The Ealing gamble

Without adequate involvement of the local Association, CCHQ imposed Tony Lit as the party's Ealing Southall candidate.  ConservativeHome received a number of complaints from local Tories at the time about CCHQ's gamble of embracing someone with little connection to the Conservative Party in the hope that it would end Brown's honeymoon.  We did not realise how slight Mr Lit's connection with the Conservative Party was until last Sunday when that day's newspaper's were filled with pictures of him and stories of his £4,800 corporate gift to Tony Blair.  I did not want to jeopardise our chances in the election and chose not to editorialise at the time.  In the interests of the party I hoped that CCHQ knew what it was doing.  When a number of Labour councillors defected one week earlier the Lit gamble had looked promising.  Today the only silver lining of the Ealing result is that LibDem MPs have not got a ready excuse to oust Menzies Campbell.

The Ealing gamble failed.  What of the bigger gamble at the heart of Project Cameron?

Again and again many traditional supporters believe that David Cameron has gambled with our party's values.  I think of the quota-based A-list.  The stop on more grammar schools.  Green taxes.  An effective withdrawal of support for nuclear power.  The ending of any serious commitment to NHS reform.  The downgrading of the transatlantic alliance.  The installation of a community cohesion spokesman with highly questionable views.  Most Conservatives were willing to swallow these things in the hope of them delivering victory at the next election.  With that victory would come the opportunity to introduce the many good things that a Cameron government would bring.  A borders police force.  Support for marriage.  More prisons.  A referendum on the EU Treaty.  More localism.

One question must now be uppermost in Team Cameron's thinking:

Are the headline changes associated with Project Cameron encouraging voters to see the party as more moderate and more in tune with the times (Team Cameron's hope) or are voters seeing the Project as open to embracing any person or idea in the pursuit of electoral advantage? 

I have said before that authenticity is now the number one issue for the party.  We need to prove that David Cameron is strong, serious and substantial.  That he is more than a politician with good PR skills.  That he shares the values of ordinary people.  That he most certainly isn't the 'Sham Cam' that he was dubbed in last week's News of the World.

Comments

[Goldie]

One is just inevitably reminded, once again, of what I will now dub the 'Spirit of Bromley and Chislehurst'.

Cameron seems cursed in all by-elections.

This is very, very, very bad.

[Ben Redsell]

You cannot compare ES to B&C, in Ealing it was brand Cameron all the way, whilst he was really kept off the literature in Bob's election.

The problem with the Conservative party at the moment is that is seems to insist on having an ideology. It never used to - it was Labour who had ideology and lost, we just looked to gain power to benefit OUR voters.

We infected ourselves with an ideology in the 80s and we need to recognise that nothing should stop the pursuit of power. Without power you can have all the ideology you like - it won't help the country one iota.

This is two by-elections in very safe Labour consituencies. Labour have lost serious amounts of vote share in 2 years. To be honest I don't think we did badly.

[sbjme19]

It's worth pointing out that Southall is a pretty special constituency. When the Tories won in 1979, doing especially well in the south-east, it was the only constituency that did n't swing to them at all. In fact, if Labour had to have a by-election in London, they were very lucky it happened to be in this seat. While I share the reservations about the Tory candidate, I honestly do n't think the choice of candidate would have made much difference in this seat.

[sbjme19]

It's worth pointing out that Southall is a pretty special constituency. When the Tories won in 1979, doing especially well in the south-east, it was the only constituency that did n't swing to them at all. In fact, if Labour had to have a by-election in London, they were very lucky it happened to be in this seat. While I share the reservations about the Tory candidate, I honestly do n't think the choice of candidate would have made much difference in this seat.

[Simon Lamb]

I came across this comment on William Hague's time as leader written in The Economist on 1 September 2001:
'Mr Hague's problem was less a failure of political ideas or positioning than a personal failure to impress himself on voters as a credible and attractive alternative PM'.
I feel David Cameron is on the right course - he does appear credible and attractive in a way that none of his 3 predecessors did.

[ToryHome.com]

Why the doom and gloom? ConservativeHome can even make progress look like failure.

