The Lost Majority E-Book

Michael Ashcroft

• Herausgeber: Biteback Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

The 2017 general election was supposed to be a walkover for the Conservative Party – but the voters had other ideas. In The Lost Majority, Lord Ashcroft draws on his unique research to explain why the thumping victory the Tories expected never happened. His findings reveal what real voters made of the campaign, why Britain refused Theresa May's appeal for a clear mandate to negotiate Brexit and where the party now stands after more than a decade of 'modernisation' . And, critically, Ashcroft examines the challenges the Tories face in building a winning coalition when 13 million votes is no longer enough for outright victory. This is an indispensable guide that will provide food for thought to anyone wishing to examine in detail what really happened on 8 June, 2017, and how this will impact on future elections.

Leseprobe

the lost majority

the lost majority

The 2017 election, the Conservative Party,the voters and the future

Michael A. Ashcroft

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by

Biteback Publishing Ltd

Westminster Tower

3 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7SP

Copyright © Michael A. Ashcroft 2017

Michael A. Ashcroft has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the publisher’s prior permission in writing.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

Every reasonable effort has been made to trace copyright holders of material reproduced in this book, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers would be glad to hear from them.

ISBN 978-1-78590-334-2

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Contents

About the author

Introduction: Time to smell the coffee all over again

1. The modernising years

2. The campaign (as seen by the voters)

3. What happened and why

4. Where are we now?

5. The new Conservative coalition

Methodological note

About the author

LORD ASHCROFT KCMG PC is an international businessman, author, philanthropist and pollster. From 2005 to 2010 he was deputy chairman of the Conservative Party, having been its Treasurer from 1998 to 2001. He the founder and chairman of the board of Crimestoppers, a trustee of the Imperial War Museum, chairman of the trustees of Ashcroft Technology Academy, Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and Treasurer of the International Democrat Union. In September 2012 he was appointed the Prime Minister’s Special Representative on Veterans’ Transition.

Lord Ashcroft’s political works include Smell the Coffee: A Wake-Up Call for the Conservative Party; Minority Verdict: The Conservative Party, the Voters and the 2010 Election; Pay Me Forty Quid and I’ll Tell You: The 2015 Election through the Eyes of the Voters and Well, You Did Ask: Why the UK Voted to Leave the EU (both with Kevin Culwick); Call Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron (with Isabel Oakeshott); and Hopes and Fears: Trump, Clinton, the Voters and the Future. His other works include Victoria Cross Heroes; Special Forces Heroes; George Cross Heroes; Heroes of the Skies; Special Ops Heroes and Victoria Cross Heroes II.

His political research and commentary is published at LordAshcroftPolls.com. For more information about Lord Ashcroft visit LordAshcroft.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @LordAshcroft.

www.lordashcroftpolls.com | www.lordashcroft.com | @LordAshcroft

Introduction:Time to smell the coffee all over again

IF, THE DAY AFTER THE 2015 ELECTION, you had told the Tories that the next time round they could have 42 per cent of the vote – take it or leave it – they would have taken it. In fact, they would have bitten your arm off. It would mean that even after presiding over seven years of austerity, the Conservative Party would increase its support in three consecutive elections, twice in government, and receive its highest vote share since 1983.

That is what happened in June 2017, and it was an amazing political achievement. But the Conservatives had not bargained for Labour being just two points, or fewer than 800,000 votes, behind them. Rather than the thumping outright victory that history might have led them to expect from such a vote share, the working majority the Tories had unexpectedly won 25 months earlier was thrown away in unnecessary exchange for a hung parliament. Theresa May’s decision to hold a snap election two years into a five-year term (the only two years of undiluted Conservative government in the previous twenty) was, on that score, a giant miscalculation.