The people who need to get over it, of course, are the headbangers on the Tory right. It’s not a surprise that Simon Heffer and Lord Tebbit think Cameron a failure, nor that they believe that a set of policies more closely aligned to their own beliefs would have produced a Tory majority of, what, 20? 40? 100? Maybe they are right but I’m not sure they’ve presented much evidence to support these conclusions.
Consider these facts:
Cameron’s Conservatives won nearly two million more votes than Michael Howard’s party managed in 2005. Even if you accept, reasonably, that Labour’s record in government ensured they would lose votes it does not follow that those votes could only go to the Tories.
Secondly, Cameron won a greater share of the popular vote than Tony Blair managed in 2005.
Thirdly, his margin of victory over Brown, in terms of vote share, was equal to the margin Margaret Thatcher achieved against Jim Callaghan in 1979.
Britain’s best politics newsletters
You get two free articles each week when you sign up to The Spectator’s emails.
Already a subscriber? Log in
Comments
Join the debate, free for a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first month free.
UNLOCK ACCESS Try a month freeAlready a subscriber? Log in