With our first officially branded and high profile 'David Cameron's Conservatives' candidate, we didn't just maintain our third place, but we also saw our share of the vote increase by around half the increase of the Respect Party's candidate.

We're on our way!

[Oberon Houston]

Yes the results are dissapointing, but given the nature of these areas (not Tory) and the recent leadershiop changes we shouldn't be too surprised. That said, David Cameron has a lot to learn from this, from the candidate to setting expectations and just how immature the progress of his plan is at this stage and the implications for an early election. We need to roll out a mini manifesto soon and use it as the platform. Until then the exercise is nothing more than preparing the ground. People cannot occupy that until we get specific on policy.

I am sure there is lots of thinking going on in Camerons office just now. There better be.

[Tory T]

The campaign Cam's way stood still, the campaign the old way (B&C) was a disaster.

We put in a strong effort indeed and nothing changed in ES. It also did not change for the mighty LibDem campaign machine.

Tony Lit was and is a great candidate. Sorry but no other Tory would have done as well.

If it's time for plain speaking, fair enough, here is mine. Cornerstone, in shaping perceptions of our party, have helped to cost us three elections and they are busy working to cost us a fourth. Gordon must love them to bits.

David Cameron is enduringly more popular than brand Tory and he must not let up. He won the leadership election by two thirds.

Does ConHome believe he would not win it as soundly if it were held again today?

He would. He must widen and deepen the compassionate Conservative Thatcherism he has practised.

I hope Tony Lit is a Tory candidate again. And I passionately believe in what Cameron is doing.

[Traditional Tory]

So...David Cameron's Conservatives - Labour donors one moment, 'Tories' the next - have been tried and found disastrously wanting.

Cameron's fingerprints were all over this total disaster. The naive triumphalist drivel that was written again and again on this blog by his servile supporters should be quoted against them every time they attempt to justify the debauching of our once-great party by the PC socialist Cameron and his sycophantic clones.

And they're still yapping on. I'm reminded of those severed heads that continue to talk after the body has been guillotined. I wish I had some of whatever it is that Tory T is on. Don't tell him the bad news anybody.

He's failed, and so has his ridiculous instant Tory protégé. It's time for the 'men in suits' to start sharpening their stilettos.

I'm looking forward to the end of the Cameron stunt and the return of our party to tried and tested ways of doing things.
Does ConHome believe he would not win it as soundly if it were held again today?

No. He would be soundly thrashed, and Lit - exposed as a two-timing clown - has fought his last election.

This was one each-way bet - as Norman Tebbit felicitously put it - that didn't romp home.

[David]

Disappointing, although I'm not sure you can draw the conclusion that without Cameron the party would have done better. The previous by-election, in a safe Tory seat, saw the locals completely distance themselves from Cameron, and saw a massively reduced majority. Here at least the votes for the party stood up.

[Londoner for Boris]

I put this on the "live blog" thread just now, but this thread will presumably be the ongoing one this morning, so I repeat it here:
"As Ali Gledhill said in the middle of the night (on the other thread):
"For what it's worth, these are strong Labour seats, both with complications. The "Blair Factor" is still at play in Sedgefield, and Ealing is complicated by the huge "ethnic minority" population. Tories are not expected to do well here, and they haven't. Big deal. This is not a test of Cameron's leadership in the way it was for Ming."

The reason people are going to be disappointed was because of the hype and huge leadership investment in Ealing Southall. But who knows how much we would have been sweezed without the hype and razzmataz - so you are probably hung either way. The Cameron bashers have been out in force of course (some no doubt Labour wind-ups). In the end we retained our share of the vote and the Lib Dems failed to pull their usual by-election trick. If you discount the last 3 weeks and someone had shown you these ES voting figures the day the previous MP died, an objective Tory would say it's not too bad at all considering Brown would be bound to be having some sort of honeymoon. You then have to add to that the fact that the general opinion is that Brown hasn't made a bad start (he hasn't impressed me much, but I heard Tory voting relatives at a family event last week-end saying this).

In a strange way Sedgefield is more disappointing - once you lose second place it's always difficult to get back for us. ES was always going to be freakish - it's a very unusual constituency. It was just that certain people, including bloggers, led us to believe that the freakishness would play into our hands, and it didn't. How many Tories can really judge from the outside what goes in in internal Sikh politics?

