Aiming to defend only the 80 most marginal constituencies – and even snaffling a few from the Opposition – requires an optimistic reading of the polls. But it is easier than admitting to MPs they will soon be unemployed.
My reinstatement by CCHQ was a significant milestone, not just for me but for the broader conversation on the rights and freedoms that form the bedrock of our democracy.
The shirkers-versus-strivers narrative around cutting the welfare bill fails to recognise the reality that a quarter of Britons have a disability, and one third have unpaid caring responsibilities.
Efforts to deepen the purse of patronage are, at least in part, understandable. But yesterday’s headlines perhaps illustrate the downside risk for prime ministers who indulge too freely in so doing.
The Foreign Secretary ought to say something to mark the crossing of a new red-line: the labelling of British citizens as criminal in Jimmy Lai’s sham trial.
Our focus groups found the Party’s recent tweet, which featured a BBC newsreader raising her middle finger to the camera, played very badly with the people it needs to win back.
It insists that there was no plan to move to by-election rules. “We’re not so stupid as to push a scheme that we know would be opposed by a large number of MPs.”
We have become a party for whom the grotesque is the primary mode of communication. Just to reiterate, I’m not talking about policy or principle here, but a predilection for the odd and off-putting in presentation.
Last week, ConservativeHome exclusively revealed that CCHQ will be bringing back ‘proper’ party membership cards. This will be in place of the ‘keepsake certificate of membership’ introduced in 2020. Members can vote online.
Next week will see the launch of an online vote on their design. Four options will be given to members to vote on.
CCHQ has no constitutional power to impose a particular replacement candidate on the association if he loses the vote.
The Party Chairman on the constitutional review, membership, the coming Conservative Conference, candidate selection and Carol Vorderman’s false accusations against him, which she was compelled to retract.
Tensions between the rights of Party members and the essentials of Parliamentary democracy can’t be smoothed away altogether. The question is how best to manage them.
We went hard on the risk of a Labour takeover and that Wirral would be a one Party state and on the Liverpool road to ruin.
Ground campaigning will be hugely important to how well the party does. The success of the short campaign largely depends on the work done now.