After (1) the Rebalancing of the Cameron project in the autumn of 2007 - driven in large part by the then new Director of Communications, former News of the World Editor Andy Coulson - and (2) Gordon Brown's decision to 'bottle' calling a honeymoon election, David Cameron enjoyed stratospheric opinion poll ratings. Unfortunately there was also something of a return to safety first conservatism. Rather than deepening their lead in the opinion polls the party tended to coast. The party decided that Brown was on course for a massive defeat and the party should not risk adopting bold or controversial policy positions that could be attacked. This meant that certain policy areas were completely neglected - particularly if they were likely to offend left-of-centre journalists in the BBC or Guardian.
David Cameron stopped, for example, talking about immigration even though, after the economy, it was voters' most important issue. This was like Manchester United leaving its star striker Wayne Rooney on the substitutes' bench. The Tories assumed that voters would always regard them as toughest on immigration but an opinion poll for The Daily Express, conducted in February 2010, found that voters were giving up on all politicians when it came to controlling Britain's borders. By not addressing big issues the party failed to build loyalty or enthusiasm in the electorate and this made the party's support much softer than it should have been. By early 2010 the party realised its error and immigration messages became a big part of direct mail operations. Alongside the NHS and the economy it was the biggest issue mentioned in the party's eve-of-poll literature. Immigration was also the only issue to be raised in all three election debates. Cameron was forced to address the subject after nearly two years of silence.
