Tories voice discontent at election campaign

AS DAVID Cameron woke to his first full day as Prime Minister today, there were stirrings of discontent among Conservative activists about the General Election campaign which failed to win the party an outright majority in Parliament.

A report on the semi-official Tory website Conservativehome.com was expected to set out an analysis of the shortcomings of the campaign and lessons to be learnt for future contests.

Conservativehome joint editor Tim Montgomerie said that a poll of party members conducted by the site revealed unhappiness with the way the election battle was fought.

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Mr Montgomerie told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Of course, we are delighted to see David Cameron in Downing Street, but I think we also think - and this is from a poll we did of Conservative Party members - that the campaign should have been better.

"The decision-making structures in and around David Cameron's office seemed to be almost chaotic. There seemed to be a lack of ability or willingness to make decisions to close down options, so that rather than choosing between six or seven campaign themes that were drafted, they were all run simultaneously, and that left voters confused.

"There was also in some respects a lack of professionalism to some aspects of the campaign, so for example the Big Society message, which was a dominant theme, was never even properly focus-grouped or poll-tested.

"You get the idea sometimes from the media that the Conservative team was too PR-tested and poll-driven. Actually, I think it would have been better if they had been more poll-driven, that they tested their messages properly to ensure they worked on the doorstep.

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"The Big Society as a governing philosophy is perfect and I think they have very clear ideas of what they want to do for the country and very clear understandings of what kind of country they want to build, but there is a difference between running a campaign and having good policies.

"We have to learn how to communicate these policies and that was the problem."

Mr Montgomerie said that the party could not afford to skip a post mortem on the 2010 campaign or to treat it as being of only historical interest.

"We don't know whether this coalition will last," he warned. "I hope it will.

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"There are lessons to be learnt to ensure, if there is another general election soon and as we fight European and local elections mid-term, that we fight a better campaign than we did during the General Election."