Bernard Jenkin: Our Party must define its mission with a Statement of Values
A change in attitudes and atmosphere at CCHQ is the vital foundation for any lasting and effective reform.
A change in attitudes and atmosphere at CCHQ is the vital foundation for any lasting and effective reform.
Far from being put off by his angry denunciations of the status quo, many saw it as a sign of a conviction politician who cared passionately.
Many of us were denied access to VoteSource, literature and printing resources – and we all had to wait for ever for CCHQ to ‘approve’ any and every statement printed.
Crowdsourcing our manifesto gave us control of the Council – and saw our parliamentary candidate returned successfully to Westminster with a thumping majority.
The Tory campaign was outgunned by a broad alliance of officially non-partisan groups. But are they all truly independent? And where is their money coming from?
We win when her leadership is combined with a distinct local message.
The Opposition have lots of well-motivated infantry and the digital tools to coordinate them effectively. They could put Corbyn into Downing Street.
The only way to put an end to something like the ‘school cuts’ campaign was to knock it back hard and repeatedly at the start before it gained traction.
We relied on our candidate’s Twitter postings, and believed that nothing was more effective than talking to people on the doorsteps. This may no longer be true.
Sir Mick Davis and David Brownlow will be charged with a review to “further improve” CCHQ and the Conservative campaign machine.
The Party has collectively failed to modernise its campaigning, with the result that we saw on June 8. This needs radical reform if it is not to collapse completely.
Lord Ashcroft’s research suggests where the party performed poorly or badly on June 8: among women, younger voters and Remain supporters.
CCHQ and the Policy Board need to take a long hard look at our recent campaign, and work out what we can rapidly learn from it in terms of techniques and messages.
The Conservative Party will never be able to command an overall majority again if it doesn’t stop treating its grassroots like dirt.
We also suffered from CCHQ’s campaigning techniques. Only 50 per cent of our targets we planning to back us. We were knocking up Corbynites.