At 5.45 a.m. Lynton Crosby holds the first meeting of the day at Conservative campaign HQ. The aim is to work out what threats need to be neutralised that day and what opportunities should be capitalised upon. The early start isn’t macho posturing but a reflection of the modern media environment. The news now moves at such pace that a lie can go all the way round the worldwide web before the truth even has its boots on.
The political weather is rarely more changeable than in a close election campaign. In this environment, the trick is to work out what actually matters: what might determine the election. But after the past week one thing is clear: the Tories have survived a wobble that could have turned into a death spiral.
Labour’s pledge last Wednesday to abolish non-dom tax status was typical of Ed Miliband’s ‘people versus the powerful’ populism. As Fraser Nelson writes on page 14, the Labour leader is unafraid of proposing policies that break with the prevailing consensus. This leaves the Conservatives appearing to be defenders of a status quo regarded by many voters as deeply unfair.
When Ed Miliband did this over energy prices, the Tories floundered for weeks before they worked out how to respond. Last Wednesday, many senior Tories feared that the move on non doms would dominate the political agenda in the same way that Miliband’s energy price freeze had.
Tellingly, late last week, Conservative cabinet ministers were talking about those running the campaign in the third person, setting out what ‘they’ needed to do to turn things round. Party discipline was beginning to fray. Liam Fox, the former defence secretary, delivered coded but public criticisms of the campaign. Even those close to No.
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