The End of The Beginning
May 23rd, 2008A truly great result from Crewe and Nantwich overnight; even if I hadn’t got up to check the result, I would have been awoken by a phone call from one of my Campaign Team at 3am. I think that we had to pinch ourselves to believe that a swing of 17.6% had been achieved. Alas, I was not able to go and help on Polling Day itself - a day of hard slog in Court followed by a lengthy meeting at The Ridgeway School was more than enough.
Any doubt that the Election will not be until 2010 has been blown away by this result. Was it about differential turnout? No - nearly 60% of voters participated, which means that a very large number of people switched directly from Labour to the Conservatives without wasting their time with the irrelevant LibDems.
New Labour inclusiveness met its end during this campaign. What is to come? Our job as Conservatives is to prove ourselves to be a Government-in-waiting that is ready to take over the reins. On taking office in 1979, Mrs Thatcher was not the radical firebrand she is later remembered for. It takes time for Governments to settle and to determine their priorities. The next Tory Government will have to take this approach, bearing in mind the gloomy economic climate and the lack of room to manouvre.