There will be lessons to be learnt of course. If it's true we did not work properly, and in the old-fashioned way, the better (non-Asian) areas of Ealing, then that was crass. The turnover was low, despite all the media interest, so getting your habitual loyal vote to turn out should always be a major focus of the campaign on the ground, whatever is happening in the media. Many will also question the wisdom of putting the party leader's name in the ballot paper - I presume they thought it would help in Southall, but did they think of the effect elsewhere? I am not anti-Cameron but it would annoy me for my party to change its name on the ballot paper and there will always be a minority of regular supporters for whom whoever is leader is not their cup of tea. Those who really like the leader don't need his name on the ballot paper to support the party's candidate."

It's not the time for a debate on project Cameron so far - discussing what should be done now in terms of rolling out the policies once the policy groups report over the next 2 months fine. Recriminations in the tone towards which Tim is going on his general comments above - no. Of his 7 sins in Tim's eyes, 3 to me are positive virtues anyway (A list, green issues & changed attitude to the US).

The big story today anyway is going to be the cash for honours outcome - not good for us either (in a narrow party political sense) but thank God Cameron had the sense not to try to make political capital out of it whilst it was going on.

[David]

"The turnover was low"

That's really disappointing actually. It was a really fiercely fought battle, it would have been nice to see people turn out to vote.

[Traditional Tory]

The Tory campaign at Southall was naive and misconceived at every possible level.

I can imagine what my late father might have had to say. As a former Indian Army officer who commanded Sikhs, Gurkhas and other martial peoples, he would have seen the pitfalls of race, religion and tradition which Cameron and the bizarrely named Grant Shapps so blithely ignored.

The Sikhs are a proud and deeply religious people. Large numbers of them do not take at all kindly to 'Mechanised Sikhs' who shave and cast off the turban and the other accoutrements of the Sikh religion.

The Mechanised Sikh Tony Lit would have lost vast numbers of votes from his own co-religionists, and that's before we take account of non-Sikh voters - very likely to be anti-Sikh voters.

Of course none of this matters to the anti-tradition rationalist Cameron who sees only 'Asians'

He's learning that centuries of history do not vanish at the wave of a PC wand accompanied by a mantra worthy of Pollyanna - 'Let Sunshine into your lives'

Look out of the window Dave. It's raining cats and dogs this morning.

[David]

And of course in Sedgefield, an almost entirely locally run campaign with a more traditional candidate, we slipped to third.

[Harley Quinn]

Absolutely correct, how ridiculous the whole Tony Lit affair was, and how sidelined Cameron is by Brown - once again, left without a policy to stand on. When will it be ok to come out as 'right wing'? I'd love to have to opportunity to vote for a party with real integrity, consistency of thought and policy, and the guts to have an ideology.

[Possum]

Agree wholeheartedly with H Quinn. I've voted Conservative in every election since I got the vote in 1980 - except the recent local elections. When your party has some real tory policies, I shall vote for them again. Cameron is mistaken if he thinks the core vote will stand up as he moves ever leftward; that assumes that either most tory voters are dim and would vote for anyone (or anything) wearing a blue rosette, or that he is deceiving the electorate and would shift radically to the right soon after gaining power.

[Possum]

Agree wholeheartedly with H Quinn. I've voted Conservative in every election since I got the vote in 1980 - except the recent local elections. When your party has some real tory policies, I shall vote for them again. Cameron is mistaken if he thinks the core vote will stand up as he moves ever leftward; that assumes that either most tory voters are dim and would vote for anyone (or anything) wearing a blue rosette, or that he is deceiving the electorate and would shift radically to the right soon after gaining power.

[Ellesmere Dragge]

What a wakeup call (in both senses)!

We got creamed! Time for a rethink. This means another six months or more of pain unless someone, somewhere takes our problems by the throat.

This is not "David Cameron's Conservatives": this should remain the Party of Pitt and Disraeli, Salisbury and Balfour, Churchill and Macmillan, and Margaret Thatcher herself. None of these felt the need to impose themselves as a brand: to do so is the hubris of a political pygmy.

