
Iain Dale: The hustings. From Manchester to Belfast – and on to Nottingham.
Plus: Johnson, not a populist. Hunt’s beside manner. Lewis and his highly professional CCHQ team. And: the courage of 16 year old Ajay.
Plus: Johnson, not a populist. Hunt’s beside manner. Lewis and his highly professional CCHQ team. And: the courage of 16 year old Ajay.
Plus: How I was booed in Birmingham. On to Nottingham…via Exeter. And: who would I vote for, if I had a vote?
Labour had some startling setbacks – it was usually the independents who benefitted. Elsewhere we saw Conservative losses to the Lib Dems.
Town Halls are sticking with the “big six” – spurning the chance to save money or to switch to renewables. This even applies to councils that set up their own firms.
CCHQ is recruiting campaign managers to fight in areas Labour has long taken for granted.
There are negative possibilities for the supply of jobs, positive ones for productivity – and a lot of variation across sections.
We can’t win a workable majority without breaking through in more seats in the urban and suburban North and Midlands.
Our party review should consider how to reach those voters let down by the Opposition’s divisive, identity-driven campaigns in places like Nottingham.
Revitalising accountability through triggering directly elected mayors is a mission for grassroots Conservatives.
It’s another Big Society success story
Camden, Haringey, Lambeth, Wandsworth…. At the age of 50, they now seem natural units and alternatives are hard to imagine.