Why the Conservatives won

It is often said that "Oppositions don't win elections, governments lose them."

Although Boris Johnson certainly called certain things right - in particular the slogan "Get Brexit Done" clearly cut through - last week's election is one which the above saying really does not describe: this, like 1983, was an election which the opposition lost.

After nine years in government taking difficult decisions I suspect that the Conservatives might have had real difficulty getting re-elected if we had faced a remotely competent opposition.

Instead we had a principal opposition party with the strategic judgement of a demented wombat and a leader for whom any comparison with the late Michael Foot is quite literally a gross injustice to Michael Foot.

Here are three views on why the Conservatives won:

Dan Hodges (a former Trade Union and Labour party official) wrote in the Mail that

"The Corbynites lost because they hate working Britain - and the feeling is reciprocated."


Greg Hall wrote on "The Article" site that

"Labour isn't Workington,"

(For those whose memories do not stretch back to 1979, this is a pun on a slogan which Saatchi and Saatchi devised for Mrs Thatcher in that year's election, "Labour isn't Working.")


Graeme Archer asked on the UnHerd site, not why Labour lost, but the next question:

"Does Labour understand why it lost?"


And, you know what? It's a very good question.

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