Time to return to good Tory principles. Let's have clear blue water, family policies, meritocratic education, choking the Euro thing, definite promises on tax cuts, an assured line on privatising, cleaning up and breaking up the NHS and any other State monopolies (are those last two the same?) Give us the tools and we'll finish the job.

It is a consummation definitely to be wished that by Conference time the men in dark suits the pistol primed and ready.

[BackingBoris]

I hope we never see Tony Lit again. Surely he was asked the standard question "Is there anything in your past that could be used to embarrass the party"?

Anyway - enough of this wretched electoral racial top trumps. Boris is coming!

[HF]

ES was the first by election in 17 yrs where the LDs failed to win from 2nd place in a govt seat. A little progress but not good enough. Probably overall a C- grade.

I believe that our problems with by elections are mainly organisational. Having part time mps (Hague and Schapps) heading them up is not going to achieve anything. A D grade to both for believing that these are part time jobs.

Where is our Lord Rennard?

Both local associations had FAILED to select candidates, but where was the push from the Regional bodies that oversee them? An E- to the Associations and the Regional bodies for failing to do their job in the first place.

As to the "CCHQ experts" in ES. Well the candidate selection and preparation of Mr Lit was inadequate and you were behind the Lib Dems in the effectiveness of the literature. D- for the candidate preparation as our opponents used it against us. Another "3 jobs Bob". Also a D for the literature operation as it was not as good as the Lib Dems (hint, they got more votes than us).

[Henry Mayhew - ukipper / delusional conservative]

I can't see the point of the editor's attack on Cam at this time of the morning. Can't he wait to ask for views and then sum up in a week's time based on fact and comment from the campaigns? This is not necessarily going to help his credibility with the bosses.

The results were not bad, Lit was a good candidate, and Cam has already learned the error of his lefty ways. He is working to come up with core policies and to attack Gord whom he knocked around on prisoner release. Why not support him when he is doing well? Personally, I could do with an open season of debate rather than a lot more 'leadership', but he is probably moving in that direction as well.

[Top of the shot]

I agree totally with Boris for London, but would like to add this.

For the first time in well over a decade, the Lib Dems were unable to squeeze the "third" candidate - all of their increased votes came from the top candidate. And this happened in BOTH by elections. Effectively, in Ealing Southall, the Conservatives stopped a Lib Dem win.

The Lib Dem strategy at all elections is based around squeezing the third candidate. They use totally made up or spurious opinion polls to get people to believe that only they can win against whosoever is the sitting party. The surge is always in the last weekend and this they simply failed to do. This is an area of election law I have long suggested should be changed - the use of spurious data.

In fact, looking at council by election results, the squeeze factor has worked less and less for the Lib Dems for the last 6 months. It certainly did not work in May's local elections except in very few instances such as Eastbourne.

Both seats have no real Conservative Association to talk about. We will only ever suceed where is there an organisation on the ground at constituency and ward level who work 365 days a year.

That is how the successful parts of London operate. There are many examples of where some London Boroughs have virtually all their councillors and/or gains in one constituency and little or none elsewhere.
Examples of this are Croydon, Redbridge and Barnet.

Until the party starts to invest money in professional staff back into constituencies again and builds up an army of foot soldiers, the Party cannot hope to win by elections, yet alone a General Election.

[TomTom]

A few days in Rwanda as the floods in Yorkshire fade from the screen should do wonders in key marginals....I wonder if Belgian or French TV will be filming in their former colony ?

[Traditional Tory]

Until the party starts to invest money in professional staff back into constituencies again

What money?

[HF]

"Without adequate involvement of the local Association, CCHQ imposed Tony Lit as the party's Ealing Southall candidate."

Yes but Mr Editor, this was an urgent by election where we had NO leading candidate and we were in 3rd place. The ES Association people that moaned to you should have been apologizing to the party for failing to sort out their candidate in the 2 previous years.

Two wrongs do not make a right. But the first failing started with the Association.

[James Sproule]

Tony Lit may well have done as well, or badly, as any other Conservative we could have put in to this by-election, but what the wider public is going to remember is that we were desperate enough to choose someone who palpably was not one of us, and we still lost. We did not even have enough sense to ask him about his background, so thrilled were we he was willing to stand for us. Labour may have been cleared of selling honours, we are giving away our principles.

