The Tories have a chance to secure both momentum and a mandate over the summer

 Matthew Parris has some typically sound advice for the Tories in his column. He proposes that over the next few months:

“They should declare and emphasise as much as they dare of what may be unwelcome in their plans. If there are big and controversial ideas to float–as in health policy, for instance there surly must be–now, not in the angry confusion of an election campaign, is the time to get them out into the open.”

Matthew is right that if the Tories are far more likely to succeed in government if they have prepared the electorate for what they are going to try and do. It will be far harder for the public sector unions and other vested interests to oppose the Tories if the party has a clear mandate for what it is doing. However, I fear there might not be any radical ideas on health to draw on.