ConservativeHome's General Election Review (executive summary here/ contents page here), concluded with ten recommendations.
One of CCHQ's big conclusions about the General Election campaign is that the party's greatest electoral failure was in not breaking through in Scotland, amongst public sector workers and with ethnic minority voters. This General Election Review has already examined this here.
One of the biggest decisions the party has to now take is the extent to which the party can ever win a majority if it does not break through into these three groups. The default response from Team Cameron seems to be that these groups have to be wooed. That's one explanation for the fact that Cameron's first visit as Prime Minister was to Scotland. There's certainly more that can be done. My understanding is that Conservative HQ had no defined strategy for ethnic minority communities throughout the last two years. Such a defined relationship-building strategy would be the job of a professional External Relations operation.
It is important, however, that CCHQ does not rush into the belief that converting Scotland and public sector workers is the easiest route to majority status. “All sensible marketing strategies focus on the most receptive customers, not the least receptive customers,” said one Tory insider. Would the party be better choosing to target more campaigning efforts on English constituencies and highly-taxed private sector workers? There is certainly a danger that the Conservatives will shower 'goodies' on voters that won't convert to the Conservative Party but the cost of those 'goodies' will alienate English, private sector supporters.