[James Burdett]

Some quick thoughts, firstly our vote in both elections held up. In my recollection in most recent by-elections it has gone south faster than ducks in winter. Secondly yes there are lessons to be learnt because we want to see our vote increase sizeably at by-elections, however in order to win a majority we need precisely neither of these seats.

There are lessons here for by-elections and wider elections too. Pick candidates early (clearly by-elections sometimes make that difficult) and give them time. Chip away slowly and steadily, don't expect to be able to breeze in like a tornado. This can even be modified to by-elections held at 3 weeks notice. Use media non-coverage as a virtue. Don't ditch candidates because they don't win a seat at the first bash, if you are saying your candidate is right for an area believe it and stick with it. To that end I would advise Ealing Southall and Sedgefield to stick with their candidates and now plug away. Keep up at least some of the momentum from these campaigns and use it as a means of proving that we are serious about reaching into areas and that there are no no-go areas for this party.

[Traditional Tory]

I can't see the point of the editor's attack on Cam at this time of the morning.

Henry, this is where CH speaks for the grass roots who were not consulted about the imposition of this tenth division Celeb and total outsider.

CH's critique is all the more powerful because it comes from a source that has in the past shown many friendly intentions to the Cameron project. It's to the credit of the editors that they were prepared to take an open-minded approach to new ideas, however wrongheaded those ideas have turned out to be.

But the time has come to take the gloves off. The middle ranks of the party are packed with angry, frustrated, men and women of talent who were pushed aside to make way for the Cameron clones of the 'A List'

It's time to let slip the attack dogs!

[MHDH]

Ok. As someone who passionately wants to see the back of Dave as Party Leader, I am having a really hard time stopping laughing at this personal disaster for him.

[SpudHead]

Oh dear, never mind. What i expect we'll hear from Dave and co. will be that more change has to happen. Perhaps they think it'll be a good idea to put a joint Tory and Lib Dem up against Labour in future by elections? They spat on local associations and activists by nominating Lit, why not just throw the towel in and concede everything to the liberals now. Let's be honest, that's what Dave's plan has been from the beginning.

[michael]

Didn't Labour often come 3rd in by-elections in the nineties? They went on to do quite well in the 1997 General Election I seem to remember.

Cameron musn't waver from modernising the Party. In fact these results should encourage him to increase the rate of modernisation.

Change to win...remember, we elected him to do just that.

[Bill]

Love him or loathe him, Gordon Brown has so far done a very good job of shooting "the heir" to Blair's fox. So much then for "David Cameron's Conservatives". At least I did not vote for him.

[601]

"A few days in Rwanda as the floods in Yorkshire fade from the screen should do wonders in key marginals"

Just where is the Tories shadow minister Anne Mcintosh MP during the floods?

She is a Yorkshire MP

[Bruce Mackie]

I think that we should all take note of these results and out them into perspective.There was no way that we were going to win either of them.However it is pushing for second place and failing that should concern us.We should really look at where we are and has this drive to airbrush out our triumphs of the past really worked?There is little evidence to support that.What it has most certainly acheived is to alienate our grassroots and traditional Tory voters. This nonsense of quotas in candidates selection is only one of many dilutions of Tory principles.The only way we should be choosing candidates is by merit alone together with a ability to demonstrate a record of committment to the Tory cause. That way, will ensure that when the going gets tough as it most certainly will in politics then they will not show weakness. There should now be an examination of role CCHQ played in the choosing of candidates and the rules which are dictated to constituencies as to the leeting of candidates especially those who previously stood in a seat not to be placed on the short leet unless they can make the first interview from which they were unable to make due to business and/or family committments. That does not allow the constituency to make a considered choice knowing the experience of their former candidates. Let us now look at all these matters and then go on to win the General Election when it comes.

[Torygirl]

It was a clear rejection of the "David Cameron Party". It is time the Con Party woke up and realised that "Conservative Liberalism" isn't going to work. True blue Conservatism is the way forward, clear blue water between us and the rest.
Promise us a Referendum on the new EU Treaty David, and you will trounce Gordon and get the key for No 10.

