per cent and no majority 4) We’ve said it before. We say it again. A key to victory is higher home ownership.
The lack of a stake in the system is pushing the political profile of the youngest tranche of workers towards that of students.
42 per cent and no majority 3) May should send for winners, having not won herself – and call in the Vote Leave team.
On the anniversary of the EU referendum, the party leadership needs an audit of what went wrong this month, and a plan for the Tory future in this Parliament.
42 per cent and no majority 2) The Party must make the case for conservatism to a new generation of voters. It hasn’t for too long.
As time passes, a decreasing slice of the electorate has any experience at all of old-fashioned socialism. And the argument that it doesn’t work cuts little ice.
42 per cent and no majority. 1) What does the Party do next?
Lord Ashcroft’s research suggests where the party performed poorly or badly on June 8: among women, younger voters and Remain supporters.
May decisions for autumn. 5) Will family policy simply be dumped? (Along with Cameron’s Life Chances Strategy?)
There is little evidence in May’s key speeches to date that her interest and imagination are gripped by the consequences of breakup and poor parenting.