There’s a place for having a go at Corbyn – how could we not when so much of what he says is so indefensible? – but it has to be combined with our plan for a better life.
With the stakes as high as they are, the Tories need to throw the kitchen sink at the Opposition to drag themselves ahead in the polls.
Do they become the party of the provincial working class and lower middle class? Or do they fight to maintain their status as the party of the affluent middle class?
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.”
“I got us into this mess, and I’m going to get her out”, she told MPs earlier this summer. She should say so directly to Party members this autumn.
We will push back internally when ideologues call for sensible Ministers to be sacked because they are trying to act in the national interest over Brexit.
Embracing this crude Marxist fiction has put the Conservative Party at risk of lasting electoral damage, particularly in London.
“We’re badly trailing in the polls. Corbyn’s up and you’re down. You hired me to get things done and tell you how I see it. Here goes.”
There are many seats in London that are also C1/C2 heavy: it is just that they are outer London seats.
C1/C2 voters are hugely important in raw numerical terms. They make up 52 per cent of the electorate in England.
Indicating higher taxes, pledging potentially massive costs on retired people and raiding middle class welfare all played in the election result.
He isn’t perfect – and acclamation isn’t the ideal method. But the Conservatives face a crisis and must take action accordingly.
May has a campaign for the country. She must complement it, as best she can, with one for you and your family.
May wants to break with the Thatcher tradition on controls, but there are risks from our old friend the law of unexpected consequences.
Those looking to find what she really stands for may one day get an answer. But the point for the here and now is: she seeks to dominate the mainstream.