Anthony Painter

The always charming and engaging Peter Bingle writes a political column called ‘Musings.‘ They are worth a read- get on the list. Today’s is a classic. He has been praying to St Jude- the patron saint of hopeless causes- and this Tory campaign has been hopeless. Bingle writes:

“If David Cameron does not become PM on 6/7th May the electoral system will be changed. The first past the post system will be abolished and there will not be a Tory government for a very long time if ever again. Perhaps John Major will go down in history as the last Tory PM. This is the most inept Tory campaign in living memory.”

Not only will Tory defeat spell another five years of Labour but it will mean the end of first past the post. He basically sees David Cameron as a flop and the campaign as a disaster:

“As I have mused before the Tory opinion poll lead was always based on the public’s loathing of the PM rather than any real affection for David Cameron. The election campaign should therefore have been negative in tone and focused entirely on the PM’s failings. Whatever the focus groups may say negative campaigning works.

There doesn’t appear to be any strategy. The ‘big society’ idea has come and now disappeared. The most popular Tory politician Ken Clarke has become the invisible man. He may be campaigning in marginal seats but he should be on our TV screens every morning, noon and night.”

He’s been here before a couple of months ago. In a previous ‘Musings’ in March Peter described the Tory campaign as shambolic. It seems that little has improved in the interim. I’ll write some thoughts on David Cameron and the Tory campaign later. But Peter Bingle is absolutely right- this has been a disaster so far for the Tories. And there are no signs it is improving- not just Peter but many other voices of discontent are spilling onto the blogosphere and airwaves. The rumblings of discontent will get louder.