Lewis Baston: Butler, pioneer of both the study and coverage of British politics

Drawing on decades of experience and friendships from all parties, Sir David – inventor of the swingometer – founded the UK’s psephological profession.

Lewis Baston: Election gambles that worked. And those that failed – like May’s this year.

And those that never were, such as 1978, 1991 and 2007. Prime Ministers tend to make the opposite error to that of their predecessors.

It’s time for Conservatives to get over Thatcher, get on with May – and look forward, not back

The Prime Minister’s manifesto will have its flaws, but she has grasped the implications of Brexit more surely than any other senior politician.

Lewis Baston: The Scottish Conservatives – fragile, but enduring and adaptable. A history.

A further graft from the remnants of Labour and the LibDems might be the best way of preserving the Union and providing an alternative government to the SNP.

Lord Lexden: The lost election-winning machine of Sir Anthony Garner

He was the last custodian of a lost Tory tradition of professional party organisation which maintained the Conservatives as a national institution.

Lewis Baston: Do general election campaigns help to decide the results?

Most produce results that are more or less what a reader of opinion polls and other electoral data might have anticipated a few months in advance.