[Phil Taylor]

I would be grateful is some of the commentators here would stop talking rubbish.

HF says: "Both local associations had FAILED to select candidates".

Before the by-election the Ealing Southall constituency was seen as being so unwinnable that CCHQ refused to let the constituency chose a candidate until more winnable constituencies had had the pick of candidates. It was impossible to respond to silly comments in a similar vein during the campaign without damaging our chances so I have had to bite my tongue until now. So please don't talk rubbish HF.

Top of the shot: "Both seats have no real Conservative Association to talk about."

ESCA is a small association but it managed to get 9, YES THAT IS NINE, new Tory councillors elected in 2006 chucking out 9 Labour ones. SO AT LEAST NINE OF OUR MEMBERS ARE COUNCILLORS. So you are talking rubbish too Top of the shot.

Sorry but I'm not in a good mood this morning.

[Graham D'Amiral]

We should give ourselves credit for one thing, we ran a brilliant campaign, it was highly professional and very well organised, I'm not convinced picking a candidate who had been in the party for 20 years would have made the slightest difference to the result.

At the end of the day we came third in an seat we were already in third place in, that's disappointing and there is no use pretending otherwise, however as a guide to the next general election Labour holding a very safe seat has very little to tell us.

[David]

"This is not "David Cameron's Conservatives": this should remain the Party of Pitt and Disraeli, Salisbury and Balfour, Churchill and Macmillan, and Margaret Thatcher herself....Time to return to good Tory principles"

Interesting choice of figures-which principles would that be then? Pro-free trade? Anti-free trade? Pro-reform? Anti-reform? Liberal? Conservative? Pro-Europe? Anti-Europe?

They all stood for one or the other, most under the same Conservative banner.

This party always used to look down on ideology. I wish it would remember that.

[Tim Almond]

"Our vote stood up".

Believe what you want, but that's just not good enough. The vote doing little more than "holding up" in a by-election is a pretty sorry indicator for a general election.

Of course, if Cameron actually made a lot more noise about free markets and leaving people, instead of blathering on about polar bears and windmills, we might just have a chance.

[malcolm]

Disappointing yes, I had hoped we would do better than this in both polls but as the Editor rightly says they will preserve Ming for us which might turn out to be a great positive for our party.Personally I thought the imposition of Tony Lit was a risk worth taking and I'm sorry it hasn't succeeded.I'll be very interested to hear from campaigners on the ground what they thought.
Far far more disappointing for me is the news from the BBC that it appears Blair and his cronies are going to get away with it again on the Cash For Honours scandal.I think this will reflect badly on the whole political class and will bring state funding of political parties another step closer. An absolute tragedy.

[Andrew Lilico]

By-elections are a bit over-rated in importance, in my view. I don't think the criticisms of the campaign are particularly fair or constructive. Because of the high profile, it was pretty much inevitable that the central party would impose a candidate, and they found one to give them the sort of face they were after on TV - and why not a handsome young ethnic minority chap that had not had much to do with the Party before? Isn't that precisely the image Cameron was after?

I only went along campaigning on one day - I'm sure lots of people here did more - but I thought things seemed to be pretty well organized. The one thing I would say - and I think there might be a lesson here - was that the canvass seemed a bit light to me, relative to the leafletting. I suspect that's inevitable when (a) almost all of your activists either come from outside the constituency or have only very recently become involved in politics; and (b) there are no clear national messages to push. The combination of (a) and (b) would presumably mean that most activists would have no idea what they would say on the doorstep, and so preferred to leaflet.

Later, once we have developed some settled lines of argument - some picture of why the Conservative Party is different from Labour, and why we believe we are better - then canvassing should have a higher priority, I suggest.

One last thing. Please, *please*, let's not have any more candidates, as Tony Lit did, putting themselves on the ballot as "David Cameron's Conservatives" or the like. We aren't a personality cult.

[HF]

Phil, thank you for the response as I was unaware that CCHQ would refuse any Constituency wishing to get on and select its candidate. I apologise for labelling the ES Association in this way.

