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.
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.
A massive poll lead. Going early. A wooden leader. Mindless mantras. A despised opposition. And then collapse. The parallels are uncanny: why didn’t Crosby warn her?
Despite the outcome, our manifesto was a step in the right direction, from which we must not retreat backwards.
There is a natural path ahead: announce a resignation by the end of next week, and allow a contest to take place over the summer.
Errors in policy, personality and strategy will rightly be discussed. But our Party must no longer ignore the failings at CCHQ.
The Party is damned if she goes quickly, and damned if she doesn’t. And, all the while, the threat of a no confidence challenge hangs over her head.
Plus: An apology on behalf of the pundits, the press, the pollsters, the politicians and the parties for calling this election utterly, totally and completely wrong.
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.