I would have thought that the Ealing Council gains in May 06, allied with the fact that the late MP was one of the most likely to pass away, would have elevated the selection priority. A no brainer. But someone made a bad mistake.

So the failure for this clearly resides at the door of either the London Region people or CCHQ. Will our new Chairman investigate it? Or will she just overlook it as she is only part time?

I mention the "Regional people" because part of the problem in our party is in this area as they play a vital in getting the Associations properly focused.

[AS]

I see the nutters are out in force this morning and the Editor is keen to encourage them.

Compared to all the Parliamentary By-elections under Hague, IDS and Howard we actually did well – our vote didn’t collapse as it always does in by-elections. If anything that vindicates the Party’s strategy and DC’s approach. There is little point in an orgy of self flagellation or demands for DC to perform a u-turn. We are on the right track, let’s keep focused on the real battle in marginal seats across the country. Change to Win.

[Chris]

Expectations management is the key thing to be learnt from this debacle. The intense spinning from CCHQ led to people expecting us to win a seat which we hve never won before and came third in in 2005.

Our candidate was not the shining knight we hoped for (We really need to stop expecting these...) and the skeletons in his closet ought never to have been there to be discovered.

On the whole the performance from CCHQ was poor... however the result would not have been so bad had expectations been managed. We increased our vote share and were not squeezed my the Lib Dems - There is a silver lining to the storm cloud heading Dave's way, and if lessons are learnt from this venture I imagine we shall do better in future.

[Oberon Houston]

Its difficult to discuss this objectively with so many, how can I put it, wrecking balls flying around on this thread. I suggest you set up your own site to slag off Cameron and rant to your hearts content there.

Anyway. I would say the only real mistake Cameron made was to believe that he could storm labout stringholds with ease. His strategy simply hasn't matured into anything like a serious Labour bashing instrument. We need policy and soon. As for the ealing candidate, I don't agree with Tory T. That was a dissaster and I'm surprised that he did so well. Putting Camerons name on the balliot paper also was a big mistake. We need to be careful there isn't a bunker mentality growing in CCHQ.

[Oberon Houston]

Sorry about the spelling above.

[Paul Oakley]

I didn't have a problem with Cameron being on the leaflets per se. However, the A5 magazine went too far with Tony Lit's words: "I even called my son Cameron". Sorry, but that was pure OBN.

[malcolm]

Good post Oberon. Anyone saying that the events of last night were actually good is living in a fools paradise. The party took a risk and it didn't work.We must learn from that.
Equally I think I could have predicted the sort of posts from the same bunch of people hiding behind their pseudonyms as soon as I heard the results.Somtimes it makes reading Conhome a frustrating and deeply depressing experience.

[David Gold]

Let's get some perspective here. i used to be Treasurer of Ealing Southall Conservatives (admittedly, some time ago) and the constituency is like no other anywhere. It is hugely divided along racial, religious and political lines, has strong pockets of serious wealth but equally strong (and larger) pockets of relative poverty. Whole swathes of the constituency are occupied by people who don't speak English as a second, let alone first language and many women i used to speak to when they opened the door would simply say when asked how they intended to vote "my husband will decide". This is not a place the Conservatives could ever have won and if we had come second it would have been a miracle. The vote held for us, that is a credit. More to the point the whole party seemed to swing behind the campaign, we made Labour work for their victory (and the Liberals too actually) and we have proved we can fight hard.
Cameron should not be villified for this, and nor should those who ran an excellent campaign. What we should be doing is looking at how so much literature was delivered in so short a time and seek the same commitment from volunteers to roll such a campaign across target seats. Mine's Eltham if anyone wants to come and help!!

[Matt K]

At last this thread is attracting some more sensible comments - indicators that some of the suspected "spoilers" are drifting away again.

A disappointing result, no doubt about that and no point spinning it any other way, but what would be even more disappointing would be if Cameron listened at all to any of the Cornerstone blowhards urging a return to the battles of Europe, immigration et al. We tried that last time, and the time before, and even the time before. Didn't work then, won't work now. Cameron's on the right track. That's not to say everything is perfect, but the thrust is right.

Let's learn the lessons of the last few weeks and move on, but it's no time to panic, whatever the dear Mr Humphrys and the Today programme might have us believe.